Belfast

Days When The Rains Came

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The Con O’Neill bridge crosses the Knock river just before it meets the Loop river to form the Connswater, which used to be Con’s water, and provided a way for “men, horses and livestock to cross the river” (Con O’Neill).

The mural depicting such a crossing, by Friz (ig), is on a gable wall in the car park next to the bridge; the area is now known as The Hollow, as in “Hey, where did we go?/Days when the rains came/Down in the hollow/Playin’ a new game.” (For an image of bridge partially submerged and impassable in 2012, see Geograph | more images at Google Maps Places.)

Con lived c. 1600 but the bridge might well pre-date that time. It was refurbished as part of the Connswater Greenway project in ?2014?.

Abetta Parade, east Belfast

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The United Nations

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A trio of international causes aimed at the visiting Joe Biden, president of the United States, from Gael Force Art and People Before Profit. What’s new here is the “No 2 NATO” under the Irish Tricolour. The other two parts have been on the mountain previously: the Cuban flag with “unblock Cuba” reprises the maassive Cuban flag on the mountain in 2021, which was depicted in the La Solidaridad Invariable mural on Divis Street, and the Palestinian flag with “BDS” [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions] in 2018’s #BDS.

The third image shows the Cuban flag being rolled out; Bayview Media has a video of the installation on twitter.

For more on Biden’s visit, see Joe Biden, Globalist.

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Bua Do Na hOıbrıthe

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“Victory to the workers”. Costello House is home to the IRSP (tw) “Advice Hub” with representative Dan Murphy (Mid Falls & Springfield) and Michael Kelly (Lower Falls). Murphy (in Black Mountain) received 2.7% and Kelly (in Court) 3.2% of first-preference votes in the recent local elections (WP).

Falls Road, west Belfast.

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Bound In Good Style

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The first printing press in Belfast belonged to James Blow and his brother-in-law Patrick Neil in 1694 (DIB | Dublin Penny Journal gives 1696 | Mary Lowry Story Of Belfast gives 1690); a run of 8,000 Bibles is said to have been printed in 1751, one of which is part of the Linen Hall Library’s collection on Early Ulster Printing (RASCAL).

In 1895, Carswell & Sons opened a print-works and book-binders in a warehouse running with frontage in Queen Street and a rear in College Court (the building is now a bingo hall – see Kelly’s Eyes) which is currently being renovated as an office block (Bel Tel) – some of the scaffolding in College Cour can be seen in the later images in We Built This, the street art festival for International Women’s Day, 2023.

To complement those festival pieces, the mouth of College Court has been given a make-over, with work by Peachzz (ig) (above) and lettering by Woskerski (ig) that both draw on the street’s association with printing. If you know who did the “bookbinding” piece, please get in touch.

Previously on either side of College Court there were two pieces by Friz: Fox and Hare.

The bonus image, of a man leaning against the newsagent’s wall, is on the corner with Castle Street.

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Newen

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From the Twitter feed of Colombian street artist Visual AGP (Anderson García Pérez | Flickr), “Newen” means “strength” or “energy” … birds represent the freedom and colors of the Wiphala [the flag of indigenous peoples of the Andes].”

“Graficalia” (in the top right) refers to a street art festival aimed at minimising youth violence in AGP’s home town of Cali, Colombia.

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