The Malojian (Fb) mural (shown below) on the Oh Yeah Centre was the idea of Lyndon Stephens, founder of Quiet Arch records, and when he died in January 2020 after a long illness (Hotpress), Stevie Scullion returned the favour by organising the painting of a mural by Jonny McKerr (JMK) & Dermot McConaghy (DMC) the following November (Dig With It).
Gordon Street, Belfast city centre
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01857 T01858 Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home
Teenagers at Dundonald High “dream, believe, achieve” success on a par with their “Ballybeen sporting hero[e]s”, such as IBO super bantamweight boxer John Lowey and footballers Noel Brotherson (Blackburn Rovers), Glenn “Spike” Ferguson (Glenavon and Linfield), and Chris Walker (Glentoran).
Morven Park, Ballybeen, Dundonald
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01791
Episode 38 of the BBC’s “Year ’21” podcast considered the life (and diary) of a lamplighter in east Belfast who witnessed the violence that gripped the city in 1920-1922. The tribute on Newtowanards Road is by emic (web) with support from Daisy Chain (tw) and EastSide Partnership (tw).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01764
The industrial high-point of Belfast, according to this mural, would seem to be when people travelled on trams, cloth was woven by hand, and Titanic sat in dry dock. Only the Shorts-Bombardier aircraft confuses the nostalgia.
Connswater shopping centre, Bloomfield Avenue, east Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01771 T01772
“At the heart of a changing Belfast.” The old Bank Street (looking towards St Mary’s, Chapel Lane) is recreated in a new mural outside Manny’s fish and chips, though with some liberties taken. (Here is the street in 1915 and in 1924.) Kelly’s Cellars, for example, should be off to the left, rather than hovering over St Mary’s Chapel Lane and below City Hall.
Landmarks such as the Titanic Centre, the H&W cranes, and An Chultúrlann can be seen in the wide shot.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01731 T01730
“There is a city within your city.” These three paste-ups allude to the fact that the river Farset, after which Belfast is named, still runs below the city, invisible since it was covered over in 1804. (You can read George Benn’s A History Of The Town Of Belfast at archive.org.)
Wilson’s Court and Winecellar Entry; presumably by Leo Boyd (compare with New Weird Order).
See also: As You Lived You Must Die | Belfast Entries
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01713 T01714
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T09596
This giant pelican was painted by Nomad Clan (web) from Manchester, England, as part of the first year (2020) of the Belfast Entries Project (Visual History). According to ArtUK, the pelican is a reference to “the Pottinger’s family crest” (Lord Belmont) while the “east Asian flowers” along the bottom and the cogs at the top point “to Belfast’s rich industrial past.
Pottinger’s Entry, Belfast city centre
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01703 [T01702]
Here is a gallery of many of the pieces in the courtyard of the Dark Horse bar in Belfast city centre, presented in clockwise order from the entrance on Commercial Court.
Above and immediately below: the scene in the Klondyke Bar. Links to additional pieces can be found at their appropriate places in the “rotation”, below.
Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley in the clouds
Belfast Stripped Bare – a view into people’s houses by Ciaran Gallagher (web); many of the painted pieces in the yard are by Gallagher.
[The Friend At Hand x7]
Middle/Back Wall
The Hill Street Bar Band by Glen Molloy (Fb) and various famous faces in upstairs windows by Gallagher
Broo Queue
Middle Wall, lowest level
Titanic
The Rapparees
George Best
Right wall
Stephen Nolan
A variety of vintage advertisements from the late 1800s and early 1900s: Lloyd & Yorath’s stout (Newport, Wales), Hall’s paints (Hull), Guinness, Gold Flake tobacco (in both English and Irish: Sásuíonn sıad!), Batey’s ginger beer (London), Gilbey’s wines, Mew’s brewery (Isle of Wight).
“Ourma says if you stick t’herown diet of land-an-dairy prod you’ll be firmanna an’trim down” – a saying in which the names of all six Northern Irish counties are (phonetically) included.
[The Friend At Hand x3]
Entrance Wall:
Poets And Authors
Warehouses
Poems:
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022/2023 Paddy Duffy
Left: T01687 T01686 T03185 T01680 T01679 T01678 [T03196] T01677 T01676 [T01685]
Middle: T01671 T04271 T01673 T01672 T01670 T01674 T01669 T01667 T01668
Right: T01697 T01666 T01690 T01689 [T01696]
Poets: T01693 T01694 T01695
Warehouses: T01681
Poems: T01698 T01664
Famous faces and landmarks from east Belfast: Van Morrison, CS Lewis, George Best, David Holmes, Harland & Wolff, Holywood Arches, Strand Arts Centre, Danny Blanchflower, Lucy Caldwell, Marie Jones, Sam McCready, Gary Moore, James Ellis, St Mark’s Dundela, Eric Bell, Dee Craig (the artist).
Connswater Street, east Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01638 [T01639]
The statues in CS Lewis Square are by sculptor Maurice Harron (who also did the Hands Across The Divide statue in London-/Derry). The seven statues are of Aslan the lion, Mr. Tumnus, Jadis the White Witch, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, the stone table (in granite), Robin Red Breast, and, Maugrim, the talking wolf who is head of the Witch’s secret police. Most of the figures are in bronze but Maugrim – shown above – is made of about 5,500 pieces of stainless steel welded to a steel frame (Loop).
For images of the murals (by Friz – web) in better condition, see Winter’s End; for the chain and ropes metal-work, see Of The River.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01647 T01645 T01642
