Belfast

Back Of The River

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‘2 Royal Ave’ (web | ig) – the building designed by WJ Barre (Victorian Web) for the Provincial Bank and more recently a Tesco Metro – was turned into a civic and cultural centre by Belfast City Council in 2023 (Belfast Live).

Coincidentally, the building’s rear doors open into Bank Street (formerly Bank Lane) and Bank Square. (It’s not clear whether they were so named because the Farset flowed along Bank Lane, or for the Bank Buildings, constructed in Castle Place in 1785-1787 (WP | Belfast Live); in any case, the streets already had these names well before the construction of the Provincial building in 1867 (Belfast Media)).

Street artist Decoy (ig), with support from DaisyChain (ig), has painted various shutters and electrical boxes. Bank Square is also home to a series of ‘life in the old days’ panels (see A River Runs Through It) and more recent work by Rob Hilken (see The Grid) and DanK (Fast Cars).

Also included (last below) is the art on the shutters of The Sagart in Chapel Lane.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Sásta A Bheıth Anseo

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The mural on the wall of Madden’s bar in the city centre has been updated. Fiddler Art Lundy and the “decommissioned” ashtray are retained, but much else has changed. (For the previous version, see Madden’s.)

Traditional Irish and Irish-language music features in multiple places:
— a poster for new group Biird (ig) is in the mirror behind Art’s head (and next to an Acht Na Gaeılge fáınne (see #AchtAnois) and a Pride flag);
— by his fingering hand is a poster for Féıle Na Gealaí (web);
— the “Fine Art” in front of the pints is the cover of Kneecap’s (web) forthcoming album – DJ Próvaí’s familiar tricoloured balaclava can be seen on the side-door in the third image, below (see also their two murals in Beechmount, Incendiary Device and England Get Out Of Ireland);
— the album cover to its right is the EP “Sásta A Bheıth Anseo” [Happy To Be Here] by Múlú (Mıaḋaċluġaın Ní Doṁnaıll | ig) which you can hear on youtube.

The other main change is the addition of two newspapers. In the Andersonstown News in Art’s pocket trumpets Cliftonville’s 3-1 victory over Linfield in the Irish Cup on May 4th (youtube highlights), while on the table a copy of The Irish News reports on DUP (now-former) leader Jeffrey Donaldson being prosecuted on charges of rape and sexual assault (BBC).

Update: The newspaper was soon changed to DUP Backs United Ireland.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Spinning Memories

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The inspiration for this new piece of street art by KMG (ig) was the Strand Spinning Mill (formerly the Jaffe Spinning Mill) which closed in 1983 and is now the Portview Trade Centre. During WWI the mill made munitions and during WWII viscose rayon. The film Lint And Linen (youtube) covers both pre-industrial and mechanical linen-production (though mostly focused on yarn from line fibres rather than from tow, which was the Strand mill’s claim to fame (Duffy Rafferty)); the painting appears to present a more primitive and imaginary age in which fibres could be spun using the human hand.

For photographs of the old mill on the Trade Centre, see previously the image of A Block in Strand Spinning Mill.

“Spinning memories” is the name of a planned collection of stories for an archive at Portview (Portview Stories).

Townsley Street, east Belfast, next to the White Witch and facing Aslan Is On The Move.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Frank McKelvey

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Francis “Frank” McKelvey grew up at 56 Woodvale Road (based on Lennon Wylie and the blue plaque on the wall at this address – Street View). That would put him a stone’s throw from Woodvale Park, which provides the backdrop for this new mural at the end of Woodvale Street. The photograph reproduced, of “Woodvale park pond”, can be seen on the Old Shankill Fb page. The pond was filled in after the second World War (City Council). McKelvey’s ‘A Summer’s Day‘ is perhaps of Woodvale Park pond. He died in 1974 (Ulster History Circle).

By Holly Hooks (ig) in Woodvale Street, west Belfast.

March 24th

February 14th

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Fast Enough So We Can Fly Away?

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These three cars are from a new piece of street art by DanK (ig) in Bank Square, Belfast city centre, on the wall of Crown Jesus Ministries (Fb) (in the Berry Street Presbyterian building), replacing the ‘Creation’ mural painted in 2012. Dan calls the piece “Hope” (ig) after the church’s ‘Hope Mission Centre’ (ig); this is the same title he gave to the geisha on the Shankill. This piece does not feature any of the kanji street-signage that would place it in Japan (compare with Night Taxi in the Woodvale), though there is some on the pink car, above.

The middle car has the license plate “OUTATIME” which was the plate on the DeLorean in ‘Back To The Future’ (see also: You Built A Time Machine … Out Of A DeLorean?)

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Hitting The Wall

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The Belfast marathon (web) took place on May 5th (the same day as Hit The North) and as the runners completed their twentieth mile at the Waterworks on the Antrim Road they might have seen the mile marker shown above, which hopefully inspired them to power through ‘the wall’ they typically hit around 18-20 miles/3.5 hours of running (Marathon Handbook).

Also along the route, in North Queen St, and with a suitable theme, is the Sınn Féın placard shown below: “Let’s not run from the conversation” about a united. Ireland.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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The Big Fish

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After floating above the traffic in Shaftesbury Square for more than 60 years, the statues on the Ulster Bank building were taken down last year (2023) and packed off to the Ulster Museum (Belfast Live). The blank wall is now home to a giant, multi-eyed, fish by French artist Veks Van Hillik (ig), painted for both HTN24 and the Linen Quarter business development group (web).

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Drum And Bass

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Here is a gallery of 13 pieces painted for Hit The North 2024 on Union Street below Kent Street. In order, from top to bottom, they are by …

Psoman (ig)
David McMillan (ig)
Alexandra (ig)
Shona Hardie (ig)
Perspicere (ig)
Novice (ig)
JMK (ig)
Katriona (ig)
Klo Wi (ig)
?Moira Fowley? (ig)
Kerrie Hanna (ig)
Ana Fish (ig)
BOGS (MOS profile)

Finally, there are two pieces inside the construction site, by EOIN (ig) and FGB (ig).

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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The Evil Eye Can Bring A Man To His Grave And A Camel To The Cooking Pot

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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.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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