Belfast south – Page 6 – Paddy Duffy Collection

Football For All

2024-09-012024-09-05Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Greater Village Regeneration Trust (Fb)

‘Football For All’ is a programme from the Irish FA Foundation aimed at stamping out discrimination and encouraging inclusivity among supporters (web). The new mural, above, is in the lane-way that runs down from Donegall Avenue to the footbridge. There are also reproductions of drawings by kids in the spaces below the footbridge.

Between the two are the boards about Linfield and recounting the role the ground has played in the history of the Northern Ireland team – see Windsor Park.

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Say It With Flowers

2024-07-192024-08-29Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Verz’s (ig) Hindu man on the side of the Hospice Shop in Finaghy was paint-bombed back in December (2023) even before it had been completed (see Tilaka) and after subsequent vandalism was “removed following community engagement”. At a subsequent meeting, Nisha Tandon (CAP profile) of ArtsEkta (web) (whose grant is paying for this and other south Belfast murals) was subject to racist remarks (Belfast City Council’s South Belfast Area Working Group – pdf). At a June 5th meeting (Fb), however, this design by emic (web) – of a bunch flowers being offered from one person to another – was accepted.

The in-progress shot (final image) is from August 7th

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Swimming Upstream

2024-06-282024-07-21Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Salmon disappeared from the Lagan in the late 1700s. The river was restocked in 1991 (CFB) and some salmon have been seen and caught since then (Flickr | Fly Forums). (The angling season is March to October – NIDirect | DAERA.) A more reliable salmon sighting is the Big Fish, which has been in place since 1999 (Atlas Obscura), to which we can now add this Glen Molloy (ig) painting in Palestine Street, in the Holylands, south Belfast.

June 23rd:

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Crying, Sighing, Breathlessly

2024-06-272024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Ruby Murray (March 29, 1935 – December 17, 1996) was a popular singer born in Moltke Street and brought up in the village. Her characteristic hoarse voice was a result of an operation on her throat in early childhood. She toured as a child singer, and first appeared on television at the age of 12. Her first single was ‘Heartbeat’ [youtube], which reached the UK top 5 in 1954. The next, ‘Softly, Softly’ [youtube], reached number 1 in 1955, a year in which Murray achieved the rare feat of having five singles in the top twenty at the same time. Ruby still holds the record for the most hit records in the Top Twenty at the same time; beating Madonna and the Beatles.” “Our thanks to Donegall Road Primary School & especially all the pupils, whose images comprise this Photo-Mosaic.”

This is a copy of the board (or perhaps even the very board) that used to be in Maldon Street. It is (now) in the Village green, which cuts Moltke Street in two.

Other Murray boards: The Village Songbird | Top Of The Pops

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Women Carry The People

2024-06-232024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Palestinian artist Taqi Spateen’s (web | ig) second piece in Belfast is in Palestine Street in the Holylands of south Belfast, where he worked with Artists Against Genocide (ig) to produce a piece showing the strength of Palestinian women, carrying the land from which Palestinians have been evicted in the Nakba of 1948.

For the first piece, in Kent Street in the city centre, see Anatomy Of Oppression.

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Love Will Keep Us Alive

2024-06-232024-09-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Love transforms”. In Chinese (Daoist) mythology, Lan Caihe, one of the Eight Immortals, is a sexually ambiguous character who carries a basket of herbs and flowers (depicted on the right of the image above) that symbolise or promote longevity (WP).

Electrical box by Ellymakes (web) in Carmel Street, Holylands, south Belfast.

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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

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.

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.

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”.