Belfast south – Page 6 – Paddy Duffy Collection

Fidei Defensor

2024-06-072024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“His majesty King Charles III D.G.Rex.F.D. [Dei gratia rex; fidei defensor – King by the grace of God; defender of the faith]” successor and son of Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022) and father to William, the current Prince Of Wales and Baron Carrickfergus (no “of”).

Each of the corners of the board shows a quarter of the royal standard, including, in the bottom left, a ‘maid of Erin’ flag representing the kingdom of Ireland, which has been present in the standard (of England, of Great Britain, of the United Kingdom) since 1603. Shortly after partition (1922) it was used as the banner of arms of the Irish Free State and later adopted as the arms of Ireland and of the President but it continues to be used in the UK royal standard. (For a history of the royal standard, see Prothero, Faul, & Grieve one | two.)

Thalia Street, south Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
T04789

The Evil Eye Can Bring A Man To His Grave And A Camel To The Cooking Pot

2024-05-082024-09-08Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

We should say that this is an ugly piece of street art, so that its beauty does not attract the evil eye. The model in this new street art for HTN24, painted by Jordanian artist Yazan Mesmar (ig), is holding an amulet in order to protect herself.

The piece replaces one by emic (see The Bird Flew In, Minds Went In) in Farnham Street.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
T04660 T04658 [T04659] bedouin Abu-Rabia Folklore Dec., 2005

Summer Symphony No. 1

2024-05-032024-09-21Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Silence falls in the hole on the hedges, in half-/Opened windows. Tall hollow chimneys wide/Alleyways the seconds before the last school/bell before summer.//Joy is found in one place/Where roses bloom/Bees return once more/Dogs wag their tails/Children waiting patiently in the ice-cream line/Here in Botanic Gardens.” – Nandi Jola.

Jola (ig) is a South-African-born poet and story-teller who moved to Northern Ireland when she was 21 (Belonging Project | Flood).

Collingwood Avenue, Holylands, south Belfast.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
T04465

What We Have We Hold

2024-04-132024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“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”.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
T04406

Let’s Put A Smile On That Face

2024-04-132024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is a piece of commercial street art painted at the corner of Marlborough Avenue and Lisburn Road on the wall of the Juice Jar (ig) by Visual Waste (ig). It uses the character of ‘the joker’ as played by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight (2008); his catch-phrase “Why so serious?” has become “Why so juicy?”

See previously: the joker and catwoman in the city centre.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
T04399 [T04400] T04401 T04402

Ormeau Bridge At Night

2024-03-092024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Ormeau bridge (Street View) is a stone arch bridge between the Ormeau and Stranmillis embankments of the Lagan river, designed by Charles Lanyon and opened in 1863.

This mural of the bridge is by London artist DanK (ig), commissioned by the Lower Ormeau Traders’ Association using a Vibrant Business Destinations grant from the Council, funded by the Department For Communities ‘Revitalisation’ programme (of these, only Vibrant Businesses (web) appears to have an on-line presence). The mural will be officially launched today (Saturday March 16th) as part of a Spring Festival between noon and three. (Belfast Media)

In University Street, south Belfast, looking away from the bridge.

Pádraıc Fıacc

2024-01-022024-10-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Patrick O’Connor was born on this day in 1924 on the lower Falls but after his father emigrated he spent his early years – until age 5 – with his grandparents in East Street in the Markets. It was as a high-schooler in New York that he adopted the name Pádraıc Fıacc (“fiach dubh” is “raven”) and began writing poetry. He settled in Glengormley upon his second and final return; it is not clear that he ever saw East Street lined with British Army soldiers, as shown in the mural above. He wrote of his early life in ‘First Movement’:

Low clouds, yellow in a mist wind
Sift on far-off Ards
Drift hazily …
I was born on such a morning
Smelling of the bone yards
The smoking chimneys over the slate top roofs
The wayward storm birds
And to the east where morning is, the sea
And to the west where evening is, the sea
Threatening with danger
And it would always darken suddenly

Some of Fıacc’s poems are in the TroublesArchive. He was interviewed by NVTv’s Bernard Conlon (Vimeo); he also appears in a reception in Belfast City Hall (youtube).

Lower Stanfield St, Markets, south Belfast

A True Red

2024-01-022024-10-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a 2014 mural in the Markets area of south Belfast celebrating the achievements of local boy George McMullen, who played youth football for St. Malachy’s and St. Matthew’s before joining Cliftonville in 2011 age 20.

On the left is the familiar Cliftonville huddle (see previously: The Red Army). The two poses in the centre and on the left are reproductions of Belfast Telegraph images. The first is from Cliftonville’s 2013 Dankse Bank Irish League-clinching win over Linfield, which the Reds won with a McMullen penalty in the dying seconds; the second in from the same moment in the 2014 campaign: Chris Curran has just scored to put the Reds two-nil up in a game against Portadown that would win them the League for the second year in succession.

Other Cliftonville players have been featured in murals: Joe The Goal in Ardyone and Rory Donnelly in the Bone.

Lower Stanfield St, Markets, south Belfast