Belfast

335th Anniversary

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This pair of Sandy Row murals will this year celebrate their 35th anniversary, being two of the three painted in the street in 1990 for the 300th anniversary of the Battle Of The Boyne. For the murals in the year of their creation, see M00823 and M00826.

Above is the crest of the city of Londonderry – the siege ended in 1690; below is the crest of the Young Citizen Volunteers, the part-time territorial force for young adults established in 1912, which became the 14th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles and part of the 36th (Ulster) Division in WWI.

Rowland Way, Sandy Row, south Belfast

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Masker Aid

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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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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Everyday Adventure

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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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Prepared For Space, Ready For Wall

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Storm Darragh originally took only the top third off the UVF “Prepared for peace, ready for war” mural in Mount Vernon (see Taken By Storm) but the entire wall was subsequently demolished – as shown in these images – due to concerns about its safety. The Sunday World reports that residents in the estate do not want the mural to be repainted; the wall is/was NIHE property (pdf).

See also: When It Blows Full Blast for the damage done in Northumberland Street.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Bat-Bricks And Bouquets

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The fourth ‘Wild Belfast’ (web) mural project is aimed not at birds but at bats (above) and other nocturnal pollinators of flowers, such as moths (immediately below) (Bat Conservation Trust | Butterfly Conservation). Two “bat bricks” (fourth image) have been installed as part of this project in Landseer Street, south Belfast, above a two-part wall-painting by emic (web).

The three projects so far have been aimed at house martins (A Bird In The Hand), swifts (Swift-Tailored) and sparrows (Seeds For Sparrows).

(For more nocturnal activity, see also the Suggestions For Stargazing project in the Waterworks.)

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Seeds For Sparrows

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“The flowers that bloom tomorrow are the seeds you planted today” – this is another in the series of murals sponsored by Wild Belfast (web) as it attempts to increase the habitats for birds. The ‘house martin’ painting at Cliftonville and the ‘swifts’ painting in Bruce Street are now joined by a piece by Lost Lines (ig | Rhea Hanlon) in Rossmore Drive, south Belfast, featuring house sparrows. Like the others, this piece include bird boxes, mostly in the top right of the wide shot, last below.

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Today, Everyday, And Always

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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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