Face upon face upon face – perhaps one for every parking space in the Flagship Centre. Street art by Codo (ig) in Bingham Street, Bangor.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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600 Spaces, 600 Faces
PUL
Cat And Mouse
Above is a new piece by printmaker (turned street artist) Strangford (ig) on the metal plate in the facade of School Days uniform store. Immediately below is rampaging bull (artist unknown) a few doors down (roughly 432 and 440 Newtownards Rd). And completing the menagerie is a version of Aslan the lion by David Creative (ig), at the CS Lewis square.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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On The Beat
Beat Carnival Belfast (ig | web) puts on celebrations all over town and teaches skills from its base in Millfield/Brown’s Square. Artists Danni Simpson (ig), Codo (ig), Ana Fish (ig), and FGB (ig) worked together to spray this piece on the Gardiner Street door.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Meditating Boxer
Ulster Freedom Fighters
The UDA began using the “Ulster Freedom Fighters” name from February 1973 onwards in order to avoid the UDA becoming a proscribed organisation, though its members had already killed dozens of people in 1972 and January 1973 (WP timeline). (Fifty Years Of Service (in Ballymoney) marks the fiftieth anniversary – in 2021 – of the UDA.)
The tarp shown above likewise conflates the UDA and UFF, with two images from 1972, before the “UFF” name was used; on the left, the men marching behind a van marked “UDA Patrol” are on the Shankill Road (BelTel); on the right, four men stand at a barricade in the Woodvale (Victor Patterson).
The images in the second tarp show (left) a bus blocking Agnes Street and four men blocking the Shankill Road (Getty – no date given) and (right) a 1975 march in Belfast (Som Tribune).
The UDU board immediately below was seen previously in Ulster Defence Unions.
Glenbrook Road, Glen estate, Newtownards.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Double Vision
This piece is on the same office-building as the ‘Be Your Best’ piece featured previously (in Auld Cobblers) at the city-side entrance to east Belfast, at the junction of Middlepath Street and Newtownards Road. Both are by Dee Craig/Belfast Mural Arts (Fb) as part of East Belfast Enterprise’s (web | ig) ‘Connecting Communities Through Art’ initiative. The two works were officially launched together on April 20th (pics on EBE’s Instagram). The two in-progress shots (last below) are from April 16th.
According to this Community NI article, the work has been installed using “a jigsaw-like technique using super strength glue to give it a lifespan of up to 25 years before requiring maintenance”.
Interpretations of the new piece are encouraged; feel free to comment or e-mail.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Meditate – Don’t Medicate
This mental-health mural is at the entrance to the car park off St Bride’s Street, Carrickfergus, with healthful reminders and tributes to local clubs (l to r): “My community works together for the win”, “Borrow another day”, “Take care”, “Take the time”, “Enjoy your food”, “Evolution” [boxing club] (Fb), “Barba[r]ians est. 1975” [wrestling club] (Fb), Barn United [soccer club] (Fb), “Meditate; don’t medicate”.
If you know the artist or initiative, please comment/get in touch.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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In The Service Of Our Country
These are images of a new UDR [Ulster Defence Regiment] veterans association board in Woodburn Avenue, Carrickfergus (for the previous memorial plaques at this site, see M10770).
“In memory of those who gave their lives in the service of our country and are still doing so.”
At its peak (in 1973) the UDR had more than 9,000 personnel (Statista). The UDR was amalgamated into the Royal Irish Regiment in 1992 and a 2005 estimate put the number of its veterans at about 58,000 (Veterans Services NI).
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Born For A Storm
The family of “Andrew Jackson 1767-1845”, seventh president of the United States, hailed from Carrickfergus (Discover Ulster-Scots | Carrickfergus History) and there is a period cottage that functions as a museum on the site of the home from which his parents and two older brothers departed (Discover NI).
There is a Visual History page on Ulster-Scots murals. A series of murals was painted, beginning in 1999, under the title ‘Pioneers To Presidents’, the last of which was of Andrew Jackson in the lower Shankill in 2007. Why he was chosen as the subject of this new mural in Pinewood Avenue, Sunnylands, Carrickfergus, is as yet unknown.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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What We Have We Hold
“Ulster is ours”, says James Craig, first prime minister of Northern Ireland, in (a reproduction of) an election poster from c. 1940 (according to Whyte’s). If it is for his own seat in North Down, for Stormont – rather than a poster for the Ulster Unionist candidates in by-elections – it might be from 1938 (WP).
Rockview Street, Village, south Belfast. There are/have been other vintage posters reproduced in the Village – see previously: The Red Hand And The Winning Hand. Also from the Village is a current board employing the phrase “We have what we hold”.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Paddy Duffy Collection 