Fleadh Cheoıl ended on Sunday (August 9th) with a third and final day of competition and a finale by the winning céılí band at the Gig Rig (main stage) next to City Hall (BBC | Fleadh). The city centre was pedestrianised and various murals were painted, including this one by KVLR (web) in Waring Street, Belfast city centre. The event has been declared a success; over the course of the eight days, the city saw more than one million visitors (RTÉ).
The Fabulous Fleadh-Mingo is a one-bird band, with drum, cymbals, concertina, and tin whistle. It was brought into being by FGB (web) in Dunbar Street, Belfast city centre, for Fleadh Cheoıl Na hÉıreann, alongside works in Commercial Court, the Dark Horse, Royal Avenue, and Writers’ Square.
This is Karl Fenz’s (web) tribute to The Rapparees (ig), who will end the Fleadh (on August 9th) with a gig in Lavery’s (ig). The art is in the entry to Commercial Court, home of the Duke Of York and the Dark Horse bars. There is also a painting of the Rapparees in the Dark Horse courtyard – see The Musicians.
The drive to revive Belfast’s “Brewery Quarter” comes from Bell’s Brewery at The Deer’s Head (web) in Lower Garfield Street. Bell’s itself is a tribute to the brewery of John Bell in the late 1700s, one of many in what was then known as Bell’s Lane (Ireland On A Budget). Among the brewery’s offerings is the “Monkey Shaving The Goat”, a 4.3% ABV IPA.
Fleadh Cheoıl Na hÉıreann brings eight days of events and competitions (pdf) to venues all across Belfast, beginning on August 2nd. Given the expected 100,000 visitors per day that are expected, the city has been transforming itself (Irish Times | BBC), with camp-sites being prepared, marquees being erected, and a number of artworks being painted, including this one by Danni Simpson (web) of a fiddler among flowers, at Writers’ Square in Donegall Street. There is also new art in the Dark Horse courtyard and on Royal Avenue.
This giant arrow – painted by Rob Hilken (web) in Ann Street – points the way to Riddel’s warehouse (web), which is now an events space (and which until July 5th was home to the Outpouring exhibition featuring a large piece by Joe Caslin). The warehouse will be open for a “dramatised tour” featuring Bright Umbrella theatre company, on September 12th and 13th during the European Heritage Open Days (Riddel’s).
Lyra McKee was shot and killed in April 2019 while observing a riot in Creggan, Derry (BBC). A tribute in Belfast city centre was painted by Emmalene Blake during Hit The North (in May). The piece survived fairly well for a few years (here is a 2022 image) before being repainted with a flat blue background in 2025, which in turn had to be repainted in 2026 (for before and after images see 2026). People have taken to placing stickers with positive messages on top of the graffiti that immediately began to accumulate, such as “You did so well today”, “Fuck being average”, and “Never lose your sparkle”.
repainted during this year’s (2026) Hit The North.
Avenue Hall – the building at the junction of Lower Garfield Street and North Street – was built in 1896, with ground-floor shops and upstairs ballrooms. The upstairs rooms were damaged by fire in 1990 and the last occupied unit on the ground floor was the Tivoli barbers, which held on until 2013 before moving to North Street. The shutters of the ground-floor shops, along with much of the derelict (lower) North Street, were covered with graffiti, and in 2012 became the epicentre of ‘Shutter Scape’, the first year of what came to be called Hit The North (see Visual History 11 and the historical map). The blocked-up windows of the upper floor were also painted, in 2014.
Future Belfast lists three potential developments and developers, in 2000, 2012, and 2016, and there were others in 2017 and in 2020. Castlebrooke currently has request for comments on its latest plan for the whole Garfield and Donegall Street area (RSUA | pdf). The current scaffolding was erected in 2018 along with the hoarding around the bottom, which was painted by Danni Simpson (‘Bout Ye, Belfast). Some demolition of the interior took place; the facade is protected by a grade B2 listing in 1991 (Plan Belfast | Future Belfast). Seven years later, the hoarding and the scaffolding still stand, and the hoarding has been repainted with a variety of Belfast sayings – “Aye”, “Dead on”, “Grand”, “Class”, “Awk, hiya” – painted by Alana McDowell (ig). The first part, above, replaces the anti-homelessness art in Life In A Bag.
Fleadh Cheoıl Na hÉıreann takes place in Belfast from Sunday August 2nd to Sunday August 9th. Approximately 20,000 musicians will perform and compete, around 100,000 people are expected to attend each day, (Irish Times | Irish News | BBC), and 1,300 volunteers have signed up to assist with the event (Belfast Media), which also takes place the week after TradFest (web) during the second week of Féıle An Phobaıl (pdf).
This large painting of dancers and musicians outside the Duke Of York in Commercial Court (one drinking a “Belfast Session”, an American pale ale from MashDown Brewery (ig)) is by Ciaran Gallagher (web) in the courtyard of the Dark Horse bar. Launched July 2nd.
Sınéad O’Connor uttered the phrase “fight the real enemy” as she tore up a picture of the Catholic pope on live (US) television in 1992 (Time). Her actions were immensely controversial at the time, but nine years later the Catholic church would begin to admit to widespread sexual abuse and its cover-up within the Catholic hierarchy, including tens of thousands of cases in Ireland (Commission Report). She died on July 26th, 2023.
Her words, on a scroll, are held by skin-headed angels in one of the new pieces at the Ulster Sports Club, in Belfast city centre, by Wee Nuls (web), Lost Lines (ig), Ana Fish (web), HMC (web), Féoıl (ig) (“The Patron Saint Of Pints”), and others.
