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 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.
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/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)
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.
The plaque in the bottom-right corner reads, “Dedicated to Sergeant George Arthur Horner 27/03/1927 Royal Ulster Rifles 14464865 — “Carrickfergus’ Oldest Veteran” and to all other veterans who served in HM Armed Forces.” Horner turned 99 a few days after this mural of D-Day was unveiled (on March 22nd) and he was awarded the freedom of Mid- And East-Antrim Borough (web). He served in the second battalion of the Royal Ulster Rifles, and landed on Sword Beach during the D-Day landings in June 1944 (Fb).
This entry updates a similar entry from 2022 with images and close-ups of the now-faded red and orange paint in the mural on the back wall of the “36th (Ulster) Division Victoria Cross Memorial Garden”.
For close-ups of the board picturing the WWI VC winners, see The Dead We Honour Here. “‘Throughout the long years of struggle … the men of Ulster have proved how nobly they fight and die’ – King George V, 16th November, 1918”
St Leonard’s Crescent/old Newcastle Street, east Belfast
Mercedes Gleitze was an open-water endurance swimmer who achieved various feats, including swimming the English Channel and the Straits Of Gibraltar. She also attempted to swim the North Channel eight times, starting on four occasions from Donaghadee (Brighton Museum), site of these drawings by artist Vanessa Daws (web | Swimming A Long Way Together) – herself an open-water swimmer – on a shelter on Commons Park.
Here are the results of a recent paint-jam in the Project 24 space near Bangor Marina. From top to bottom (left to right on the wall):
Nozzle-headed cats by ?Imogen Donegan (ig) and Ana Fish (ig)?, a spooky sprayer by Critter (ig), a toothsome skull by ANCO and (A)SEK (ig) of TMN, a (painted and not in fact) sewn face by Codo (ig), a cigarette smoker by Féoıl (ig), a smiling shark by Keyto (ig), and writing by TORE
