In the myth of ‘The Pied Piper Of Hamelin’, the piper leads the children away from the village of Hamelin after the mayor there refuses to pay him for charming away their rat infestation. The piper takes his revenge and only the lame child, the deaf child, and the blind child survive to tell the tale. (Here is Browning’s poetic version, along with 30 other references.)
This piper at Holy Trinity primary school (web) and St Martin’s nursery (web) in Turf Lodge might be thought to be leading them away from their parents and into school, but as the final image makes clear, they are on their way to a cavern underground.
The source for the mural is perhaps the painting at The Palace Hotel, in San Francisco (WP).
This piece is on the same office-building as the ‘Be Your Best’ piece featured previously (in Auld Cobblers) at the city-side entrance to east Belfast, at the junction of Middlepath Street and Newtownards Road. Both are by Dee Craig/Belfast Mural Arts (Fb) as part of East Belfast Enterprise’s (web | ig) ‘Connecting Communities Through Art’ initiative. The two works were officially launched together on April 20th (pics on EBE’s Instagram). The two in-progress shots (last below) are from April 16th.
According to this Community NI article, the work has been installed using “a jigsaw-like technique using super strength glue to give it a lifespan of up to 25 years before requiring maintenance”.
Interpretations of the new piece are encouraged; feel free to comment or e-mail.
“But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”” Isaiah 43 continues: “When you pass through the waters I will be with you … When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched.” Thus, although the text is addressed to Jacob/Israel and the lion is a symbol of Jacob’s son Judah, whose eponymous tribe later gives its name to the Jews, Christians interpret it more generally as a promise to all believers.
In this way, this new board at Rehoboth Evangelical Mission in Mount Vernon is perhaps in the same tradition as the previous board, with its quote from John 11 (in the New Testament) promising that believers shall never die (X04693).
The inclusion of the flag of modern Israel which dates back to the Zionist movement in the late 1800s, however, gives this board a political edge, seeming to make it a token of support for Israel in its current conflict with Hamas and attack on the Gaza Strip. (The roaring lion and the lightning also give a sense of physical power.) As such, it would be (to our knowledge) the first printed board in support of Israel and an advance over the more typical flying of the Israeli flag.
Hill & White (2007 – paywall) begin their article with a survey of newspaper articles (including this free piece in Salon) about the flying of Israeli flags in Northern Ireland in 2002, explaining the practice as a response to the flying of Palestinian flags during the Second Intifada (p. 33) and an expression of admiration for Israeli’s use of physical force against its minority population (p. 37). The first appearance of an Israeli flag in the Peter Moloney Collection is from 2006, at a republican bonfire site.
If the Rehoboth board is counted as religious rather than political, the most sophisticated graphical expression of PUL support for Israel is the small paste-up seen in Ulster Supports The People Of Israel. (There is also implicit support for Israel in the board in Peter’s Hill to John Henry Patterson, which includes amongst his other exploits – including Operation Lion – his role as Godfather Of The Israeli Army.)
“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).
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?”
The grey heron is common throughout Ireland (Ulster Wildlife) including the walls of the Cregagh Road (the side of Haus Of Hair, site of Glen Molloy’s tribute to Carrie Fisher).
The work is by Sheffield artist Peachzz (ig), organised by Cregagh-Woodstock Traders (Fb) with support from Belfast City Council (web).
“A Róısín, ná bíodh brón ort fé’r éırigh dhuıt”/Róısín, be not sad about what has happened to you”. The song ‘Róısín Dubh’ [usually translated as ‘Dark Rosaleen’] is a love song to Ireland, in which the infatuated singer recounts the lengths he would go to on her behalf (song (youtube): Muıreann Nıc Amhlaoıbh | Caıtlín Maude | poem/lyrics in English: Mangan | Kinsella at WP).
This new piece in the New Lodge, north Belfast, was painted (presumably) by emic (ig), (presumably) under the same auspices as, and as a thematic complement to, the project we reported on in Communities In Transition. The lack of explicitly nationalist or republican signifiers is perhaps necessary if the piece is to be funded by Communities In Transition, while the cultural reference is perhaps necessary if the art is to survive on what has for the past dozen years been an anti-Agreement wall – see Damn Your Concessions, England and Unbowed, Unbroken. Another emic piece, in Creggan, Derry, has been marked with republican graffiti – see Stand Up And Speak Out. This very skilful piece walks a very fine line very precisely.
Twenty portraits in circular frames have replaced the twenty-one square portraits seen on the ‘Out Of The Ashes Of 1969’ mural in the New Lodge. From left to right, those portrayed are Michael P Neill, Seamus McCusker, Gerard Crossan, Colm Mulgrew, Francis Liggett, Brian Fox, John Kelly, Robert Allsopp, Louis Scullion, Billy Reid, Danny O’Hagan, Michael Kane, Sean McIlvenna, Jim O’Neill, Rosemary Bleakley, Martin McDonagh, James McCann, James Sloan, Dan McCann. Paddy McManus is no longer included, as compared with the earlier portraits.
For the mural without any portraits, at the time of its launch in 2012, see X00857.
This new three-storey mural by Dee Craig (Fb) is at the city end of Newtownards Road and so serves as a highly-visible introduction to east Belfast. People arriving in the area are now greeted with a vintage image of a smiling bearded man in a cloth cap, surrounded by occupations from the industrial era: “Cobbler, rag’n’bone man, fish monger, welder, builder, sweep, carpenter, window cleaner, butcher”, capped off by an inspirational “Be your best”, with yellow highlights that match the colour of the shipyard cranes Samson and Goliath.
This shelf of cassette tapes is a new mural by Blaze FX (web) at Portallo Street on the Woodstock Road, east Belfast, part of the wave of street art being along the avenue (see previously: Down The Woodstock | Up The Cregagh).
Van Morrison (who was with Them before going solo), Gary Moore, David Holmes, and members of Rudi (Spit) and The Defects (Spit), grew up in east Belfast, as did Thin Lizzy’s guitarist Eric Bell. (Comment/Get in touch if you know of any SLF connection to east Belfast.)
The odd tape out here is the Cut La Roc/David Holmes ‘Stars X2’ live recording from Coventry’s ‘Eclipse’ nightclub, which is from 1999 (Old Skool Anthems) while the rest are from the sixties and seventies.
The “Cregagh-Woodstock Traders” (Fb) pencil (on the right) is presumably for re-spooling the tape after you pull it out and fix the tangle.
Paddy Duffy Collection 