Ard Mhacha Abú

The people of Kilwilkie (Lurgan) supported the Armagh team in their (successful – RTÉ video) bid to win the All-Ireland senior football championship, repeating their former and only previous win in 2002 – see also Ard Mhacha (in north Belfast) and Ádh Mór Ard Mhacha (in Armagh) and (from 2023) The Core Of Armagh.

Levin Road, Lurgan

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Have Pride In Our Youth

These community murals were painted under the auspices of the Edgarstown Residents’ Association (Fb), which hosts a Drop-In, Kids’ Club, Evolve (NI World), Smile (ArmaghI), and PCBDT (Portadown Community-Based Detached Team) (NI World | NIHE). The sub-station was painted in March, 2022 (Fb) – in the early 2000s it bore a UVF mural (see D01333); the low wall reading “Welcome To Edgarstown” is from August of this year (2024).

West Street/Margaret Street and Union Street, Edgarstown, Portadown

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The Language Of Nature

These images are from Mosey’s Arch, Killyleagh, which is an entry off High Street, just below the Hans Sloane Centre (web). Sloane was born (in 1660) and raised in Killyleagh and his interest in the natural world spurred him to study botany and medicine in London (WP).

The cuneiform markings (in the image below) are a reference to Edward Hincks – born in Cork but rector in Killyleagh – who helped decipher Akkadian (Mesopotamian) cuneiform (WP).

The art – by Pigment Space/MWAK (ig), with support from Newry, Mourne and Down District Council (web) – also features the buildings in Killyleagh: above are Killyleagh Presbyterian (left) and St John The Evangelist church (right); below are mills in the area (perhaps reproducing this Fb image).

Also by MWAK and featuring the Killyleagh shore-line: The Great Wall.

(Also in Killyleagh: The Future Of Football)

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The Punk Of The Parish

“For Mickey Griffiths, the punk of this parish.” In the 1970s and ’80s, Mickey Griffiths from the Brandywell, Derry, served as drummer and lyricist for a series of Derry punk bands: Idol Threats, Dick Tracy & The Green Disaster, The Shameless Hussies, and The Hitlers (NIPunk). Griffiths died in November of 2018 (Derry Now) and this mural was painted in Castle Street/Magazine Street by UV Arts (ig) to remember both him and the 45th anniversary of the Undertones’s hit ‘Teenage Dreams’ (Fb).

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Gaining Altitude

A new painting of Amelia Earhart has been created by JEKS (ig), on the side of the Foyle building, North West Regional College, on Queen’s Quay. A number of sources claim without citation or measurement that it is the tallest piece of street art in the north – both the BBC and the Chamber Of Commerce use the passive “thought to be”. Its closest competitor would be the recent piece by Zabou on the Telegraph Building in Belfast – see Broken Promises.

The Foyle Building has six “levels” (NWRC) while the original Telegraph Building had four storeys (Archiseek). In addition to comparing images of the two paintings, you can also judge by comparing Street View images of the buildings: Derry vs Belfast.

Information about Earhart’s connection to the Maiden City can be found in the entries on the printed board (But What Do Dreams Know Of Boundaries?) and the mosaic (Flying Solo) to Earhart in Derry.

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Sister Clare’s Prayer

This is the second mural in Derry to Sister Clare Crockett. The first was in her Brandywell home (see All Or Northing!!) while this one is in Shantallow. Crockett became a nun in 2001 and died at the age of 33 in an earthquake in Ecuador in 2016 – the mass for the seventh anniversary of her death was held last month (youtube).

A documentary film about Crockett’s life is available on youtube.

Painted by Razer (ig) in Racecourse Road, Shantallow, Derry.

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The Factory Girls

Tillie & Henderson’s shirt factory opened in 1856 at the junction of Abercorn Road and Foyle Road, Derry (next to the ‘Hands Across The Divide’ statue) and survived until 2003 when it was demolished after a fire (BBC); an apartment block was planned for the site (Derry Journal | BBC) but as yet nothing has happened. It was the largest such factory in the world and one of 44 shirt factories in the city in 1900, all of which employed women, many starting in their teens.

Derry Of The Past has a gallery of historical images.

The murals are in the courtyard of the Craft Village in Shipquay Street; they were designed by Joe Campbell and painted by UVArts (web).

(BBC | BBC | DEPOT | BelTel)

See also: Derry Women Make Communities

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Welcome To The Brandywell

“Fáilte go dtí Brandywell [Tobar An Bhranda]” This mural featuring the rights of children was painted in Derry’s Brandywell area in 2014; it puts images alongside parts of Caroline Castle’s rendering of the UN’s Rights of the Child. One, for example, reads “Understand that all children are precious. Pick us up if we fall down and if we are lost lend us your hand. Give us things we need to make us happy and strong and always do your best for us whenever we are in your care. Right no. 3”.

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A Fighting Chance

“Our wee champ.” 21-year-old boxer Liam McGuinness, of Gleann ABC (Fb), died by suicide in October 2010, one of the many people to take their own lives in west Belfast that year among the 313 in all of Northern Ireland (Irish Examiner | Guardian | NI Assembly). A vigil was held in September (in Twinbrook) to commemorate the suicides there (BBC); another was held in the days after McGuinness’s death (BBC); a forum on the topic was held by Sınn Féın. The mural in his memory and in support of suicide awareness is outside the club, off the Glen Road in Hannahstown.

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Under Ben Madigan

Here are four north Belfast landmarks that are still standing in the shadow of Cavehill, though not all of them are in great shape. From left to right:

Chapel Of The Resurrection (as seen from Innisfayle Park – Street View), originally built in the 1860s as part of the Belfast Castle estate and from 1938 until 1972 a (public) Church Of Ireland chapel (WP), after which it was left derelict until recently being turned into luxury apartments (Property News) as part of “Donegall Park Gardens”;

the Bellevue steps (official title, the “Grand Floral Staircase”) – the currently overgrown steps and a vintage photograph of the steps in happier times can be seen in Everyone Wants To Eat – leading to Floral Hall, which now provides storage space for the zoo – full history at ‘Lord Belmont’ | BelTel;

Belfast Castle;

(perhaps) the former Fortwilliam Park Presbyterian on the Antrim Road (News Letter | BelTel) – once Belfast’s tallest spire (BelTel) – which in 2019 became Immaculate Heart Of Mary/Eaglaıs An Ċroí Ṁuıre Gan Smál (web) saying only the (Catholic) Latin mass.

The art is on the walls of UPS estate agents’ at the top of Cavehill Road, north Belfast, by Danni Simpson (web) and Karl Fenz (web), who also did the swan, the fox, and the squirrel on other local establishments.

In 2003 there was “Shove ur dove” was graffiti-ed on the shutters.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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