Street art by Verz (Fb) in Pottinger’s entry, Belfast city centre.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01704
Korba
Belfast city centre
The Spirit Of Commerce
A ship’s figurehead (perhaps) cranes upwards – as the viewer must also do – in front of a background of decaying tile-work. Perhaps the decay is being left behind? In any case, Belfast City Council thought a suitable symbol of Belfast moving onward and upwards when used the art to announced the Belfast Stories project (tw; see The Rising Place).
The piece is by Irony (tw | ig | Fb | tumblr). According to Adam Turkington, Irony was inspired by “the commercial themes in Ciaran Carson’s many visions of Belfast” (Belfast Live). (Belfast Confetti was the inspiration for emic’s piece in Winecellar Entry.)
In Pottinger’s Entry. There is a separate Visual History page on the Belfast entries and the recent (2020 onward) efforts to beautify them.
See also: The Verticality Of The Divine | Tile Refinery.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01706
Pottinger’s Pelican
This giant pelican was painted by Nomad Clan (web) from Manchester, England, as part of the first year (2020) of the Belfast Entries Project (Visual History). According to ArtUK, the pelican is a reference to “the Pottinger’s family crest” (Lord Belmont) while the “east Asian flowers” along the bottom and the cogs at the top point “to Belfast’s rich industrial past.
Pottinger’s Entry, Belfast city centre
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01703 [T01702]
Swimming Upstream
DanLeo’s (web) salmon and ‘At The Mouth’ by ADW (web) (2020) in Crown Entry – one of the Belfast Entries.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01720 T01719 T01716 T01718
Olaudah Equiano
In 1789, Olaudah Equiano published a memoir to 311 subscribers describing his early life in west Africa, his kidnapping, transport via Barbados to enslavement in Virginia, then in London, England, and then in Montserrat in the Caribbean. He bought his own freedom in 1766 and went back to England and joined the burgeoning abolitionist movement. His memoir detailing the treatment and conditions he had experienced made him famous. He toured Britain and Ireland in support of his book: “I found the people extremely hospitable, particularly in Belfast [in 1791-1792]” (BBC Sounds 17m 58s). He stayed with Samuel Neilson, a founding member of the United Irishmen (Clifton Belfast | WP | see also the post on Belle Martin). Ten years after his death in 1797, the trans-Atlantic slave trade was abolished in both the UK and the States.
The mural in Joy’s Entry, by London artist Dreph, is based on a portrait painted by William Denton and engraved for the book by Daniel Orme (Dreph | National Portrait Gallery).
For an overview of the anti-slavery movement in Belfast, including Thomas Russell, Olaudah Equiano, and Frederick Douglass, see this William Orr speech (at Slugger).
See also the Visual History page on The Belfast Entries.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01709
Life Preserver
What A Shower!
Covid-era graffiti on a construction hoarding in College Street/Queen Street, Belfast city centre:
“They can’t even govern themselves! What a shower! Make them give up the emergency powers before it’s too late!“,
“Van Morrison was right! Modern governments are dangerous to free speech!”,
“The new bivalent vaccines – safe for mice, so take their advice?”,
“‘Safe for most people’ – would you take even a fish supper on that basis?”,
“Wuhan flu over the cuckoo’s nest and landed in a street near you!”,
“The first casualty in war is the truth!”,
“Monkeys, bats, and mice — are used to give us sleepless nights! – Worry worry!”,
“The ‘marriage’ between government and big tech/co[r]porations is — fascism!”,
“The truth always gets white-washed”.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01739 T01740 T01741 T01742 T01743 T01744 T01745 T01746 T01747
We Are What We Believe We Are
Like “You’re never too old to set another goal or dream another dream” in east Belfast, “We are what we believe we are” appears to be another of those inspirational quotes attributed to – but not actually by – CS Lewis. The quote appears alongside Belfast landmarks the Titanic centre, Aslan, the Big Fish/Salmon of Knowledge, an unidentified cupola. Part of a piece by Faigy (ig) in Wilson’s Entry, Belfast.
Click and click again to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01715
Happy Halloween
They have on their Halloween costumes, but can you name all of the politicians (some local, some from Britain) that are partying in courtyard of the Dark Horse, Belfast?
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01688
The Friend At Hand
Easter marks the unofficial start of the PUL marching season, with many marches today by various Apprentice Boys bands. The season runs until the end of August, with a high point around July 12th (Parades Commission | CAIN calendar). The painting above (by Ciaran Gallagher (ig) in the Dark Horse courtyard for a nine-part series called The Friend At Hand) packs in many familiar tropes: King Billy on a banner, kerb-stones painted red-white-and-blue, the Israeli flag flying from a lamp-post, and a bottle of Buckfast lying in the gutter. Decorating the skin, however, is rare, and the use of Irish – “an cara ıdır lamha [lámha]” [“in aıce láımhe” or “ag an láımh”] – on a Lambeg drum is unknown.
The other panels in the group of three show a boxer being attended to in his corner at the King’s Hall and a masked man leaving the EU and heading for Mexico off with an ATM in the bucket of an excavator.
Six more are included together, below: a fisherman is rescued from drowning; a medic attended to an injured player; the Samaritans helpline; a firefighter carries two people from a burning building; a surgeon operates; a chaplain reads to troops.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022/2023/2024 Paddy Duffy
T01691 T01665 T01692 [T01684]
T03188 T03189 T03190 T03191 T03192 T03193 T03194
T04270
Paddy Duffy Collection 