Here are five pieces of street art by Glen Molloy (ig) at Clarawood flats. The first three are new; the pair following is from earlier this year (Jan and Feb). The artist of the sixth piece is unknown. The seventh piece is by “The Spermer” (web) from 2020 and already in some disrepair – it was painted at the same time as Glen’s spitfire, shown last.
Demolition of the two blocks of flats was approved by the Housing Executive in May 2021 (Belfast Live) and by the Department Of Communities in September 2021 (Belfast Live). Demolition of Kilbroney is scheduled for the autumn and Clarawood (the tower block) for 2024 (Irish News).
(See also the Housing Executive’s ‘Action Plan’ for all tower blocks (pdf).)
This is an early (2020) Covid-era mural on the side of Ciggy Vapes expressing thanks “from all our management & staff” to workers in the NHS. The child in the image is playing with a doll of a nurse rather than the Batman doll in the basket.
The movie that made child-actress Shirley Temple a star was the December 1934 film Bright Eyes, in which she played an orphan, Shirley Blake, living with a wealthy and mean-spirited family but befriended by her godfather and pilot Loop Merritt (played by James Dunn in their third movie together that year, after Stand Up And Cheer! and Baby Take A Bow) (WP Bright Eyes | WP James Dunn). She was awarded a special Oscar for her performance the following year (WP).
The Strand Cinema in east Belfast opened a year later, on December 7th, 1935, and Bright Eyes was the first movie shown. The venue for a time operated exclusively as a concert hall (from 1984-1988); in 2013 it became the charity ‘Strand Arts Centre’, supporting a variety of arts in addition to a now-independent four-screen cinema operation (StrandArtsCentre History).
The 3-D mural by emic (ig) on the Pim’s Avenue side of the theatre reproduces a publicity photo from 1935.
“Willowfield Battalion.” The building on the corner of Willowfield Street and the Woodstock Road was demolished and rebuilt with a building whose gable wall is full of windows. As a result, the display of Somme-related boards (see 2017’s Faugh-A-Ballagh in the Seosamh Mac Coılle collection) has moved a short distance down the street to a gable that has been revealed by taking down two large trees. The panels remain as before, though a new version of the Somme board renders the information horizontally rather than vertically (above).
Above: “Never before was a debt owed to so few by so many. Generation after generation owe them everything. Lest we forget.” Winston Churchill’s line about the British Air Force in WWII, that “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few (youtube)“, is echoed in a board about the battles at the Somme between July 1st and November 18th, 1916. “The few” in this case, however, number nearly half a million dead and more than 72,000 missing.
Apex: “1st July 1916 nothing finer was done in the war. The splendid troops, drawn from those volunteers who had banded themselves together for another cause, now shed their blood like water for the liberty of the world.”
“O valiant hearts who to your glory came/Through dust of conflict and through battle flame//Tranquil you lie, your knightly virtue proved/Your memory hallowed [not “hollowed”] in the land you loved.” The hymn ‘O Valiant Hearts’ was a poem written during the first World War to commemorate the Allied dead, and was put to a variety of tunes during the 1920s, including arrangements by Vaughan Williams and Holst (WP); the most commonly sung tune, however, is that of Charles Harris (youtube, includes the full poem).
The memorial shown in the middle of the board is a Cross Of Sacrifice (see previously: One In Design And Intention) built on top of a German pill box at the centre of Tyne Cot cemetry, near Passchendaele, Belgium. The title of today’s post comes from remarks made by George V during a 1922 visit to the cemetery (History.org). The map in the background shows the area just south of Ypres (Canadian Soldiers).
The board is in Pim’s Avenue, Belfast, opposite the older YCV emblem shown below.
The hand-painted UVF Scottish Brigade mural (see Boab Kerr) in Beechfield Street/Tower Street has been replaced by this new printed board. The plaque to Kerr has been retained, but four names have been added – David Totten, Brian Milligan, Billy Inglis, and Jim Holt, who is now the most prominent. Holt died in February 2021 (ACT Fb).
“100% less hate”, says street artist FGB (ig), ruthlessly taking over a site of Hallion’s Covid-era graffiti (see Inspiring Belfast | Between The Lines | It Hasn’t Gone Away You Know). Will an east-Belfast turf-war result? Or will both parties just move to the Vault’s new digs down-town (and in the Shankill)?
The mural’s design was previously a paste-up and a sticker (seen in a 2019 post) and a print (ig).
Paddy Duffy Collection 