Making Changes

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
2015-06-08 MakingChanges+

The history of music is told (from right to left) in a new mural. The gramophone gives way to the cassette and then to the CD and finally the iPod, with a mic and speakers in the middle. The suggestion, presumably, is that life in east Belfast also changes. From Blaze FX, who also did the Teenage Dreams repaint on the other side of the flyover, and local youths from both Short Strand and Newtownards Road.

2015-06-08 MakingChangesHW+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02647 X02648 mac doyle crew H&W cranes samson goliath mix tape

Costume Party

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
2015-06-08 UnionStPasteup1+

Union Street paste-ups, opposite the Sunflower, showing (in costume) a lobster with wine-glass, a hiker with a bed-roll, a cow (Moomin?) in admiral’s hat, and an old-west character scanning the horizon with a spyglass.

For another version of the child-with-rose, see Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary.

2015-06-08 UnionStPasteup2+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02651 X02652 festival of fools 2015 belfast

Snug As A Gun

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
2015-06-02 Alexandra1+

Seamus Heaney took up the pen where his father and grandfather had worked with the spade. A copy of his poem Digging was, along with others, placed on the Alexandra Park “peace” line but has been torn off in favor of the preferred mode of expression of the next generation: the spray can.

For more Heaney as public art, see The Hunting Heart.

2015-06-02 Alexandra2+

2015-06-02 Alexandra3+

2015-06-02 Alexandra4+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02643 X02644 X02645 X02646

SOS

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“SOS – Wall St rapes Ireland”. Conor Devine (at EamonnMallie.com) provides context. This message on the mountain (Slıabh Dubh) came and went in a matter of days, if not hours, because the television exposé it was designed to coincide with was not in fact broadcast; also perhaps because parents did not appreciate having to explain rape to their young children – the mountain can be seen from a large portion of west and central Belfast.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02914

See-Through Sectarianism

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
2015-05-31 SeeThroughGates+

In May 2013 the Executive pledged to remove “peace” lines in ten years – by 2023 (Tele). One step in this process is see-through gates, such as those at Workman Avenue in the image above. There is no change, however, to the fence on the Springfield Road – see the image below. See previously: the new gates in Howard Street.

2015-05-31 SeeThroughGatesWide+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02641 X02642

The Priest & The Cobbler

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
2015-05-28 ClonardDetail+

This new mural pays tribute to two long-time residents of Clonard. On a good day, Noel Fitzpatrick, a cobbler with a little shop on the corner of Odessa and Clonard streets, would take his chair out into the street and play the uıleann pipes. Looking down from above is Alec Reid, the Redemptorist priest who spent 40 years at Clonard monastery and played an important role in the peace process. He died in 2013 at age 82. (WP)

Painted by Marty Lyons & Mickey Doc in Springfield Drive. For the large ‘flower’ mural to the left of this mural (which imitates the stained glass in the cathedral), see C01044.

2015-05-28 ClonardFull+

2015-05-28 ClonardSquares+

2015-05-28 ClonardInProg+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02634 X02635 X02636 X02637

Flush With Success

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
2015-05-28 WaterPoloColour+

A new mural on Colinview Street/Sráıd Radharc Chollan celebrates local sports: first (shown above) is the Clonard water polo club (Fb), second (in the wide shot, below) is Ryan Devine of Anderstonstown Trampoline Club, junior sportsman of the year, 2014 (Fb), and third, Clonard GAA. The mural is on the side wall of The Flush newsagents, near the former location (above ground) of the Farset and Forth rivers, where dams and races were put in to supply a cotton mill and linen mill and, later, a laundry, a hat-makers, and a biscuit factory. The river, flowing south, then became the Blackie in Beechmount. (Information gleaned from the Belfast Forum).

The final image below is the cartoon for the water polo part of mural, which was begun back in February.

2015-05-28 WaterPoloFull+

2015-05-28 WaterPolo+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02639 X02640 X02638 lucas quigley

Belfast’s Bloody Sunday

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
2015-05-23 RemBmurphShill+

Prince Charles’s last day drew this respond from Gael Force Art on Sliabh Dubh/Black Mountain, “Remember Ballymurphy and Springhill 1971-1972”, a reference to the Ballymurphy Massacre of August 1971, in which 11 people died at the hands of the Prince’s Parachute Regiment (WP) and the Springhill-Westrock Massacre of July 1972, in which five people were killed by British army snipers (WP).

For more Republican reaction to the Prince’s visit last week, see Operation Banner.

2015-05-23 RemBmurphShillWide+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02632 X02633 Margaret Gargan, 13, John Dougal, 16, David McCafferty, 15, Patrick Butler, 39, Father Noel Fitzpatrick, 40, irish citizens wounded 2 others time for the truth

Operation Banner

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
2015-05-21 CharlesVisit1+

Charles, Prince Of Wales, Duke Of Rothesay, Duke Of Cornwall, and heir to the British throne, concludes a four-day visit to Ireland north and south today with a tour of Corrymeela peace and reconciliation centre. He is also colonel-in-chief of the Parachute Regiment (the Paras) which served in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 2007. Flyers have appeared protesting the visit (see the two images below), and The Rebels Rest on the Falls road is flying the banner shown above: “Fund communities, not royal visits – éırígí.org”. Éırígí also produced a video in memory of some of those killed by the Regiment during its time in Northern Ireland.

The Sınn Féın board to the left is from their campaign to extend voting in the Irish Presidential election to the north: “Vótaí do gach saoránach Éireannach”, “Paul Maskey supports #pres4all – Uachtarán do chách/President for all”

2015-05-21 CharlesVisit2+

2015-05-21 CharlesVisit3+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02629 X02630 X02631 votes remember the real victims oppose vigil wed 20th may 2015 7.15 pm