windows in walls

In Unity Strength Blossoms

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This spring ArtsEkta (web) will launch “Olive Tree House” as a new cultural hub in Belfast city centre with meeting-, studio-, and gallery-spaces. The name is a return to the original name of the building, used from 1958-2014, after which time it has been known as “Concentrix House” (Future Belfast) – Concentrix moved to Maysfield in 2017 (Concentrix). The building’s facade has been painted with olive trees by Zippy (web).

Fountain Street, Belfast

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Flamingo Ballroom

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The Flamingo Ballroom was open from 1960 to 1980 and the building was demolished in 2017 (BBC | BelTel) but it is fondly remembered by fans who got to see some of the biggest names in rock and pop, including the Rolling Stones, Chubby Checker, the Everly Brothers, Thin Lizzie, Rory Gallagher, and Pink Floyd, as well as Irish showbands (here is the bill from September 1961).

Here is an image of a sax player with local band the Cossacks with the tall flamingo inside the club – and this provides the inspiration for this street art by Woskerski (web).

Greenvale Street, Ballymena. (The face in the window in the image above belongs to the Goose Herder opposite.)

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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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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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The Ledley Hall

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This is a repainting of the Ledley Hall/Queen’s Jubilee mural at the junction with Kingswood Street, part of the 2016 re-imaging of Lord Street, east Belfast, sponsored by the Housing Executive and CharterNI. The mural shows the hall past and present and features local figures Bob Yarr (OBE), Eddie Witherspoon, John Cross (BEM), John Currans, Sam Rainey, and Reggie Morrow.

The ‘Lord Street Remembers’ piece is from 2015, by Glenn Black and Ken Maze of Blaze FX (web).

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Fox In The Bluebells

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Bluebells flower in April and May, which is also the time of year when foxes are frequently seen, foraging to support their new offspring (Discover Wildlife).

This Peaball (web) creation (with support from @daisychaininc) is on a wall at Ellie May’s restaurant (web) in Dunadry, outside Antrim.

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Swift-Tailored

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This is the second “Living Mural” in Wild Belfast’s (web) “Art For Conservation” project. The first was on the side of a stand at Cliftonville FC, where a Daniela Balmaverde painting was dotted with small structures for house-martins (see Bird In The Hand).

The second, shown here, is above the Little Victoria Street car-park in Bruce Street and again includes bird boxes along with the artwork. The sideways-on image, below, gives the best view of the eight “swift bricks” that will provide nesting space for the birds in the summer, as well as the bird-call speakers (above the “S” of “swift” on the side) that will hopefully attract the swifts. Both swifts and house-martins have ‘red’ (“high concern”) conservation status in Ireland (Bird Watch Ireland pdf).

By Rob Hilken (web).

In-progress shots from October 20th:

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Handsome Dave

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“In loving memory of Davy Wilsdon” – Wilsdon appears to have been a member of the Somme Memorial flute band (Fb) in Bangor. He died in January, 2022 (funeral service on youtube). The band sponsored a memorial bench in Wilsdon’s honour in the village of Mesnil-Martinsart, France (Fb | Street View | see also Ulster Tower). In addition, his portrait has been painted by London artist Olivier Roubieu (web) in Beatrice Avenue/High Street, Bangor, replacing the painting of Terry Bradley’s Don’t Look Back.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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