There’s no official title to this set of overlapping masks by Shane O’Malley for HTN22. Shane’s piece replaces One Love Louis’s ‘Monkey’ from 2015. The five new pieces of wild-style that are also on the west side of Library Street are included below.
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The long-standing display for Queen Elizabeth II’s sixtieth (diamond) jubilee has been replaced with a new set of images for her platinum jubilee, including a series of panels of colourings by local school-children: “The Platinum Jubilee mural has been created by P7 primary school pupils in the Greater Shankill area to celebrate Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee in June 2022. The pupils involved from Edenbrooke, Glenwood, Blackmountain, Springhill, Springfield, Harmony, Forthriver and Malvern enjoyed creating the collage for a once in a lifetime art mural.”
The mural was launched on June 4th (Belfast Live).
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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X10456 X10457 X10458 X10461 X10455 Crimea St “The people’s monarch, her sovereign majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.” “Dirige Deus gressus meos – May God grant my steps”. “Princess, queen, mother.” “As this day draws to its close, I know that my abiding memory of it will be, not only the solemnity and beauty of the ceremony, but the inspiration of your loyalty and affection. I thank you all from a full heart. God bless you all. – Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2nd June, 1952.”
Unfortunately we don’t have any information about this lettering in Hill Street. It looks a lot like a Laura Nelson (ig) production, but please get in touch if you can shed any light on it.
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“Trophies come and go but legends last forever.” Scott Harvey and Lee Findlay have taken over as the management team of Northern Amateur Football League premier division team East Belfast FC (Fb) (Belfast Live) due to sequestration in connection with the UVF show of strength in Pitt Park in February, 2021 (Belfast Live). The club’s home field is East Park where the mural above stands to former greats (from left to right) Billy Caskey, Billy Humphries, Sammy McCrory, Ian Lawther, Walter Bruce, Roy Coyle, Tom Casey, and Warren Feeney.
Previously at EB FC: The Back Of The Net | Give Sectarianism The Boot
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Nothing about us without us is for us est. 1929
Michael Blakstad’s Children In Crossfire is a justly famous documentary portraying the lives of children in Creggan (Derry) and various areas of Belfast, such as Ballymurphy & Springmartin, Divis, and the area around Gawn St in east Belfast. The documentary is on youtube and an image from it (c. 28m 13s) is depicted in this mural (Connswater Chronicle) at the foot of the Dee Street overpass into what is now the “Titanic Quarter”.
The panel to the right shows the original Armitage Street; the area has been redeveloped and the street was built over with a cluster of houses named Armitage Close.
By Dee Craig with support from the Housing Executive, City Council, and Connswater Homes.
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The Vault Artists’ car boot sale is this Sunday, from noon until five, in the car-park of their premises on Tower Street. The old Met building has served as a home for about 120 artists of all kinds since 2018 but they are now looking for new digs (Belfast Live) as early as March, 2023 – the site will be razed and turned into social and affordable housing. Here’s a 14-tweet thread on the impending move. Suggestions for new places are welcome, to future at vaultartiststudios.com.
The sale this weekend serves as a fund-raiser. The car-park is ringed by murals, including those included today, from FGB (ig) (the welder, mushroom, Oui Poutine, and Joy – with Rob Hilken), unknown (Show Some Love lettering, with “Love” having been painted over), NEUF and KVLR (ig) who painted the Lucha Libre wrestlers), and Leo Boyd (web) (L’Absurde and Belfast Kitty Hall).
? , ? , Ruth Cruthers, Kerrie Hanna, Hannah Smith, ?Ruth Cruthers?, Leo Boyd, Leo Boyd, Jonathan Brennan
(r) FGB, Rob Hilken, Sally O’Dowd
FGB, Dragoș Mușat, Conor McClure, ?Margaret Woods Moore? replacing an earlier Leo Boyd piece, FGB, Sally O’Dowd, Kerrie Hannah
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Here are in-progress shots of “Freedom Corner” from mid June (images 1, 2), early July (images 4, 5) and early August (image 6), plus the info board that was posted to give people an idea of how the gables would look when complete (using the Tommy Herron mural in Bangor).
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Castle Arcade is so-called because it is the site of the original castle of Belfast, built by the Normans in the late 12th century and then rebuilt by Arthur Chichester in 1611. Chichester’s castle had “spacious gardens which extended from the river along to Cromac Woods and near Stranmillis” with “orchards, bowling greens and cherry gardens … fish ponds,” for “hunting, hawking, and other sports”. It was destroyed by fire in 1708 after which the area became commercialised as a market (ArchiSeek | Mary Lowry | BBC | Belfast Entries).
By Friz (ig) and Gerry Norman (ig).
See previously: You’ve Got The Key Of The Street.
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Here are four pieces of political commentary from Deptford and Rochester in London. “BoJo must go” – hounded by the Metropolitan Police over violating Covid lockdown, “Fuck Boris”, “We are all Daniel Blake – Conservatives kill disabled people” (by jellyjartist), and “Brexit is childish” graffiti on top of a portrait of artist Billy Childish.
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“A scramble for the window seat/Steam curls as the whistle blows/Clickety clack train on track.//Remember your neighbourhood in the late afternoon sun/The district was a different place then/All you owned was a box full of toys and a smile on your face.”
The York Road railway station was a few minutes’ walk below Ritchie Street – site of this mural and community garden – until it closed in 1992. The original line was to Ballymena and then Coleraine and London-/Derry, with service to Carrick and Larne added later. It was badly damaged in WWII and its final demise came with the opening of Belfast Central in 1976 (WP). It was replaced with Yorkgate in 1992 which no longer serves as a terminus (WP), but the line still runs along behind the end of the streets along York Road and the Grove area of the Shore Road.
Ritchie Street, Belfast
Previously in Ritchie St: Union Flag
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 