painted wall

Ad Vera Petenda

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Here are panels from the long Factory Community Forum mural along the Old Glenarm Road in Larne.

From left to right it features: Larne-born sports stars, footballer Gareth McAuley – who gained 80 caps with Northern Ireland (#GAWA)– and boxer Dave ‘Boy’ McAuley – IBF flyweight champion; scientist Albert Einstein (who does not seem to have any connection to Larne); ‘If you dream it, you can achieve it’; DJ Fergie from Larne; Peace begins with a smile (with a map of the counties of South Carolina, USA – Larne is twinned with Clover, SC); a tall ship and Chaine Memorial; the emblems of Larne High School (motto Ad Vera Petenda, which it translates as “we seek truth”) and Moyle Primary School flanking “Factory Community Forum” (Fb).

With support from the International Fund For Ireland.

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For The Football

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Before he died (in 2005), George Best asked that people “remember me for my football” and the phrase became the title of a Best retrospective. It is also inspired the life-size title of the statue of created by Tony Currie and funded by fans (Belfast Live) in front of Windsor Park (and the Glen Molly (ig) mural in Hill Street). When it was launched, the statue drew criticism for not looking like its subject (BBC | Newsletter). Soccer star sculptures are perhaps hard to do: here’s a list of ten questionable statues of soccer stars, including Maradona in Kolkata (Guardian) and Ronaldo in Madeira (BBC), but missing Mo Salah in Sharm al-Sheikh (BBC).

For an awkward painting of Best, see The Best A Man Can Get in Newtownards.

See also the new Best mural in Cregagh: Maradona Good, Pelé Better, George Best

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Charlotte Despard

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Today’s images come from London but there is an Irish and a Belfast connection. Charlotte Despard was a novelist, suffragist, socialist, pacifist, vegetarian, and Sınn Féın advocate in the years around the Lock Out, the Rising, and the War Of Independence.

She moved from London – where she worked to alleviate poverty among the children of the Battersea area – to Dublin after WWI and was classed as a “dangerous subversive” by the Irish Free State. The image above (which is a panel from a mural celebrating political radicals of Battersea, below) reproduces a photograph of Despard addressing the crowd at an anti-fascist/Communist rally in Trafalgar Square on June 11th, 1933 – four days before her 89th birthday.

At the end of a very long of activism, she moved to Whitehead, County Antrim, where she died in 1939, and was buried in Glasnevin (WP).

A Battersea street is named after her – Charlotte Despard Avenue; the plaque is at 177 Lavender Hill – the offices of the Labour Party in Battersea.

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#BreakTheBias

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Crossed arms are the symbol of the #BreakTheBias campaign, which is the theme of this year’s International Women’s day (IWD) and people all around the world are striking the pose on social media to show their support (e.g. tw) including this large mural in Belfast, which has been painted off Corporation Street.

By Visual Waste (web | ig), with support from Children In Crossfire (web) (see previously Derry Lama).

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Circusful

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“Circusful” is the new name of the Belfast Community Circus (Arts Council NI) which offers class to artists of all ages (web). Festival Of Fools, an annual extravaganza this year with 70+ comedy and circus performances, starts on Friday (April 29th).

This time last year (2021-04) KVLR (ig | tw | Fb) revamped the mural on the front of the Gordon Street premises with two new characters (above and directly below) and substantial changes to the third (final image). (For the previous version, see Circus Fools.)

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Keep The Pizza In Mind!

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Combo piece by Pens (ig) x KVLR (ig) x Wee Nuls (Nuala Convery | ig | web) replacing the Gang Of Freaks by KVLR x Ten Hundred x Wee Nuls in Union Street, with an echo back to KVLR’s 2015 piece in this spot: Pizza Pipe. Official title: Patchwork Creeps. KVLR and Wee Nuls had earlier done the pieces in the windows of the Sunflower (see final image), as a demo for an audience at the August launch of the programme for HTN21 (Belfast Live).

The menagerie in the background is by Malarky.

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