“Find harmony in food” by Zippy (ig) at Eat Well Whole Foods (Fb) on the Lisburn Road at Surrey Street, south Belfast, with support from artsekta (ig).
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Cultural Expression
Part of the long community mural at the end of Blythe Street next to Blythefield primary has been repainted with these images children at play.
The tinkerbell wall and the final image is from the earlier mural – for which see Each One Teach One.
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Stop The Slaughter In Gaza
“Stop the slaughter – ceasefire now”. A pro-Palestinian board was added to the “International Wall”, Divis Street, and launched on November 4th. The previous Saber Al-Ashkar mural — His Land, His Legs, His Life — has been mostly painted over, with part of the mural remaining at the top and the image of a man carrying a wounded child perhaps deliberately left to the right of the board.
The image represented would appear to be an from social media (probably AI-generated, as no one can say who is depicted or where) of children sitting among their ruined house, surrounded by broken toys, including SpongeBob and Pudsey Bear, with the boy using an incorrect Palestinian flag to cover the girl.
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Dreams Don’t Work Unless You Do
This is the new Glen Molloy mural in Carrickfergus, showing a boy practicing his baton-twirling and marching. It’s in the same style as the Little Drummer Boy in the Shankill.
The mural is in Agnes Street, at the far end of Marine Highway, heading towards Eden. The in-progress images below show Glen at work and the mural at different stages of development.
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Belfast Has The Reason
“When it comes to punk, New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason.” – Terri Hooley in 2012’s Good Vibrations (IMDb).
The final incarnation of Hooley’s Good Vibrations record shop (Fb) closed in North Street in 2015 (BelTel). It began in October 1976 at 102 Great Victoria Street (Spit Records | Louder Than War | Spit Records) — the shop and Hooley are included, along with footage of the Undertones, Outcasts, Stiff Little Fingers, and many others — in the 1979 documentary Shellshock Rock (UK viewers can watch at BFI | Spit Records has a great write-up of events surrounding the flm’s launch).
The new murals are on and adjacent to the shop’s second location (from roughly 1984-1993), on the other side of the road, at 121 Great Victoria Street, which itself has had “Good Vibrations” signage reinstated by Zippy (ig).
In order, from left to right/top to bottom in this post: in Stroud Street we have “Big-time punk” Terri Hooley by Peaball (RAZER (ig) and NOYS (ig)); on 127 Great Victoria Street we have tartan by Rob Hilken (ig), on 125, “Alternative Ulster” by Alana McDowell (ig) — for the ‘Alternative Ulster’ fanzine, see Fountain Street Spirits; on 123, designs by NotPop (ig); on 121, “Belfast Has The Reason” and “Good Vibrations” signage by Zippy (ig). With support from Linen Quarter BID (web), Belfast City Council (BCC press release) and Daisy Chain (web).
Update 2024-10: The Terri Hooley piece has been paint-bombed
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Squirrelled Away
This squirrel is the third piece of wildlife to grace a Cavehill Road wall in recent weeks, following the swan in Marsden Gardens (Fowl Play) and fox at Charnwood Avenue (Outfoxed). This piece is in Sunningdale Park (also known to Line Of Duty fans as Platemere St) and was painted by Mr Fenz (ig) and Danni Simpson (ig). A fourth piece is planned for the top of the road, at the North Circular.
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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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Outfoxed
Danni Simpson (ig) and Mr Fenz (ig) have completed their second mural in as many weeks on the Cavehill Road, adding a fox to the side of what is now Ben Madigan’s (formerly the Cavehill Inn) on Charnwood Avenue.
Previously: the Waterworks swan seen in Fowl Play.
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Fergie
The plaque above – “Ormeau Road in memory [of] Fergie” – is now somewhat incongruously above painted signage for a coffee-and-donuts shop (Bunelos | web) on the Ormeau Road, a commercial road which is also at the edge of the Ballynafeigh neighbourhood.
“Fergie” is perhaps Iain Ferguson, who died in 2021 (Belvoir & Ballynafeigh UPRG on Fb) and is remembered in a tarp on the side of the flats in Belvoir, shown below. (UPRG is affiliated with the UDA – hence the red hand and the six-pointed star in the plaque, alongside the flowers of the four nations – rose, shamrock, daffodil, thistle – and orange lily.)
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Copyright © 2023/2022 Paddy Duffy
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It’s The Spirit We Share
Fowl Play
There are lots of different fowl in the Waterworks but the swan is synonymous with the place. Belfasters have been saving up the heels of their loaves and taking them to “feed the swans” at the Waterworks since the reservoir was bought by the Corporation and modified to attact wildfowl in 1956 (Belfast Entries) – it provided an encounter with wild animals and was a free and fun family activity. Disease struck the swans in 1995 (Irish Times) and more than 50 died of avian flu during lockdown (November 2021-January 2022 – Belfast Media | Belfast Live has some upsetting photos) but there are still more than enough for the tradition to persist, though feeding them is now generally discouraged as an unnecessary human intervention.
As a tribute to the iconic bird and its long tradition in north Belfast, Danni Simpson (ig) and Mr Fenz (ig) have painted this larger-than-life swan on the side-wall of a coffee shop next to the upper reservoir.
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Paddy Duffy Collection 