Here is a deliberately varied bouquet of flowers by emic (web), reflecting the support for this piece from Arts Ekta (web), sponsors of Belfast Mela.
In Larkstone Street, south Belfast, on the side wall of LNV Home (web). Official title, “The Garaden”.
See also by emic in south Belfast: Cherry blossoms | Map Heads
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T03751c [T03750] T03749 [T03705] [T03704]
Glentaisie Drive – site of this mural by Friz (web) – is named for Glentaisie, the glen – one of the nine Glens Of Antrim, at the foot of which lies Ballycastle – and Glentaisie is named for Taise Taobhgheal (Taise the bright-cheeked), daughter of King Donn of Rathlin island, renowned for her beauty, and who lived in the glen with her husband Congal, who had to kill the Norwegian king Nabghdon to prevent her being carried off (Archaeology Ireland). Or so they say. She also inspired the name “Fair Head” for the local cliffs. Or so they say.
In later years (1565), Sorley Boy MacDonnell was taken prisoner by the O’Neill’s after a battle in Glentaisie (WP).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T03320 [T03321]
“Thank you NHS & key workers” – this is a Covid-era wall-painting in the Village, south Belfast, illustrating togetherness with a heart of interlocking jigsaw pieces and a rainbow of various colours.
Kilburn Street, replacing Women Too (whose title can still be seen in the eave above this painting), and on the other side of the Women’s Centre from Allowed To Dream, We Learn To Fly.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T03095
This is street art by Cheba (web) on the façade of the Havana Club/the Spaniard in Skipper Street, next to the spots by Shane O’Driscoll.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02823 T02822 [T02787] [T02788] [T02789]
The Spanish galleass La Girona, one of the 130 ships that made up the armada that was unsuccessful against the English in 1588, docked at Killybegs, County Donegal, for repairs to her rudder (WP). When she departed, she got only as far as Lacada Point near Ballintoy, County Antrim, before sinking in a gale with the loss of roughly 1,300 lives and a substantial treasure that was recovered (in part) by Sorley Boy McDonell (portrayed in a Ballycastle mural) and (in part) by modern divers in 1968 (BBC).
Donegal Road, Killybegs, with a bonus image of the docks from the fish shop in Conlin Road.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T04181 T04179c [T04180]
T04182
The Ballyhackamore mural by Ed Hicks (ig) – painted along with murals by emic and Alana McDowell – is on the eastern side of Eastleigh Crescent, so that when looking at it the viewer is looking away from the city and towards the … hills – perhaps Scrabo country park.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01765
A tiger on the telephone? “From here to there/And there to here/Funny things are everywhere” – a doctrine of Dr. Seuss, from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Painted by Lucas Antics (tw | web) in the style of South Asian truck art.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01755 [T01754] [T01753]
Here is the street art by JMK (Jonny McKerr) in Bank Square with quite a bit of graffiti. For the piece in better condition (in 2016) see the images in the Seosamh Mac Coille collection.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01732
“This we will always maintain.” The Northern Ireland government’s coat of arms was approved for use in 1924, three years after the government was established. Its “supporters” – the red lion of Scotland and an Irish elk, carrying (respectively) Irish harp and De Burgh flags, and standing on a grassy mound with flax plants – were added later.
This mural celebrating the centenary of Northern Ireland’s creation, in the Woodburn estate, Carrickfergus, accurately shows the Tudor crown on the arms, as was used at the time of creation and prior to the Edwardian crown (WP).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01578 [T01579]
MTO (Fb) was in Belfast for Culture Night 2014 and painted a large piece entitled “Son of Protagoras”. The ancient biographer Diogenes Laertius reports that Protagoras was driven from Athens and his books burned because he wrote that it was impossible to know whether or not the gods existed. On Fb, MTO adds a description of the Northern Irish “peace” lines, perhaps suggesting that religious adherence continues to be an enemy of peace: in his painting, a dove has been pierced by arrows bearing the cross of the Knights of Malta and the Latin cross.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01496 [T01497]
Paddy Duffy Collection 