“Good vibes outside” is a series of “everyday adventure” guides from clothing brand Bleubird, which now has three physical shops, in Ballymena, Cookstown, and east Belfast, where you can find this street art by Cha Cha (Carla Hodgson ig) depicting many local adventure-spots – the list at the bottom suggests Wild Atlantic Way, Fermanagh Lakelands, Giants Causeway, Sperrins, Rathlin Island, Strangford Lough, Mourne Mountains.
Upper Newtownards Road, Ballyhackamore, east Belfast
The fourth ‘Wild Belfast’ (web) mural project is aimed not at birds but at bats (above) and other nocturnal pollinators of flowers, such as moths (immediately below) (Bat Conservation Trust | Butterfly Conservation). Two “bat bricks” (fourth image) have been installed as part of this project in Landseer Street, south Belfast, above a two-part wall-painting by emic (web).
“The flowers that bloom tomorrow are the seeds you planted today” – this is another in the series of murals sponsored by Wild Belfast (web) as it attempts to increase the habitats for birds. The ‘house martin’ painting at Cliftonville and the ‘swifts’ painting in Bruce Street are now joined by a piece by Lost Lines (ig | Rhea Hanlon) in Rossmore Drive, south Belfast, featuring house sparrows. Like the others, this piece include bird boxes, mostly in the top right of the wide shot, last below.
The Pitt Stop caravan is a new community-services centre run by the Residents’ Association (Fb) in Pitt Park, east Belfast, a stone’s throw from the Ballymac Friendship Centre (Fb). The relationship between the two is unclear – this Sunday World article quotes one person as saying the some residents felt themselves excluded from the Centre and that the “good people of Pitt Park” need “access to a facility”. The article also suggests possible connections to the local UVF and to drug-dealing; the Association denounced the write-up in a brief Facebook post.
The Park itself was renovated in 2024 (Belfast Live before | after).
This is an older piece but one seen only on weekends and in the evenings because it is painted on shutters, specifically the shutters of DC-Rays (formerly D-Rays) hair salon (Fb) in Albertbridge Road, east Belfast.
The work was painted by Glen Molloy (ig) c. 2017; for other pieces in this style, see the gallery of ten famous faces in Corporation Street from 2016 or the Three Jimmys in Exchange Place from 2017.
The Great Northern Railway joined Dublin with Belfast, Derry, and Ballyshannon, as well as many other smaller towns. It existed from 1876 until roughly 1958 (WP) and what was then called the “Adelaide & Windsor” station in south Belfast was opened in 1897 (WP) – the name was (presumably) based on the station’s proximity to local streets: the “Adelaide” streets were named for William IV’s consort (Street Names) and the “Windsor” streets were named for Windsor Castle (Street Names).
The mural shows the platform and waiting room, and a steam-powered train, and features local signal-man Charles Murtagh. Murtagh’s daughter still lives in the family home, near the station and provided the photograph from which Blaze FX (ig) reproduced (Translink).
People with learning difficulties and autism who are carrying a “JAM” card (web) (for “Just a minute”) can use it on Translink buses and trains to let drivers and conductors know that they might need some extra time. The other symbols on the side of the train (in the third image, below) denote services for travelers who are visually-impaired, hearing-impaired, blind, or wheelchair-users.
This wall-painting in south Belfast was painted by Blaze FX (ig) with help from young people with disabilities as part of a “Can Do” project (Fb) from Leonard Cheshire (web) and Kids Together Belfast (Fb). With funding from Forward South Partnership (web), Translink, and Belfast City Council (Belfast Live).
This is a repainting of the Ledley Hall/Queen’s Jubilee mural at the junction with Kingswood Street, part of the 2016 re-imaging of Lord Street, east Belfast, sponsored by the Housing Executive and CharterNI. The mural shows the hall past and present and features local figures Bob Yarr (OBE), Eddie Witherspoon, John Cross (BEM), John Currans, Sam Rainey, and Reggie Morrow.
The ‘Lord Street Remembers’ piece is from 2015, by Glenn Black and Ken Maze of Blaze FX (web).
The HUBB community centre (Fb) in north Belfast has, since 2010, been based in what used to be a World War II Civil Defence air-raid shelter, which it cleaned and renovated (Tele). The original hall is depicted in this mural on the side of the HUBB.
In 1940, Belfast was protected by thirty-eight anti-aircraft guns. The German Luftwaffe flew a reconnaissance flight over Belfast on November 30th, 1940 and a test mission of eight planes on April 7th, 1941 concluded that Belfast’s defences were, “inferior in quality, scanty and insufficient” (Hogg). 150 bombers would blitz Belfast the following week, on Easter Tuesday, April 15th, and the seven guns that had been in operation ceased firing, believing, falsely, that RAF planes were also in the sky (WP).
Belfast was bombed by the Germans four times in April and May of 1941. In the blitz of Easter Tuesday, 1941, more than 900 people died, 1,500 were injured, and half the houses in Belfast were damaged (WP). According to Elaine Hogg’s research in the ‘Darker Side Of Belfast’ series, 100,000 people left the city in the remainder of the month, due to shock, fear, and the squalid conditions and unruly behaviour that followed the bombing.
Bluebells flower in April and May, which is also the time of year when foxes are frequently seen, foraging to support their new offspring (Discover Wildlife).
This Peaball (web) creation (with support from @daisychaininc) is on a wall at Ellie May’s restaurant (web) in Dunadry, outside Antrim.
