Gort Na Móna CLG (Fb) has been “at the heart of the [Turf Lodge] community”, inculcating “muıntearas, mısneach, féınluach, bród [friendship, bravery, self-esteem, pride]” in its young people “ó/since 1974”.
The text and emblem appear here against a montage of photographs over-washed in the club colours of maroon, saffron, and blue.
[A small typographic note: different fonts are used for the Irish on the left and the Irish in the middle; the font in the middle (correctly) lacks tittles/dots on the letter “ı”.]
Springfield Road, at the upper entrance to the estate and across the road from the electrical boxes seen in Lóıste Na Móna.
“Up the airy mountain/Down the rushy glen/We daren’t go a-hunting,/For fear of little men.//Wee folk, good folk,/Trooping all together,/Green jacket, red cap,/White owl’s feather! – Wm Allingham”
Customs-officer, magazine editor, and poet William Allingham was born in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, in 1824, and his ashes – brought back from London – are interred in St Anne’s church in the town (WP). “The Faeries” (poetry.com) was first published in his 1850 collection Poems (UCC) and remains a staple of children’s and mythological collections.
The art shown here is on The Mall/An Mál in Ballyshannon/Béal Átha Seanaıdh.
Amelia Earhart was the first woman to complete a solo trans-Atlantic flight when she flew a Lockheed Vega from Canada to Ireland in 1932. This Galliagh bus shelter has been covered with “Artwork and design: [by] Joe Campbell”, who also did another Earhart piece But What Do Dreams Know Of Boundaries? (as well as The Factory Girls). There is also a large mosaic to Earhart by Tom Agnew in Leafair Park – see Flying Solo – and a piece of street art in the city centre – see Gaining Altitude.
The internal verbiage reads: “On May 21st, 1932, 34-year-old American flyer, Amelia Earhart, became the first woman to fly solo, 2000 miles, non-stop, across the Atlantic Ocean, finally landing in a field in Ballyarnett, less than one mile from this bus stop. She had taken off from Newfoundland, Canada, in her bright red Lockheed Vega plane [NR-7952] at 7 pm the previous evening. Four hours out she encountered a bad storm that damaged the place and blew her way off course. She had been aiming for Paris, but after a flight of nearly fifteen hors, she sighted land. She came inland over Donegal looking for a likely landing site since there was now smoke coming from her exhaust. Unable to find an airfield she followed railway lines that eventually brought her over Derry. After circling the city, watched by the citizens below, she sighted a likely emergency landing spot in a field on the outskirts of the city of Ballyarnett, at what is now Ballyarnett Country Park. She managed to land, clipping hedges, stampeding cattle and nearly taking the heads off two farm workers who were mending fences (Dan McCallion and Jim McGeady). After the landing the two men rushed to see if the pilot was okay. Expecting a man, they were amazed to see a tousle-haired, young woman emerge from the top of the aircraft. “Where am I?” she asked, expecting the answer ‘Ireland’. “Why, you’re in Gallagher’s Field!” came the reply. [Here is an audio recording (youtube) of Mrs Gallagher recounting Earhart’s arrival and stay.] And then Hugh McLaughlin, who had joined them, asked the now famous question, “Have ye come far?” To which Miss Earhart replied, “Only from America.” Over the next 24 hours, Derry became the focus of the world. Thousands came to Gallagher’s Field to catch a glimpse of the world famous aviator and to have their photo taken with her ‘Little Red Bus’ (the nickname she gave to her plane.) Amelia’s record-breaking flight is now considered one of the most daring and significant events of the 20th Century.”
There are also quotes from Jim McGeady and the Reverend Francis Coyle on the exterior.
Caitlin McLaughlin died suddenly on June 24th, 2023. She collapsed from a heart attack as she walked to the bus station in Belfast to return home from a music festival at which she had taken ecstasy (BBC). A requiem mass was held in Galliagh on the 28th (BelTel) and the mural shown here was launched in Brookdale Park on October 27th, 2023, which would have been Caitlin’s 17 birthday (Belfast Live).
“I saw you all, my family & friends/the day God took me home,/I smiled, I cried, I felt so proud/You didn’t let me go alone//To all my friends, please listen now/To what I have to say,/Please don’t leave your loved ones/the way I did that day//I’m with the angels in heaven now/and with our we[e] Kyle too,/But often I look down and sigh/For I’d rather be there with you//Forget me not/XO”
Ivan Davis was a DUP and then UUP politician who was a Lisburn borough councillor (and mayor 1991-1993) and member of the Assembly for Lagan Valley from 1998 to 2003, before being ousted in favour of the anti-Agreement Jeffrey Donaldson (BBC). He died in 2020 (BelTel). The stone in his memory is in the garden at the top of Old Warren: “In memory of Ivan Davis O.B.E. Freeman of the city of Lisburn, a dedicated honourable public servant who worked tirelessly for the entire community of Lisburn.”
“A scramble for the window seat, steam curls as the whistle blows. Clickety clack train on track.”
The York Road railway station was a few minutes’ walk below Ritchie Street – site of this wall-paintings and decorations (and Pearly’s Place, the adjacent community garden) – until it closed in 1992. The original line was to Ballymena and then Coleraine and London-/Derry, with service to Carrick and Larne added later. It was badly damaged in WWII and its final demise came with the opening of Belfast Central in 1976 (WP). It was replaced with Yorkgate in 1992 which no longer serves as a terminus (WP), but the line still runs along behind the end of the streets along York Road and the Grove area of the Shore Road.
On the long wall to the right is written “Remember your neighbourhood in the late afternoon sun. The district was a different place then. All you owned was a box full of toys and a smile on your face.”
A grey heron (above) and a kingfisher (below) sit along the banks of the Six Mile Water. The river rises west of Larne and flows through Ballyclare on its way to Lough Neagh.
Abercorn Drive, Ballyclare, but best viewed from the Main Street bridge. Artist unknown.
The official title of this piece is ‘The Estate With Love In It’ (Love Ballymena) but the figure at the centre of it appears to be heading toward some faraway land. Nonetheless, efforts are being made by the proud residents (Fb group) to improve the estate, compared to conditions a decade ago – see the short film from 2013 at Poverty & Social Exclusion.
The work is by Carly Wright (web) and Sam McAleese – who also did Beacon Of Hope in the town’s Ballykeel estate, and a piece in Belfast for HTN 2023 – in September 2023, with support from the Doury Road Development Group (Fb) and the Housing Executive.
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).
