Ring Of Peace

The speech balloons that were added to the Ring Of Peace mural in Waring Street to advertise office space are still there, seven years later.

The bubbles read “Forget it, Muriel. I’m moving my business to CQHQ without you!” “Oh Jeff … It’s too close to the City Centre! I want to be with nature …”.

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The United Irishmen

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.

Warehouse Lane at the Waring Street end. See also: the Visual History page on the Belfast Entries.

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Kent Street Street Art

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)

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Union Street Street Art

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)

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You Beaut

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.

For the girl with owl left over from the previous Matt Sewell street art, see Only When The Dusk Starts To Fall (along with A Bird In The Hand and Carnival Of The Animals).

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Where Is The Integrity In Murder?

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.

(See the Peter Moloney Collection for the previous version. Before that, there was a painted version on Bellevue Street: Where Is Our Truth?)

“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.”

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The Greater Shankill

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.”

For more info, see the project’s web site. For images of many of Conor’s paintings, see ArtNet.

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Welcome To The Shankill Road

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.)

The claim that the Shankill area dates back to AD 455 is used in The Original Belfast. The claim was made by the Greater Shankill Partnership.

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.

Images of the July 10th launch from sponsors Alternatives.

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