“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).
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.
“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”.
“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.
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.
The entry Old Carrick Hill shows the mural of ‘Carrick Hill in yesteryear’ from Stanhope Street. Around the corner in Regent Street there are the fifteen printed boards shown here.
From left to right (top to bottom in this entry) they depict … Park Street; Rafferty’s Bar; The Tea Bar, Carrick House; Unity Flats; Alton Utd, FC (founded in 1921, played in the Falls League, won the 1923 Free State Cup Final – Bohs Sporting Life); All in a day’s outing; Playing marbles; Night-time camping; 1976 Mandiville dart team; Mary McCusker & Kitty Spotwoods; Burns family, Wall Street; Maggie Jane Largey & Mary Ann Largey; Carrick Castle public house; Richard & Alan Crean; The Old & The New.
The centenary of Northern Ireland and the Our Story In The Making Project (web) provided an occasion for towns to revisit their pasts. Despite the title of the piece – Northern Ireland 100 Commemoration Mural – much of the mural pre-dates the centenary of the creation of Northern Ireland. Blackhead lighthouse opened in 1902; the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway company was founded in 1860 (web); Berkeley Wise, who helped develop the village of Whitehead into a tourist destination, died in 1909.
“Whitehead: Diverse, Welcoming, Forward Thinking – Northern Ireland 100 Commemoration Mural – Supported by the Northern Ireland Office, as part of the Our Story In The Making project, this mural was commissioned by Mid And East Antrim Borough Council. The mural came about following consultation with groups in the town and has been designed and painted by Dee Craig of Belfast Mural Arts, November 2021. The symbolism of the mural is detailed below … Berkeley Deane Wise … The Trees … The Steam Train … The Spitfire … The Signpost … Blackhead Lighthouse … The Town Of Whitehead … The Colourful Houses …”
At Bentra golf club, Whitehead. Also included (last below) is the emic (ig) piece “Time Waits For No One” at the club after beginning life in Larne (ig).
“Ruby Murray (March 29, 1935 – December 17, 1996) was a popular singer born in Moltke Street and brought up in the village. Her characteristic hoarse voice was a result of an operation on her throat in early childhood. She toured as a child singer, and first appeared on television at the age of 12. Her first single was ‘Heartbeat’ [youtube], which reached the UK top 5 in 1954. The next, ‘Softly, Softly’ [youtube], reached number 1 in 1955, a year in which Murray achieved the rare feat of having five singles in the top twenty at the same time. Ruby still holds the record for the most hit records in the Top Twenty at the same time; beating Madonna and the Beatles.” “Our thanks to Donegall Road Primary School & especially all the pupils, whose images comprise this Photo-Mosaic.”
This is a copy of the board (or perhaps even the very board) that used to be in Maldon Street. It is (now) in the Village green, which cuts Moltke Street in two.
“Where sugar, butter, sides of salted pork, barrels/of herring & other pickled fish are lugged/over the river whose name the city stole.”
This is another “Cathedral Quarter/Smithfield & Union” “walking poem” by Graffic Belfast (ig), in Warehouse Lane. (See also: Hello, Hello, Hello.) The river in question is the Farset – see The Farset Voice. The verse seems to be original.
Francis “Frank” McKelvey grew up at 56 Woodvale Road (based on Lennon Wylie and the blue plaque on the wall at this address – Street View). That would put him a stone’s throw from Woodvale Park, which provides the backdrop for this new mural at the end of Woodvale Street. The photograph reproduced, of “Woodvale park pond”, can be seen on the Old Shankill Fb page. The pond was filled in after the second World War (City Council). McKelvey’s ‘A Summer’s Day‘ is perhaps of Woodvale Park pond. He died in 1974 (Ulster History Circle).
By Holly Hooks (ig) in Woodvale Street, west Belfast.
