This new piece – placing a cosmetological beauty in a jungle scene of exotic plants and a black panther – was painted for 2026’s Hit The North street-art festival by HMC (web) in Nelson Street (near Great Patrick Street).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T008878 [T08979] T08977 [T08978] [T08880] T08877 T08879
A dove takes flight and petals fall from roses in this new work by Fenz (web) for Hit The North 2026 on the shuttered offices of Rollins Insurance Brokers in Clarence Street.
The in-progress images are from April 28th.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T09010 T09009
T08849 [T08850] T08851
Here are two pieces by artist Silver Formz (ig) painted for this year’s (2026) Hit The North. The clown above and immediately below is in Dunbar Street; the distorted bust is in Union Street.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08934 T08933 T08938
This scene from the story of Clann Lır (the Children Of Lear) appears to be the moment that Aoıfe casts a spell that turns her four step-children into swans on Loch Daırbhreach.
Painted by Loretta Lizzio (web) at the same time (2023-09) as her Dark Dreamer on the Oldpark Road, just below the first Cliftonville roundabout.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08861 T08860 T08859 T08862
“We don’t just inherit, we lead across time and space.”
Here is the second half of the Ulster-Scots (Visual History) mural painted in North Howard Street and Fifth Street, continuing the work seen in Echoes Of The Ulster Scots, which took the Scotch-Irish from Ulster to the Appalachians.
The new panels bring us from the founding of the United States in 1776 to the space age. The panel above is a rendition of John Trumbull’s painting ‘Declaration Of Independence’ (image at WP) along with (below the “250”) the signature of “Cha[rles] Thomson”, who was born in Maghera, served as Secretary of the Continental Congress, designed the Great Seal Of The United States (which appears next to the right), and signed the Declaration (Ulster Scots Agency pdf).
The person third from the left is Robert R. Livingston, one of the Committee Of Five that prepared the Declaration; he also negotiated the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 (Discover Ulster Scots).
The flag is a combination of a proposed Ulster Scots flag and the Stars And Stripes of the United States.
North Howard Street/Fifth Street, west Belfast
April 19th: Artist DMC at work on the second half of the mural.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08846 [T08848] T08847 T08823 T08834 T08835 T08844
T08845 T08838
[T08836] [T08837]
T08823 T08821 [T08822] [T08824] [T08825]
The “peace wall” that divides west Belfast into Protestant and Catholic areas is mentioned in various places in the Rough Guide To Belfast. It doesn’t feature in the Discover NI or Visit Britain lists of ‘top attractions’ but is #4 on TripAdvisor’s list of things to do in Belfast.
The wall is notable for the wild-style writing and other art painted on the Shankill side – including this paste-up by Leo Boyd (web) – but the wall itself, at 30+ feet tall, is the main draw, and tourists sign their names (and patronising slogans) on top of the art.
For a history of the wall and the art on it, see its Visual History page.
Cupar Way, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08803 T08802
T08805 T08804
“Echoes of the Ulster-Scots across the United States Of America”, “The Ulster-Scots … their footprints and songs graced the Appalachian Trails.”
These four panels are the first stage of a longer “pioneers to presidents”-style mural (Visual History) on Ulster-Scots (or, Scotch-Irish) emigration in the 1700s to the British colonies that in time became the United States.
Upon arrival at eastern sea-ports, many of the Scotch-Irish headed west across the Allegheny mountains and down into the Appalachians. By 1790, it is estimated, almost 200,000 people, or 6% of the population, of the recently-created United States Of America were of Ulster-Scots heritage (WP).
These four panels are in North Howard Street, west Belfast. As can be seen from the wide shot below, the mural will soon be extended around the corner into Fifth Street. (Update: see We Lead Across Time And Space.)
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08810 [T08809] T08808 T08807 T08806
T08811
At its peak, the Harland & Wolff shipyard employed 35,000 people (IndustriAll) and the flat-capped worker became a symbol of east Belfast, along – much later – with Samson and Goliath, the two gantry cranes at the shipyard that were raised in 1974 and 1969 (WP) and which have become the symbol of Belfast.
The title of this entry is the first line of Martin Mooney’s poem ‘Launching The Whaler Juan Peron‘.
The silhouetted workers and cranes are on a mobile office in Fraser Pass, Newtownards Road, Belfast, at the end of the Pitt Stop next to the Belfast Bikes racks.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08796
Here is a gallery of images from the nineteen new pieces of art around the perimeter of Grand Central station at Durham Street and Grosvenor Road, called “When Walls Speak Welcome”. Commissioned by @translinkni @daisychaininc and @emicartist
Durham Street:
1 Pointing Child – emic (web)
2 Thinking Angel – Wee Nuls (web)
3 Bees – Friz (web)
4 Mech Head – NOYS (ig)
5 Helmet Sprayer – KVLR (web)
6 Three Flowers – FGB (web)
[gate]
7 Raven – Conor McClure (ig)
8 Head With Swallows – emic (web)
9 Hands And Birds – Zippy (web)
10 Schoolgirl Holding Tree – ?Razer?
Durham Street/Grosvenor Road junction:
11 Nature – Kerrie Hanna (web)
12 Let’s Go – Lost Lines (ig)
13 Flamingo – Imogen Donegan (ig)
14 Blossoms – Alexandra (ig)
[gate]
Grosvenor Road:
15 Floating Guy – Jam2 (ig)
16 Cockerel – Ana Fish (web)
[gate]
17 Tandem Bicyclists – David McMillan (web)
18 “Nocturne Flow” – Karl Fenz (web) and Rob Hilken (web)
19 So Glad You’re Here – HMC (web) and Danni Simpson (web)
Entrance to Grand Central Station
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08785 [T08740]
T08784 [T08741] [T08786]
T08739 [T08783]
T08782 [T08737] [T08738]
T08781 T08736
T08780 [T08735]
T08779 [T08733] [T08734]
T08732
T08731 [T08778] [T08753]
T08730 T08777 [T08729] T08728 T08743 T08727 T08726 [T08725] [T08724]
T08776 [T08774]
T08746 [T08745] T08775
T08747
T08774 [T08748] T08752
[T08749] T08750 T08751 T08773
This is a representation of the 1941 Belfast Blitz, providing a graphic companion to the large board in Enfield Street, which contains information and images, and a list of 79 people from the Woodvale who died in the blitz. (There is also a plaque on the side of the Woodvale Community Centre.) There were three separate nights of bombing: April 7th/8th, April 15th/16th, and May 4th/5th and half of the buildings in Belfast were destroyed or damaged (WP); it is not clear what particular buildings are being depicted here.
On the left, spotlights and anti-aircraft guns attempt to take down the planes dropping bombs. (For information about the anti-aircraft guns in Belfast, see York Road Civil Defence Hall.)
Painted by DanK (web) in Glenvale Street, Woodvale, west Belfast, during the same trip in which he painted a D-Day mural in Carrickfergus.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08721
T08722
T08816 [T08815]
T08720 [T08723] [T08817]
T08724
T08719 T08814
Paddy Duffy Collection 