A small RNU (Republican Network for Unity, a dissident (political) group) mural and ONH (Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann, a faction of the Real IRA) stencil below the advertising hoarding at the corner of Northumberland Street and the International Wall on Divis Street.
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“Saint Malachy’s G.A.C. is more than a club. It’s our club. To participate is to represent your community and an expression of your cultural identity.”
A mural celebrating Gaelic games in the parish of St. Malachy/Naomh Maolmhaodhóg, in the Markets area of Belfast. The parish church – featured in the top centre – has a celebrated fan-vaulted ceiling (WP). This mural, on the other hand, features a highly unusual bay window.
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This piece in North Street, in the city centre, combines realistic buildings with honeycomb patterning run together with cloud-like spray-paint, threatening to envelope the impressionistic figure in the foreground. The surface is the shutter of a shop front. By emic/This Means Nothing for CNB 2012. (The hand in the bottom left can also be found around the corner in Garfield Street.)
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Following on from the crannóg excavations, we might say that we walk around on top of the past, layer upon layer. Here, however, the living people walk around below those that are frozen in time.
North Street, Belfast/Béal Feırste.
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X00969 though newly christened smithfield and union has existed for generations its identity and its existence has never been in question giving it a name gives it a heart celebrates the individual the different the separate the idiosyncratic and the eclectic old belfast new vision
Time becomes distorted under the influence of Guinness and Salvador Dali and his Persistence of Memory at the Duke of York, or more precisely, in the archway that leads from Donegall Street to the pub. Dali’s original is only 9.5 x 13 inches. This is the centre part of a larger mural; there are also three images of Dali in the windows above the archway (see T00766). The Spaniard bar in Skipper Street (one block south of the Duke Of York) also featured Dali on its sign.
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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In these details from one of the murals at the Duke Of York, books by Wilde, Beckett, and Joyce lie at the feet of Van Morrison, along with two of Van’s albums, a saxophone, a pack of cigarettes, a pail of water and two cone-shaped objects. Sınéad O’Connor and Barry McGuigan, among others look on. In the second image, there are two Them posters on the back wall and Van’s Magic Time album is on stage.
Inside: David McWilliams, James Galway, Alex Higgins, Rab McCullough, Gary Lightbody, Barso, Joey Dunlop, Terri Hooley, Feargal Sharkey, John O’Neill, Big Jim McDowell, Mark O’Shea, The Edge, Sam Neill, Jimmy Reilly, James Young, Liam Neeson, Jimmy Nesbitt, Rory Gallagher, Seamus Heaney, Clodagh Rodgers, Ruby Murray, Tony McCoy, Katie Melua, Ann Marie, Geraldine Hughes, Cormac Neeson, Jackie Wright, Johnny Hero, Brian Kennedy, Darren, Juliet Turner, Dan Gordon, Gerry Anderson, Gloria Hunniford, Barry McGuigan, Sınéad O’Connor, Rinty Monaghan, Gary Moore, Dana, Phil Coulter, Phil Lynott, George Best, Pat Jennings, Derek Bell, Jimmy Ellis, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Neil Young, Willie Jack
Outside: Mark, Una Healey, Michael, Enya, Nick, Angela Feeney, CS Lewis, Dennis Taylor, May McFettridge, Paul Brady, Winston, Patrick Kielty, Brian Moore, Willie John McBride, Pearce Elliot, John Lynch, George Hamilton, Pierce Brosnan, Ciaran McMenamin, Maggie Cronin, Hammy, Lisa, Big William, Chris, Paddy, Eddie Irvine, Christine Bleakley, Brendan Behan, Derek Dougan, Patrick Kavanagh, Sir John Lavery, John McCormack, Danny Blanchflower, Mary Peters, Harry Gregg, Frank Carson, Martin O’Neill OBE, Dervla Kirwin, Stephen Rea, Hugh Russell, Wee John Caldwell, Nadine Coyle, Julie, Martin Lynch, Nee, Ronnie Drew, Dolores O’Riordan, Ciaran Hinds, Caron Keating, Kenneth Branagh, Alice, Liam Clancy, Duke Special, Bono
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Two images of BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, young and old, on the wall of the passageway to the Duke Of York pub in the city centre.
Peel is famous in Northern Ireland for his love of the song “Teenage Kicks” by Derry group The Undertones (WP). A line from the song – Teenage dreams so hard to beat” – was used in this mural/street art tribute to Peel, who died in 2004 (WP).
Update 2013-06-21: the ‘teenage dreams’ artwork on Bridge End has been painted over (Tele | BBC | Irish Times; video from U.tv).
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Another George Best reference in another mural at the Dark Horse/Duke of York. George Best quit Manchester United (temporarily) for Spain towards the end of the 1972 season (and quit United for good in 1974). The precise phrase — “Sod this, I’m off to Marbella” — and picture of Best playing keepsy-upsies in the sun come from a John Roberts book about Best. Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974 (WP). The Klondyke Bar was in (PUL) Sandy Row and bombed by the IRA in January, 1976.
This is just the left-most part of a large mural in the Dark Horse courtyard. (For the whole thing, see The Bar Is Called Heaven.) It is almost entirely black-and-white – the Guinness labels and betting slip from Eastwoods are exceptions. If you recognize any of the figures, please leave a comment. The photographer in the top right is Bill Kirk | some pictures at the RBG.
There is a signature of sorts in the top left: “Two cold, hungry muralists for hire. Phone Danny D[evenny] and Marty L[yons].”
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X00961 burns laird line glasgow, tom carnduff songs of an out-of-work, nunu talent contest, guinness, eastwoods, belfast telegraph he urges a time of healing ford will take office today moves into whitehouse
Local readers will hopefully be able to help identify the people (and the horse, and the crab on a fishing line) staying in the Europa Hotel, as depicted in a new (late 2012) board/construction at the Dark Horse/Duke Of York. Artist Ciaran Gallagher has a collection of pictures of the piece being constructed and installed.
According to WP, the Europa was bombed 28 times during the Troubles (which would explain the damage and the abseiling paramilitary on the left?), and Bill and Hillary Clinton’s entourage took up 110 of the 240 rooms when they stayed at the Europa hotel in 1995. In the foreground, George Best balances a ball bearing the words, “I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.” Is there some particular reason why the “E” is the euro sign?
Previously from the Dark Horse/Duke Of York: Big Brother Is Watching. Below is a wide shot of the whole.
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The can be no beef with this beef. The horse-meat scandal (WP) is now a month old and has “Gone Interrailing” (Spiegel Online) to Britain and the Continent, but the reverberations can still be felt in Ireland and Northern Ireland. This butchers in Inıs Ceıthleann/Enniskillen attempts to reassure its customers by providing the provenance of this week’s beef.
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 