Another mural on Upper Newtownards Road on the lamp-lighter theme: Ballyhack-Amore by Alana McDowell (ig | web). The name “Ballyhackamore” comes from Irish: Baile An Chacamair, town of the mud flat (PlaceNamesNI).
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This entry updates (with close-ups) the image seen in 2022’s Luminaries And Legends Of Eastside which showed (from afar) the ‘famous faces’ mural at Connswater/CS Lewis Square in east Belfast with a large “smiley” face over DJ David Holmes – a (presumably) unauthorised addition to the 2017 original. Word is that Holmes’s image was painted over because he is not from east Belfast. It’s not clear (from on-line sources) where exactly in Belfast Holmes is from; he lived in Los Angeles, California, for a time before returning c. 2014 (Irish Times).
(MaskerAid is an app that allows one to cover faces in photos with smiley-faces and other emoji.)
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“Good vibes outside” is a series of “everyday adventure” guides from clothing brand Bleubird, which now has three physical shops, in Ballymena, Cookstown, and east Belfast, where you can find this street art by Cha Cha (Carla Hodgson ig) depicting many local adventure-spots – the list at the bottom suggests Wild Atlantic Way, Fermanagh Lakelands, Giants Causeway, Sperrins, Rathlin Island, Strangford Lough, Mourne Mountains.
Upper Newtownards Road, Ballyhackamore, east Belfast
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There was a David Ervine mural (and memorial sculpture) on the building at the corner of Albertbridge Road and Montrose Street South in east Belfast but the corner unit was knocked down and over time the hoarding around the site became dilapidated and graffitied. The hoarding has been given a new coat of paint and decorated with WWI memorial banners and small children’s cut-outs.
The other David Ervine piece (to the right in the wide shot) remains.
Image of the hoarding in 2021:
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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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 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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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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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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Privates Fred Starrett and James Cummings died in an IRA bombing on Belfast’s Royal Avenue on February 24th, 1988, two of the 197 UDR soldiers who died violently during the twenty-two year life-span of the regiment (UDR Association). The pair are also remembered in a UDR display in Thorndyke Street.
The poem on the right hand side (“as poppy petals gently fall …” by John Potter) is the same as on the Parkhall (Antrim) UDR board.
Ogilvie Street, east Belfast – compare the entry on the same wall from September.
“This project was completed through Belfast City Council’s ‘Promoting the Positive Expression of Cultural Heritage’ Programme, with funding through the EU Programme for Peace & Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the Border Region of Ireland (PEACE III) under Priority 1.1. Building Positive Relations at a local level.”
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Van Morrison was born in 1945 at 125 Hyndford Street in east Belfast and recalled the sights and sounds of his early life there in the spoken-word track ‘On Hyndford Street’ from the 1991 album Hymns To The Silence (youtube). (The song also concluded his 70th birthday concert in Cyprus Avenue – youtube).
This painted tribute is by Glen Molloy (Fb) in the alley between Abetta Parade and Hyndford Street, roughly behind 135 Hyndford Street (and close to The Hollow – see Days When The Rains Came).
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Paddy Duffy Collection 