commercial

The Eye Of Providence

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Society Of United Irishmen – who hoped for French support for a rebellion in Ireland – could not meet openly while France and Britain were at war. In Belfast, meetings were held at Dr [Benjamin] Franklin’s tavern in Sugarhouse Entry, also called “Peggy Barclay’s” after its owner, under the guise of a social group called the Muddlers’ Club.

There is today a restaurant called The Muddlers’ Club, named after the society, in Warehouse Lane. The piece above shows a skull, a scythe, a pair of wings, and the Square & Compasses of the Freemasons (with a “G” for “God” or “geometry”). The second piece includes a skull, an eight-pointed star/compass, and an Eye Of Horus (familiar from Freemasons, the 1 dollar bill in US currency, and the Illuminati).

The piece on the left was painted by Visual Waste (web) in June, 2017; the one on the right was added later.

Two earlier pieces with similar imagery on the other side of the entry disappeared with the wall they were painted on: see God Approves Our Undertakings and The Wider Conspiracy.

See also the Visual History page on the Belfast Entries.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T08049 T08050 T08051

The Morning Star

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Morning Star (web) is a bar in Pottinger’s Entry that dates back – as a coach halt – all the way to 1810. (For a full history, see Lord Belmont.) This new mural, by Graffic Belfast (ig), features Guinness toucans flying over a variety of local landmarks.

See also: the Visual History page on the Belfast Entries.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T08052 T08053

Radiate Positivity

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Armagh won the All-Ireland Senior football championship in 2024, with a squad that included three players from Crossmaglen: Oısín O’Neill, Cıan McConville, and Rían O’Neill.

In the bottom-left corner, players from Crossmaglen Rangers turn to face the Irish tricolour, flanked by the club flag and the flag of Palestine – the flags fly below the watchtower of a British Army barracks (perhaps based on an image from the 2005 Armagh final – Irish Times).

On the right is an umbrella in pride colours, below which people can pose and take pictures: “Snap & tag us”.

This is a revised version of the mural, which originally bore the Ernesto Cardenal quote, “They tried to bury you/us but they didn’t know you/we were seeds” (ig).

On the side of KIS pizza- and coffee-shop, The Square, Crossmaglen. “The community wall” @kis_pizza_coffee @careforcaolan” [Caolan Finnegan, who died in August, 2024] @Nıamh_Ní_Dhalaıgh_Art July 2024″

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T07800 T07799 T07801 T07798

Ballymena Town Hall

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here are two shutter paintings of bygone Ballymena: above is Ballymena Town Hall, which has been rebuilt on multiple occasions; pictured above are the hall in its present form, since 1918, and its previous incarnation.

Below is the view looking up Bridge Street, with the old town hall in the middle.

Both of these are on shutters in the modern Bridge Street. tThere are also shutters painted with Mill St, Ballymena.

The owl is in Church Street while the butterfly and nature pair are in Broughshane Street (at Blossom & Birch and The Venue).

The two commercial pieces (final two images, below) are by Sam McAleese for Ballymena BID (LoveBelfast). (For others, see Midtown Makers.)

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T07696 T07695 T07693 T07689 [T07690] T07687 T07688
T07694 T07691

Digging

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Poet Seamus Heaney grew up in Bellaghy, about seven miles from Maghera where this street-art in the centre of the town (on Walsh’s Hotel) includes lines from his poem ‘Digging’: “Between my finger and my thumb the squat pen rests. I’ll dig with it.”

The main part of the piece depicts local farmer Jamese McCloy, reproducing a picture taken for Tourism NI’s ‘Embrace a Giant Spirit’ campaign (Derry Now).

Painted by Pigment Space (ig) and YellaG (ig) in 2020.

Coleraine Road, Maghera

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T06996 T06997c T07008