Three images of a low wall mural in Hogarth Street (in Tiger’s Bay). Above is the right-hand side, showing workers of a former era heading home from the shipyard. One of the H&W cranes can be seen in the background (and to its left, the new Titanic centre). Below is the right-hand side of the piece, depicting a preacher with a sandwich board: Seek, and you shall find – Matthew: 7:7.
Detail from a new mural on the Springfield Road, opposite the barracks: End British internment of Irish Republicans, 2013. Painted by Rebel Rebel of the Gael Force Art group. A shot of the whole piece can be found below.
As reported in the media a week ago (BBC | Guardian | U.tv video | Slugger), an east Belfast mural featuring footballer George Best, which itself replaced a UVF mural, has been painted over and is being replaced by a new UVF mural. Progress on the piece, however, seems to have halted. This image shows the progress as of Monday 9th, showing no change since the 4th. The mural quotes Martin Luther King’s Letter From Birmingham Jail (pdf), drawing a parallel between the Civil Rights movement in the US and the situation of contemporary Protestants. Below is an image of the George Best piece, courtesy of the Geograph project.
Update 2013-09-13 U.tv reports that the work on the mural has indeed been halted.
The ‘Eileen Hickey Irish Republican History Museum‘ — which is across the street behind the Conway Mill — is named for Eileen Hickey, a Provisional IRA member who served time in Armagh prison; she died in 2006, one year before the opening of the museum (obituary at An Phoblacht). A close-up of the woman with a bin lid, in the lower right-hand corner, can be found below.
Next to the opening hours is an image of a prison cell in the Armagh women’s prison. The museum itself contains a cell door and a bed from the prison.
Above is an extra-wide shot (2700 pixels) of another panel from the wall next to the Republican Museum on Conway Street (next to the previously featured Eileen Hickey). The mural features banners of two Australian Republican support-groups, holding banners reading “Australian Aid for Ireland QLD [Queensland] Branch – The Spirit of Freedom” and “The Casement Support Group – Saoirse Melbourne”.
The mural above is on the Newtownards Road at Lendrick Street and shows a bombed-out Ballymacarrett library, St. Patrick’s church (the church itself is visible in the lower right-hand corner) – both were hit by the blitz in 1942 – a police land rover (perhaps representing the “fallen” during the Troubles), and Cuchulainn (perhaps representing the IRA, though Cuchulainn is also a UDA icon – see the bottom of the Visual History page on Cú Chulaınn), and Stormont (representing … peace???). Poppies in a field and a H&W crane against stained glass provide a background.
We are supposed to remember the dead because (perhaps) their deaths were unnecessary and misguided as means to peace, at least according to the saying along the bottom (sometimes attributed to Einstein): “Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding” – understanding of the Nazis during the blitz, it seems, and of loyalists and republicans during the Troubles. (If you have a better interpretation, please leave a comment.)
The mural was imitated on the hoarding around An Chultúrlann on the Falls Road during its renovation (shown below): the left hand side of the side was replaced with images of the Falls library and Bobby Sands mural and Divis tower, and Cú Chulaınn on the right was placed in front of the GPO, and the poppies were joined by lilies, and the words translated into Irish. The message here seems clearer, lamenting the CNR dead and calling for understanding of the CNR community (sc. by Britain and the Orange state) though the poppies below include the dead of WWI.
In this new east Belfast mural, we move from a part of “violence – terrorism – conflict – imprisonment’ to a future of ‘culture – empowerment – human rights – multiculturalism’. The mural is black-and-white on one side and colour on the other. On the left we have watchtowers and paramilitaries in hats and sunglasses; on the right schoolchildren in front of city hall, working on a computer and playing football.
The mural was defaced immediately after it was finished (roughly the end of July), indicating dissatisfaction with the current direction of ‘the future’, but quickly repaired. There is a mural directly above this one. A wide shot of them both can be found below.
Update: Spring 2022 – some of the words on the colourful ‘future’ side of the mural have been painted over: “empowerment”, “equality”, “diversity”, “multiculturalism”. There is also a streak of white paint on the arm of a black person in the centre of the mural. See the final two images.
This Sandy Row mural commemorating the siege of Derry is in pretty good shape, despite being more than 20 years old. It features the coat of arms of Londonderry – see Vita, Veritas, Victoria for some background.
For more on the siege, and relief, of Derry, see Breaking The Boom. The siege ended in 1689; the battle of the Boyne was in 1690. It is in Linfield Avenue and is visible from Rowland Way, off Sandy Row.
Vintage mural in Linfield Avenue, flanking the Sandy Row Methodist church, with the 1690-1990 piece on the other side. ‘In glorious memory, 36th Ulster division. YCV – In God our trust.’
The Linfield area of south Belfast is named for the flax plant, genus Linum (presumably – there doesn’t seem to be a history of the area on-line), though that plant is blue (see this image), while this one – in Linfield Gardens – is orange.
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 