Artist Raymond Henshaw produced a series of boards in 2008 and 2009, with support from the Arts Council, depicting the Markets area in the good old (i.e. pre-Troubles) days. Above are the bars of the Markets and below ‘industry’, ‘social’ and ‘social history.
Stewart St and Stanfield St, Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01265 T01266 T01269 T01272
Here are two boards outside the north Belfast Orange hall in Alexandra Park Avenue, north Belfast.
Above: sporting heroes Joey Dunlop, Alan Campbell, Darren Clarke, Alex Higgins, George Best, and Carl Frampton.
Below: nineteen winners of the Victoria Cross: (left) Major Ernest Wright Alexander, Captain Eric Norman Frankland Bell, Commander Edward Barry Stewart Bingham, Private James Crichton, Second Lieutenant Edmund De Wind, Private James Duffy, Private William McFadzean, Private Robert Morrow, Sergeant David Nelson, (centre) Rifleman Robert Quigg, (right) Lieutenant James Anson Ortho Brooke, Lieutenant Geoffrey St. George Shillington Cather, Second Lieutenant Hugh Colvin, Second Lieutenant John Spencer Dunville, Sergeant-Majjor Robert Hill Hanna, Private Thomas Hughes, Captain John Alexander Sinton, Sergeant James Somers, Lieutenant-Colonel (Acting) Richard Annesley West.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01025 [T01026] [T01027] T01028
“Fáılte go Cnoc na Foınse – Welcome to Springhill.” There are a dozen boards on either side of the Ballymurphy entrance to Springhill, highlighting positive aspects of the community, such as the work of Mother Teresa and four Missionary Sisters Of Charity from 1971-1973, the Upper Springfield Festival of 1973 (later revived in 1988 and years following as the Springhill Festival), Tara Stores and The Craft Centre, set up as a form of local enterprise in an area of mass unemployment, and the Springhill Community House, still in operation today but going back to Des Wilson and Noelle Ryan. There is no explicit mention of the 1972 Springhill-Westrock Massacre. The murals in the image above were in Divismore, Springmadden, and in the old Springhill.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01014 T01013
The wall at the top of Springhill Avenue was knocked down to great acclaim in 2017 (Guardian) but the impact was merely cosmetic as a wire fence and substantial shrubbery continued to block the way. The removal of the wall also meant the removal of the pro-Palestinian murals painted on it: Palestine Abú | Man Against Machine | Hellfire. In its place a large board was put in place celebrating the history of the area and especially the contribution made by Des Wilson and Noelle Ryan who worked in Springhill House for over forty years. Both Des and Noelle were interviewed by NVTv in 2012. Noelle died in 2014 (An Phoblacht) and Des in November 2019
The left hand side of the mural shows Mother Teresa, who lived and worked in the area with four nuns from 1971 to 1973 before being put out (allegedly) by the Catholic church (TripleVision documentary).
On the right, the old and new Springhills are contrasted, with images taken from the same spot approximately 30 years apart.
Springhill Avenue, west Belfast.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01004 T01005
The LPOW mural in Harvey Court dates back to 1997, to the release of political prisoners as part of the Good Friday Agreement. A recent (2015) version can be seen at Consolidate The Peace. The new mural features performers Jonny Jones, John Calvert, Tony Jones, and Sylvia Pavis. It was painted by Blaze FX with sponsorship from Charter NI and the Housing Executive.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T00999
Here are three shots of the new Blaze Fx (web | Fb) “Belfast Giants” mural in east Belfast’s Lord Street. The Giants have been Belfast’s ice-hockey team for the last fifteen years, beginning in 2000. The detail above shows mascot Finn MacCool and the image of the full mural, below, includes the team motto, the (a)politically-motivated “In the land of the giants, everyone is equal.” The mural takes the place of a UDA mural (see, Feriens Tego) and is one of three large murals and various small murals to be replaced or painted out. (This News Letter article puts the total at nine.)
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T00952
Free-hand sprayer Dan Kitchener’s (web | tw) latest mural in Belfast (in Enfield Street in the Woodvale) places a black taxi – a mainstay of transportation in West Belfast – in the streets of Tokyo. To our knowledge, this is the first piece of street art in PUL West Belfast other than on the “peace” line; it will be interesting to see how well it survives compared to both sectarian murals and street art in the city centre.
“The title of the piece is ‘You can go Anywhere’ to show that with hard work and determination, you can explore the world. The mural is Sponsored by local Butchers shop Hugh Linton Butchers and R City youth group which are an award-winning organization helping Communities Integrate Through Youth. With the help of Jonathan Hodge local community volunteer. The taxi’s number plate HWL 1970 is a nudge towards the establishment founder Hugh Linton” (Belfast Walking Tours Fb).
Dan released a video of the mural in progress. Previously by Dan for Culture Night: The Dream | Blurry Eyed.
Funded by Communities In Transition with support from Greater Shankill Partnership and youth group R-City (tw) whose ‘footprint’ logo appears in the top left of the first image, above.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T00947 [T00946]
Young people from the Lower Shankill pose in the style of a movie poster: “You must have dreams and goals if you are ever going to achieve anything in this world.” The info panel (shown below) incorrectly states that the board replaces a loyalist H-Block mural (of which there were two versions: yellow (M02473) | orange) and, before that, a UDU-UFF-UDA mural; these were on different walls and this board replaces only the Maze mural.
This is the second of five pieces of re-imaging in the lower Shankill. The first was I Am Not Resilient.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T00919
“Serving the community for over fifty years.” BTCIC is the current name for what was previously the West Belfast Taxi Association. Black taxis have been running up and down the Falls since 1970, providing an alternative form of transportation to local people during the Troubles when buses were cancelled or, as in this picture, burnt out and used as barricades. They now, in addition, provide tours of the murals (such as the Bobby Sands mural in Sevastopol Street) and Belfast city. Taxi Trax has a web site but here provides a phone number for those already at the International Wall, where there has been a black taxi mural since 2003. There are other WBTA murals in Beechmount and Ardoyne. The painters have signed the mural: Doherty’s Coal Merchant and Lyons Tea.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T00890
Paddy Duffy Collection 