Month: April 2023

Moving In Marches Upon The Heavenly Plain

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The stencil is in Mount Vernon, which is also home to a series of metalworks – see They Sleep Beyond Ulster’s Foam. That title, as well as the title of this entry, comes from Binyon’s poem For The Fallen, the fourth stanza of which is often cited in memorial for the dead of the Great War: “They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; / Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. / At the going down of the sun and in the morning / We will remember them.”

The stencil is perhaps not only a memorial to the dead of WWI – the planes appear to be WWII models such as the Hurricane or Spitfire (as on the box below, and in A Miracle of Deliverance); most WWI planes were biplanes.

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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From Dawn ‘Til Dusk

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Street art by Rob Hilken (web | ig) in High Street and Church Lane, Belfast.

“My mural on the corner of Church Lane and High Street is inspired by the businesses in the immediate area. The circle forms represent sun and moon, the sun rising and setting at the beginning and end of the day and the moon illuminating the night sky. The colour palette evokes sunrise and sunset, and the glamour of the local nightlife. The local businesses include cafes serving food from morning until night, bars where people socialise until the early hours, as well as barbers, hairdressers, nail bars, piercing studios and tattooists for the image-conscious crowds that inhabit the area. The mural aims to add to the identity of the area as somewhere where people go to socialise as well as enhance their own image.”

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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The Passing Of Queen Elizabeth II

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A traffic cone provides a makeshift flower holder in front of this board Clara Street board: “Grove Community Group [Baptist Church (web | Fb)] mourns the passing of Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022″. Charter NI has images from last September of more bouquets and a piper at the board (tw).

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Days When The Rains Came

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The Con O’Neill bridge crosses the Knock river just before it meets the Loop river to form the Connswater, which used to be Con’s water, and provided a way for “men, horses and livestock to cross the river” (Con O’Neill).

The mural depicting such a crossing, by Friz (ig), is on a gable wall in the car park next to the bridge; the area is now known as The Hollow, as in “Hey, where did we go?/Days when the rains came/Down in the hollow/Playin’ a new game.” (For an image of bridge partially submerged and impassable in 2012, see Geograph | more images at Google Maps Places.)

Con lived c. 1600 but the bridge might well pre-date that time. It was refurbished as part of the Connswater Greenway project in ?2014?.

Abetta Parade, east Belfast

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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UDR Checkpoint

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The second mural along Ballee Way, Ballymena (between The Crown and The Lion Wears The Crown), is a tribute to the UDR [Ulster Defence Regiment], established in 1970 to replace the Specials and amalgamated with the Royal Irish Rangers in 1992 to form the Royal Irish Regiment. The mural shows a UDR soldier manning a checkpoint, on top of a free-floating Northern Ireland filled in with a Union Flag.

For the mural when new, see M08022.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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The Lion Wears The Crown

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The third of the three murals on Ballee way is a Ballee Flute Band (formerly the Ballee Blues And Royals) mural showing the ‘lion and the unicorn’ from the UK coat of arms. The lion (England) wears a crown but the unicorn (Scotland) does not, since, as the nursery rhyme has it, “the lion beat the unicorn all around the town” (WP).

In place of the Royal Standard, “honi soit qui mal y pense” and “Dieu et mon droit” “, however, we find the Bible. “Drumtara”, and “In God we trust”. Behind are the Union flag and the flags of the Apprentice Boys and the Orange Order.

To the right of frame can be seen part of UDR Checkpoint.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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