painted wall – Page 57 – Paddy Duffy Collection

Bóthar Chluanaí

2023-08-182026-03-04Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This post is an update to last year’s Gaırdín Na hÉıreann which showed various painted electrical boxes in Ballymurphy. To these have been added some boxes in Slıabh Dubh and New Barnsley.

The second Slıabh Dubh image (immediately below) is of Spiderman, to fit with the wall of superheroes that can be seen in the background (seen previously in Red Eye).

(After three from the top of Ballymurphy which were included in last year’s post,) there are five from the New Barnsley side of Springfield Road, including two featuring Newhill Youth/Football Club (Fb) ahead of its 50th anniversary, which will be celebrated in City Hall this Saturday, September 2nd (Fb).

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T03101 T03100 [T03099]
T03102 T03103 [T03104] T03105 T03109 T03110 T03111
T03211

Lóıste Na Móna

2023-08-182024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Welcome to Turf Lodge” — “Fáılte go dtí Lóıste Na Móna”. Turf Lodge was one of a number of estates built in the foothills of Black Mountain — including Westrock, Springhill, Ballymurphy, New Barnsley, and Dermot Hill — meant to house an underserved Catholic population and displaced families from other areas of Belfast.

The estate was built over a number of years but most people moved in between 1960 and 1962. (Northern Visions made a documentary about the history and people of the Turf Lodge estate that includes descriptions of the various ways in which the estate was left unfinished even as people took up residence.)

For the sixtieth anniversary, the electrical boxes outside John Paul II (formerly St Aidan’s) were stencilled (above and immediately below). This year (2023), more boxes have been painted, with images of gaelic games (see Gort Na Móna), bluebells (see Féıle Na gCloıgíní Gorma), and the silver fáınne on red background (see #AchtAnoıs).

See also: Klaus Fröhlich has a gallery of photos of the flats in the middle of the estate in great disrepair in 1979 (at BAP).

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T03113 T03114 T03115 T03116 T03120 T03209 T03210

Allowed To Dream, We Learn To Fly

2023-08-132025-02-01Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Windsor Women’s Centre (web | Fb) provides day-care and educational services for women in the Village, south Belfast. In the mural around the building children are depicted playing at various jobs: the mac on the “lollipop lady” (at a school crossing) is too large, the nurse is listening to the heart-beat of a teddy-bear.

On the other side of the centre from the expression of thanks for the NHS in Together We Are Stronger.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T03096

England Get Out Of Ireland

2023-08-112026-01-08Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Irish-language rappers and provocateurs Kneecap (web | ig) unveiled another mural in Hawthorn Street yesterday afternoon ahead of their Falls Park gig last night.

The entry on last year’s mural (Níl Fáılte Roımh An RUC), Incendiary Device, included a shot of the sticker that has been turned into this year’s mural. The sticker, in turn, is based on a vintage mural painted in Strabane (England Get Out Of Ireland) and Belfast (Stad Maggie Anoıs).

Replaces the large GAA board.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T03070 T03071c T03072c T03073c [T03074] T03075c [T03076] T03077

Tupac & Busta

2023-08-042024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Two by Chop Suey (ig): above, 2Pac in Library Street in the city centre; below, Busta Rhymes on the Cupar Way “peace” line, lower Shankill, west Belfast.

For Chop Suey’s Ol’ Dirty Bastard piece in Bangor, see Around Every Corner.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T03050 T03024

This Way To Love

2023-08-012024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here are three altered street signs from Alfred Street in Belfast city centre. Above, the UK shows the door … to Europeans, presumably; below, a giraffe is too tall for the sign; bottom, ‘this way’ to love. Comment/Get in touch if you know the artist(s).

Bawnmore Through Time

2023-07-272024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here are six images showing the full expanse of the new mural at the entrance to Bawnmore. From left to right we see: a mill, a swan, a train (there used to be a station in Bawnmore), a guitarist, a farmer gathering hay, a hurler, Molly Seaton (who was captain of the Irish women’s soccer squad in a 1927 match played in Bond’s Field, in the Waterside – Derry Journal), Greencastle Rovers (Fb), Bawnmore Community, Wolfe Tone CLG (Fb), elephants from Belfast Zoo (a baby elephant called Shiela stayed in the Whitewell home of its keeper during the WWII Blitz – BelTel), El Barto (Bart Simpson), St Mary’s Star Of The Sea primary school (web), a hand-heart containing the rainbow colours, and superheroes Spiderman, Iron Man, and Wonder Woman. (NIHE)

The new mural is by Visual Waste (ig) and replaces Glen Molloy’s Game Of Thrones/CS Lewis mural from 2018. With funding from the Housing Executive and Clanmil Housing Association.

Full Spectrum

2023-07-252025-10-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here are five pieces of street art by Glen Molloy (ig) at Clarawood flats. The first three are new; the pair following is from earlier this year (Jan and Feb). The artist of the sixth piece is unknown. The seventh piece is by “The Spermer” (web) from 2020 and already in some disrepair – it was painted at the same time as Glen’s spitfire, shown last.

Demolition of the two blocks of flats was approved by the Housing Executive in May 2021 (Belfast Live) and by the Department Of Communities in September 2021 (Belfast Live). Demolition of Kilbroney is scheduled for the autumn and Clarawood (the tower block) for 2024 (Irish News).

(See also the Housing Executive’s ‘Action Plan’ for all tower blocks (pdf).)