Four paintings by Michael O’Neill were added in 2008 to Warehouse Lane with the redevelopment of the Four Corners buildings (BBC) (at the junction of Waring Street and Donegall Street) depicting scenes from the history of the United Irishmen: Wolfe Tone and the Muddlers; Henry Joy McCracken goes to the gallows; Russell, Bunting, and Mary Ann McCracken; Russell with the first edition of the Northern Star.
Here is a small gallery of street art in North Street (below Royal Avenue). Above is emic (2018). Below are … Glen Molloy (2021) Friz + Dan Leo (2013) JMK (2014)
As part of Culture Night 2018 two Colombian artists were in Belfast to paint street art. This inter-species piece is by Sancho (Fb | ig) in Gresham Street, Belfast.
Here is a gallery of the street art in Kent Street, starting, above, with Mr Cenz’s 2021 piece. In order, below, we have work by …
Curtis Hylton (2022) ESTR (2019) Leo Boyd (2022) Alana McDowell (2022) Glen Molloy (2022) Conor McClure (2022) NRMN (2022) HMConstance (2022) Kilian (2022) Kerrie Hanna (2022) Dan Leo (2016) Bust (2022) Conzo + Glöbel (2018) … north side of the street … ADW (2022) JMK (2022) emic (2016)
Here is a gallery of the street art in Union Street, starting, above, with emic’s 2020 piece “Fuck Racism”. In order, below, we have work by … Wee Nuls + Ten Hundred + KVLR (2019) ADW (2016) Ink Fun (2022) Shane Ha (2022) Friz (2022) Lobster Robin (2022) irony (2022) RAZER (2022) ESTR + Lanni Powder (in Little Donegall Street, 2017) KinMx (in Library Street, 2017)
North Street Arcade was burned down in April 2004 – see Who Burnt Us Out?. Since 2012, there has been street art at both its North Street and Donegall Street ends, the latest (from September, 2021) being this piece by Danni Simpson (ig) in Donegall St.
Twenty-five victims of five “Shankill atrocities” – at the Four Step Inn, the Balmoral Furniture Store, Mountainview Bar, Bayardo Bar, and (from the 1990s) Frizzell’s fish shop – are remembered in an updated board in Dundee Street. The central image remains 17-month-old Colin Nichol in the arms of ambulance man Bob Scott.
“30 years of indiscriminate slaughter by so-called non-sectarian Irish freedom fighters. Provisional Sinn Fein demands “equality/respect/integrity”. No military targets! No economic targets! No legitimate targets! No enquiries! No truth! No justice! Where is the “equality” in justice? Where is the “respect” for Protestants? Where is the “integrity” in murder? We remember the victims of Provisional Sinn Fein genocide.”
London street artist Dan Kitchener’s (web | ig) piece “Hope” features a Tokyo landscapes behind a geisha. “The wall is dedicated to Sandra – サンドラ. Sandra McCurry worked and owned Mikala’s Kitchen on The Shankill Road, Sandra worked tirelessly for the local community and sadly passed away” (Belfast Walking Tours Fb).
The geisha has (bizarrely) been situated above “Conor’s Corner”, where William Conor has been rendered in bronze by sculptor Holger Lönze and placed among a number of Conor’s paintings. (For images of the sculpture in progress, see Lönze’s site and the project’s Facebook page.) Connor (later Conor) was born in the Old Lodge area of Belfast (in 1881) close to the location of the new bronze statue shown in these images, which is at the corner of Northumberland Street and Shankill Road, replacing the UVF/Shankill Protestant Boys mural (see M02457).
The info board describes his methods in capturing the Belfast street scenes for which he is most famous: “Conor was developing a spontaneous drawing technique by recording quick impressions, and it soon became a habit for him to go out into the streets with a newspaper, which contained loose leaves from his sketchbook. When he saw anything of interest he leant against a lap post or wall, took out his newspaper as though he were simply reading the sports results and sketched away.”
The mural is a version of the old Beverley Street ‘welcome’ mural (by Blaze FX), with the same four panels (parades/bonfire, blitz, sports, murals) and the same three hands. But instead of “Proud, Defiant, Welcoming” we now have “Proud, Resilient, Welcoming”. (I Am Not Resilient in the lower Shankill complains that the word is used to justify neglect and/or maltreatment.)
It escaped no one’s notice that, although the number of languages expressing a greeting is now much greater than the original ten, Irish is not included among them. Also Ulstèr Scots. (Also French, for some reason. Polish is included – “Witamy”). (See similarly “No Irish” in the lower Shankill estate but also All Flags Are Welcome in Divis, which omitted the Union Flag.)
Despite the appearance of bricks, the main panel is not in fact a mural but a board.
Gardiner Street. For the previous mural, see Welcome To The Shankill. Held over from the old mural are the two strips of ‘famous faces’ on the left and right.
“In proud and loving memory of all local volunteers, prisoners of war, republican activists and the unsung heroes who died of natural causes having served the cause of Irish republicanism [“sean óglach” on the individual plaques]. Together in unity you formed a bond which gave true meaning to the undefeated risen people. Your deeds of bravery and resistance will never be forgotten by the people of greater St. James’s. In your honour the quest for Irish freedom continues.” With the famous “our steps will be onward” quote from Máıre Drumm at an anti-internment rally in Dunville Park on 10th August, 1975 (RN). Coıste Cuımhneacháın Lár Na bhFál/Ard Na bhFeá [Memorial committee of mid-Falls/Beechmount]. For some more of the plaques, see The Unsung Heroes.
The board on the gable to the side shows Francis Liggett and Paddy Brady. IRA volunteer Francis Liggett was shot dead by the British Army during an attempted armed robbery at Royal Victoria Hospital, Falls Road in 1973 (Sutton) while local Sınn Féın member Paddy Brady was shot by the UFF while at work in 1984 (Sutton | An Phoblacht). They are commemorated in the St James memorial garden with the board shown above, featuring two verses from Bobby Sands’s poem Weeping Winds: Oh, Whispering [Whistling, in the original] winds why do you weep/When roaming free you are, Oh! Is it that your poor heart’s broke/And scattered off afar? Or is it that you bear the cries/Of people born unfree, Who like your way have no control/Or sovereign destiny? Oh! Lonely winds that stalk [walk] the night/To haunt the sinner’s soul/ Pray pity me a wretched lad/Who never will grow old. Pray pity those who lie in pain/The bondsman and the slave And whisper sweet the breath of God/Upon my humble grave.
The board is similar in design to the painted one it replaces, except that Éıre was at the centre rather than the “SF” logo.
Paddy Duffy Collection 