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Hello, Hello, Hello

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A “walking poem” in Exchange Place by Graffic Belfast (ig): “I’ll say, you were here once, & will be here again. I’ll say hello, hello, hello, hello, hello.” The verse seems to be original to the piece.

“Cathedral Quarter / Smithfield & Union”

See the Visual History page for the Belfast Entries.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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As You Lived You Must Die

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“”As you lived you must die/An’ your last gasp or cry/Will be heard very likely by none/Not one/You unfortunate devil, Maglone.” – Barney Maglone Robert A. Wilson.”

Wilson was a Donegal man who, after some time in America, worked for newspapers in Enniskillen and Belfast. He was most famous under the pen-name “Barney Maglone” as the author of ‘To My Cousin In Amerikay’ and ‘Barney Maglone’s Notions Of Things’ (DIB).

The poem from which these lines come can be found in the [Belfast] Morning News obituary reprinted in the Portland Guardian And Normanby Advertiser (Victoria, Australia) for November 2nd, 1875 (though it gives “misfortunate divil” in the final line).

The paste-up is by Peter Strain (web) in Wilson’s Court, one of the Belfast Entries. Other pieces by Strain in the entries can be seen in Handsome, Easy-Going, And Utterly Untrustworthy | The Blots On The Page Are So Black | Trust Women.

The piece below, in Joy’s Entry, shows a sign for “R. A. Wilson’s philosophical instruments labyrinthine sale!” It is probably by Leo Boyd – see The Farset Voice.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Music Man

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KVLR’s massive (four storey high) work for 2014’s Red Bull Music Academy live music festival, painted just prior to Culture Night Belfast 2014, shows a boy sitting serenely on a speaker listening with headphones to a single-reel tape player plugged into a flue on the side of the building. On his knitted hat is the logo of the British Phonograph Industry’s 1980’s campaign against cassette taping.

Church Street, Belfast

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Belfast Busker

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Enniskillen singer John Garrity (ig | Fb) is a familiar face in Belfast city centre, often seen busking in Castle Place and Cornmarket. He drew criticism in September 2021 for singing the ballad ‘Grace’ – about the hours-long bride of James Plunkett, executed after the 1916 Rising – while an Orange Order parade passed by. Garrity claims he was already singing the song when the parade happened to come by (Belfast Live). (Here is a rendition from another occasion – youtube.) He then gained a persistent heckler (Irish News). Now he is the subject of a mural by Glen Molloy (ig) in Donegall Street, Belfast, on the wall of the long-ago burned-out North Street Arcade, where Matt Sewell’s Carnival Of The Animals was.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Wildflower Alley

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Handy Helpers from Queen’s University help maintain the Wildflower Alley (Fb) between College Park Avenue and University Avenue. To “recognise the joint effort” (LinkedIn) a mural has been painted (by emic (ig)) along the Stanmillis Embankment, featuring flowers grown in the Alley.

Funding from Belfast City Council. Officially launched 2022-09-22 (Belfast Live)

Update: the side wall has been painted with a human head, wearing headphones, behind a sunflower.

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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