Fergie

The plaque above – “Ormeau Road in memory [of] Fergie” – is now somewhat incongruously above painted signage for a coffee-and-donuts shop (Bunelos | web) on the Ormeau Road, a commercial road which is also at the edge of the Ballynafeigh neighbourhood.

“Fergie” is perhaps Iain Ferguson, who died in 2021 (Belvoir & Ballynafeigh UPRG on Fb) and is remembered in a tarp on the side of the flats in Belvoir, shown below. (UPRG is affiliated with the UDA – hence the red hand and the six-pointed star in the plaque, alongside the flowers of the four nations – rose, shamrock, daffodil, thistle – and orange lily.)

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023/2022 Paddy Duffy
T03549 [T03548] T03550
T01528 T01529 a true loyalist will be missed by all his friends in Belvoir & Ballynafeigh QS Somerset Street Belvoir Drive

Floss And Stretch

The words here are attributed to director Baz Luhrmann, who put the words (spoken by Lee Perry) against music by Rozalla, “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)”; the track (youtube) went to number one in the charts in the UK and Ireland in 1999. They are in fact part of a hypothetical commencement address entitled “Wear Sunscreen” written by journalist Mary Schmich. (WP)

India Street, south Belfast, replacing a speech from Chaplin’s The Great Dictator.

Don’t worry about the future,/or worry, but know that worrying/is as effective as trying to solve an/ algebra equation by chewing bubble gum./The real troubles in your life are apt to/be things that never crossed your worried/mind. The kind that blindsides you at/4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday. Do one thing/ every day that scares you./Saying, don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts/[Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours] … Floss

Don’t waste your time on jealousy./Sometimes you’re ahead,/sometimes you’re behind. The/race is long and in the end,/it’s only with yourself/Remember compliments you/receive, forget the insults. If you/succeed in doing this, tell me how./Keep your old love letters, throw/away your old bank statements … Stretch

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T03461 T03462 T03463

South Belfast Ulster Volunteers

The house next to the Village memorial garden got an extension at the back in 2020 and with it the left-hand part of the house’s gable wall was extended upward (compare with the images from 2017 in Continuing Conflicts). The board with a verse from McCrea’s In Flanders Fields was present previously, but has been raised, and above it there now stands a red-hand emblem of the “UVF 2nd batt. south Belfast”.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T03093 T03092

Allowed To Dream, We Learn To Fly

The Windsor Women’s Centre (web | Fb) provides day-care and educational services for women in the Village, south Belfast. In the mural around the building children are depicted playing at various jobs: the mac on the “lollipop lady” (at a school crossing) is too large, the nurse is listening to the heart-beat of a teddy-bear.

On the other side of the centre from the expression of thanks for the NHS in Together We Are Stronger.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T03096

Together We Are Stronger

“Thank you NHS & key workers” – this is a Covid-era wall-painting in the Village, south Belfast, illustrating togetherness with a heart of interlocking jigsaw pieces and a rainbow of various colours.

Kilburn Street, replacing Women Too (whose title can still be seen in the eave above this painting), and on the other side of the Women’s Centre from Allowed To Dream, We Learn To Fly.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T03095

Stand Off, Trade Off

This mural protests Orange marches along “traditional routes” in Drumcree (Portadown) and Lower Ormeau (Belfast). It’s been roughly 25 years since the tension over these marches was at its height, but the scars have yet to heal. The DUP made a motion in the House Of Commons to lift the ban on the Drumcree parade this year (News Letter | Irish Times | BBC).

This long-standing mural was perhaps re-touched in 2021. Compare to the 2010 post.

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02946