This is an older piece but one seen only on weekends and in the evenings because it is painted on shutters, specifically the shutters of DC-Rays (formerly D-Rays) hair salon (Fb) in Albertbridge Road, east Belfast.
The work was painted by Glen Molloy (ig) c. 2017; for other pieces in this style, see the gallery of ten famous faces in Corporation Street from 2016 or the Three Jimmys in Exchange Place from 2017.
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The Pitt Stop caravan is a new community-services centre run by the Residents’ Association (Fb) in Pitt Park, east Belfast, a stone’s throw from the Ballymac Friendship Centre (Fb). The relationship between the two is unclear – this Sunday World article quotes one person as saying the some residents felt themselves excluded from the Centre and that the “good people of Pitt Park” need “access to a facility”. The article also suggests possible connections to the local UVF and to drug-dealing; the Association denounced the write-up in a brief Facebook post.
The Park itself was renovated in 2024 (Belfast Live before | after).
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At the heart of this east Belfast homage to the healing power of soccer are German and British soldiers shaking hands over a ball in ‘no man’s land’ on the Western Front, on Christmas Day, 1914. The image is not from a contemporary photograph but a modern one of a 2014 sculpture depicting such an even by Andy Edwards (TruceStatue) (who also did the Pat Jennings sculpture in Newry – seen in Pat Jennings). For more images of the WWI soccer statue, see WWI Cemeteries.
It’s not clear that matches between opposing forces – rather than simple fraternisation – were actually played; see Wikipedia for a review of the evidence.
Dee Street, east Belfast.
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The Great Northern Railway joined Dublin with Belfast, Derry, and Ballyshannon, as well as many other smaller towns. It existed from 1876 until roughly 1958 (WP) and what was then called the “Adelaide & Windsor” station in south Belfast was opened in 1897 (WP) – the name was (presumably) based on the station’s proximity to local streets: the “Adelaide” streets were named for William IV’s consort (Street Names) and the “Windsor” streets were named for Windsor Castle (Street Names).
The mural shows the platform and waiting room, and a steam-powered train, and features local signal-man Charles Murtagh. Murtagh’s daughter still lives in the family home, near the station and provided the photograph from which Blaze FX (ig) reproduced (Translink).
Adelaide Avenue, south Belfast.
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This entry updates Let The Fight Go On!!! from December 1st, which showed the new INLA 50th anniversary wall in Oakman Street but without the (pink) roll of honour on the left. Those listed in the roll of honour are: Hugh Ferguson, Danny Loughran, Brendan McNamee, Miriam Daly, Ronnie Bunting, Noel Little, Jim Power, Matt McLarnon, Joe Craven, Paul “Bonanza” McCann, Thomas “Ta” Power, John O’Reilly, Mickey Kearney, Emmanual Gargan, Gino Gallagher, John McColgan, Patrick Campbell, Christopher “Crip” McWilliams, Harry O’Hara, Barry “Bar” McMullan, Martin McElkerney, James McWilliams. The last five post-date the Agreement, starting with Patrick Campbell, who died in 1999 at the hands of drug-dealers in Dublin (Irish Times | Bel Tel).
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People with learning difficulties and autism who are carrying a “JAM” card (web) (for “Just a minute”) can use it on Translink buses and trains to let drivers and conductors know that they might need some extra time. The other symbols on the side of the train (in the third image, below) denote services for travelers who are visually-impaired, hearing-impaired, blind, or wheelchair-users.
This wall-painting in south Belfast was painted by Blaze FX (ig) with help from young people with disabilities as part of a “Can Do” project (Fb) from Leonard Cheshire (web) and Kids Together Belfast (Fb). With funding from Forward South Partnership (web), Translink, and Belfast City Council (Belfast Live).
In Adelaide Street, opposite Great Northern Railway.
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This new piece from Belfast One BID is full of literary references (web). The blackberries (top left of the image above) are perhaps for Seamus Heaney, and the kites (bottom right of the image above) are perhaps for John Hewitt. Comment/Get in touch if you can identify others.
Below the Linen Hall library in Fountain Street, Belfast city centre.
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This is a repainting of the Ledley Hall/Queen’s Jubilee mural at the junction with Kingswood Street, part of the 2016 re-imaging of Lord Street, east Belfast, sponsored by the Housing Executive and CharterNI. The mural shows the hall past and present and features local figures Bob Yarr (OBE), Eddie Witherspoon, John Cross (BEM), John Currans, Sam Rainey, and Reggie Morrow.
The ‘Lord Street Remembers’ piece is from 2015, by Glenn Black and Ken Maze of Blaze FX (web).
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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The HUBB community centre (Fb) in north Belfast has, since 2010, been based in what used to be a World War II Civil Defence air-raid shelter, which it cleaned and renovated (Tele). The original hall is depicted in this mural on the side of the HUBB.
In 1940, Belfast was protected by thirty-eight anti-aircraft guns. The German Luftwaffe flew a reconnaissance flight over Belfast on November 30th, 1940 and a test mission of eight planes on April 7th, 1941 concluded that Belfast’s defences were, “inferior in quality, scanty and insufficient” (Hogg). 150 bombers would blitz Belfast the following week, on Easter Tuesday, April 15th, and the seven guns that had been in operation ceased firing, believing, falsely, that RAF planes were also in the sky (WP).
Belfast was bombed by the Germans four times in April and May of 1941. In the blitz of Easter Tuesday, 1941, more than 900 people died, 1,500 were injured, and half the houses in Belfast were damaged (WP). According to Elaine Hogg’s research in the ‘Darker Side Of Belfast’ series, 100,000 people left the city in the remainder of the month, due to shock, fear, and the squalid conditions and unruly behaviour that followed the bombing.
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“North Belfast dockers, millworkers, shipyard workers – Titanic town 1912″.
The Titanic mural in north Belfast is now twelve years old; it is generally faded and peeling in several places, and the plaster filling a crack in the walls has fallen out (as can be seen in the images above and below). (For the mural previously, see X01139.)
Along the bottom are the names of various Belfast pubs and other businesses: The Waterloo, The Terminus, The Sportsman’s Arms, The White Hart, The Bowling Green, The City Arms, The Orpheus – York Street, Railway Bar – Canning Street [image from 1970], The Edinburgh Castle [the boat of the Union-Castle line, launched 1910, built at H&W?], York Street Mill, The Gibralter [sic] Bar [whose then-owner was killed in 1972], Ye Old Castle [a bar (and restaurant?) bombed in 1971], The White Lion.
St. Vincent Street, north Belfast.
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Paddy Duffy Collection 