Derry’s ‘Get Up’ graffiti and street art festival took place at the end of June – here is the Strand Road hoarding sprayed by NOYS (ig), POSEA (ig), VENTS (ig), RAZER (ig), Chose Letters (ig) and perhaps others, with support from Peaball (web) and Foyle Maritime (web), as well as City Paints (Fb) and Crown paints.
For the street art pieces from Clarendon Street, see Get Up, Derry.
A new painting of Amelia Earhart has been created by JEKS (ig), on the side of the Foyle building, North West Regional College, on Queen’s Quay. A number of sources claim without citation or measurement that it is the tallest piece of street art in the north – both the BBC and the Chamber Of Commerce use the passive “thought to be”. Its closest competitor would be the recent piece by Zabou on the Telegraph Building in Belfast – see Broken Promises.
The Foyle Building has six “levels” (NWRC) while the original Telegraph Building had four storeys (Archiseek). In addition to comparing images of the two paintings, you can also judge by comparing Street View images of the buildings: Derry vs Belfast.
Information about Earhart’s connection to the Maiden City can be found in the entries on the printed board (But What Do Dreams Know Of Boundaries?) and the mosaic (Flying Solo) to Earhart in Derry.
JEKS did eventually fill in the hair (and so cover over his instagram handle) on the lower portrait.
Palestinian artist Taqi Spateen’s (web | ig) second piece in Belfast is in Palestine Street in the Holylands of south Belfast, where he worked with Artists Against Genocide (ig) to produce a piece showing the strength of Palestinian women, carrying the land from which Palestinians have been evicted in the Nakba of 1948.
For the first piece, in Kent Street in the city centre, see Anatomy Of Oppression. A third piece was painted in Crocus Street, in west Belfast: see Life Finds A Way in the Paddy Duffy collection.
The two passages cited here have been cited before on the side wall at the junction of the Limestone Road and N Queen St, with images of Orange symbols and Union Flags, in order to promise that Your Kingdom Will Endure Forever. That theme has now been invoked in upper Tiger’s Bay, to celebrate the latest king (Charles III) of the everlasting kingdom demarcated by the shields of the “four nations” in the corners of the main gable, Northern Ireland included.
The people in question in the second book of Samuel are the people of Israel but as with previous scriptural references on the lower wall (Lamentations | Chronicles | Revelations | Psalms | Genesis), the Protestant people in Ireland and Britain are under discussion (though they might also refer to contemporary Israel).
In the King James version, 2 Samuel 7:10-16 the prophet Nathan is speaking to David: “Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime, and as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house. And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.”
In Luke 1:31-33, an angel is speaking to Mary: “And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
“The cry was no surrender” – in preparation for the Twelfth, Ulster Banners, the Union Flag are posted along a fence in upper Shankill below a Shankill Old Boys (Fb) tarp and a band flag using St Patrick’s Saltire as a background. On the big day, the band paraded (Parades’ Commission) from the Shankill into the city centre (youtube), and back again after the demonstration in Barnett’s Demense (GOLI).
One of Lidl’s slogans (and a “corporate responsibility objective” of the company) is to work “For a better tomorrow”. The electoral-style placard above urges “Don’t vote Lidl” and alleges that the company is “funding genocide for a bleaker tomorrow” and that its “policy is to fund apartheid, occupation, genocide” – perhaps through selling Israeli-made goods – particularly wipes made by Lupilu (ig video | Fb video | Fb | Change.org) – and through its parent company Schwarz’s acquisition of an Israeli cyber-security company.
The placard in the final image targets Home Bargains. According to the News Letter, it agreed to pull Israeli goods from its shelves back in October. BDS Belfast alleges that such goods can still be found (ig | Fb). These signs are on the Falls/Andersonstown Road where both HB (in the Kennedy Centre) and Lidl (next door) have stores. The Kennedy Centre Sainsbury’s has also been the target of protest (CYM).
The source of the placards is perhaps BDSBelfast (ig).
“… to vote”, in the upcoming Westminster election. These posters are all over the Shankill in anticipation of the election on July 4th. They don’t recommend any particular party, but the free-floating Northern Ireland indicates that a unionist candidate is meant, which would mean Frank McCoubrey (DUP), Ben Sharkey (UUP) or Ann McClure in Belfast West and Phillip Brett (DUP) or David Clarke (TUV) in Belfast North, where no UUP candidate is standing (BBC).
“Liberation isn’t on the ballot – spoil your vote” and “Reject war – reject Westminster – spoil your ballot”. According to the Marxist-Leninist ideology of CYM (Connolly Youth Movement), society should move from capitalism to socialism and it therefore “does not endorse any social democratic parties in Ireland” (item 2.5 of the constitution). A look at the list of candidates for the fast-approaching election on July 4th (BBC) shows that no Communist/Workers’ Party candidates are standing.
The posters are in North Street (above) and Royal Avenue (below).
In May and June, Palestinian artist Taqi Spateen (web | ig) toured various cities in England and Scotland (Leeds, Glasgow, Bristol, Stroud, London) as part of the Bethlehem Cultural Festival, producing a wall-painting at each stop. Thereafter, he came to Belfast, where he painted three pieces, beginning with this small piece on the side of the Sunflower bar in Kent Street, showing a person with a head encased in concrete trying to hammer themselves free.
The image above shows the large IRPWA board (Republican Prisoners Still Exist!) being reinstated yesterday (June 21st) at the right-hand end of the International Wall on Divis Street. It was removed (on the 19th) in preparation for a new pro-Palestinian mural (BelTel); the IRPWA protested on-line (web) and it was reported that two men showed up at the house of the mural-painter and threatened to shoot him (BelTel); this led to calls from Sınn Féın for the threat to be withdrawn (Belfast Media). [Update, June 24th: the threat was withdrawn (Belfast Media)]
The IRPWA, reacting on the 20th to the publicity (web), set out its version of events and provided some information about the allocation of spots on the wall – including two anti-Agreement spots – on Divis Street (and also about Northumberland Street).
On Divis Street, the first political prisoner’s board towards the left-hand end of the wall goes back to the Castlerea Five (in 2000), followed by a painted mural in 2004 – Segregation For Irish POWs; at the right-hand end of the wall a Tommy Crossan board was mounted in 2001, though this spot has been used for other purposes at various times. (Complete histories of these spots, and the rest of the wall, can be found on the map.)
There was some tension over the anti-Agreement spots in 2016, when most of the wall was repainted for the 1916 centenary. There was a plan to include the spot on the right-hand end (see the final image of The World Did Gaze In Deep Amaze) but the IRPWA instead asserted its control of the spot and painted a Bilal Kayed mural; the 32CSM mural (in roughly the third spot from left) was covered over – for the launch only – by a version of the intended ‘Public Meeting’ mural that was instead painted on a sheet (see Shared Space). The image of Carson was also vandalised while it was being painted (see We Won’t Have Carson).
See also the recent history of the Kieran Nugent spot at the left-hand end of the wall: replaced by a mural about Catalan independence in 2015 – Votes About Votes – but Nugent (along with Maıréad Farrell) was included in the hunger-strikers mural further down the wall – I’ll Wear No Convict’s Uniform | Peace With Justice; then Nugent was Reinstated in the form of a painted board; then the ‘reinstated’ board was removed for the 1916 centenary painting – Young Ireland; a mural of Nugent was then repainted in 2017 – Kieran Nugent; a D company board honouring Nugent, Hughes, and McKee was mounted in 2019 – They Were Faithful And They Fought.
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 