The Spirit Of Commerce

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A ship’s figurehead (perhaps) cranes upwards – as the viewer must also do – in front of a background of decaying tile-work. Perhaps the decay is being left behind? In any case, Belfast City Council thought a suitable symbol of Belfast moving onward and upwards when used the art to announced the Belfast Stories project (tw; see The Rising Place).

The piece is by Irony (tw | ig | Fb | tumblr). According to Adam Turkington, Irony was inspired by “the commercial themes in Ciaran Carson’s many visions of Belfast” (Belfast Live). (Belfast Confetti was the inspiration for emic’s piece in Winecellar Entry.)

In Pottinger’s Entry. There is a separate Visual History page on the Belfast entries and the recent (2020 onward) efforts to beautify them.

See also: The Verticality Of The Divine | Tile Refinery.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Olaudah Equiano

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In 1789, Olaudah Equiano published a memoir to 311 subscribers describing his early life in west Africa, his kidnapping, transport via Barbados to enslavement in Virginia, then in London, England, and then in Montserrat in the Caribbean. He bought his own freedom in 1766 and went back to England and joined the burgeoning abolitionist movement. His memoir detailing the treatment and conditions he had experienced made him famous. He toured Britain and Ireland in support of his book: “I found the people extremely hospitable, particularly in Belfast [in 1791-1792]” (BBC Sounds 17m 58s). He stayed with Samuel Neilson, a founding member of the United Irishmen (Clifton Belfast | WP | see also yesterday’s post on Belle Martin). Ten years after his death in 1797, the trans-Atlantic slave trade was abolished in both the UK and the States.

The mural in Joy’s Entry, by London artist Dreph, is based on a portrait painted by William Denton and engraved for the book by Daniel Orme (Dreph | National Portrait Gallery).

For an overview of the anti-slavery movement in Belfast, including Thomas Russell, Olaudah Equiano, and Frederick Douglass, see this William Orr speech (at Slugger).

See also the Visual History page on The Belfast Entries.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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We Are What We Believe We Are

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Like “You’re never too old to set another goal or dream another dream” in east Belfast, “We are what we believe we are” appears to be another of those inspirational quotes attributed to – but not actually by – CS Lewis. The quote appears alongside Belfast landmarks the Titanic centre, Aslan, the Big Fish/Salmon of Knowledge, an unidentified cupola. Part of a piece by Faigy (ig) in Wilson’s Entry, Belfast.

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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Civilisation Has Its Roots In The Soil

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“Civilisation has its roots in the soil & without soil there will be no future life – Tá an duıne fréamhaıthe san ıthır, gan í ní hann dó” by Ed Reynolds (web | tw) and Tancredi Caruso. Together they put on an exhibition and painted a mural for the Belowground Visions Of Life project (Soil Security Programme). The mural is outside Bunscoıl Mhıc Reachtaın (hence the Irish translation) in the old ‘Little Italy’ area of Belfast. Sand or soil has been added to the mural to give it texture.

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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Bunscoıl Mhıc Reachtaın

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Bunscoıl Mhıc Reachtaın (McCracken Primary) is an Irish-language school named after the famous Belfast family and in particular after Mary Anne McCracken, who was a campaigner in the 1800s for the education of children both male and female (among with many other causes – see previously the post on the bust of Mary Anne in Carrick Hill, opposite Clifton House: The World Affords No Enjoyment Equal To That Of Promoting The Happiness Of Others.

The bunscoil opened in 1999 in the New Lodge, before moving to its current location (and site of this mural) in Lancaster Street (Naíscoıl Mhıc Reachtaın). (Lancaster Street is itself named after the controversial Quaker educator, Joseph Lancaster (WP) – Joe Baker p. 72.) According to an Irish News report in 2020 on Irish-language schools, the bunscoıl at that time, at least, had more pupils than its approved maximum.

The school borrows from the teaching philosophy of Patrick Pearse (Belfast Media), discussed previously in connection with Coláıste Feırste in An Tusa An Chéad Laoch Eıle?

Also on the school wall is an Ed Reynolds piece from 2017: Civilisation Has Its Roots In The Soil.

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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The Friend At Hand

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Easter marks the unofficial start of the PUL marching season, with many marches today by various Apprentice Boys bands. The season runs until the end of August, with a high point around July 12th (Parades Commission | CAIN calendar). The painting above (by Ciaran Gallagher (ig) in the Dark Horse courtyard for a nine-part series called The Friend At Hand) packs in many familiar tropes: King Billy on a banner, kerb-stones painted red-white-and-blue, the Israeli flag flying from a lamp-post, and a bottle of Buckfast lying in the gutter. Decorating the skin, however, is rare, and the use of Irish – “an cara ıdır lamha [lámha]” [“in aıce láımhe” or “ag an láımh”] – on a Lambeg drum is unknown.

The other panels in the group of three show a boxer being attended to in his corner at the King’s Hall and a masked man leaving the EU and heading for Mexico off with an ATM in the bucket of an excavator.

Six more are included together, below: a fisherman is rescued from drowning; a medic attended to an injured player; the Samaritans helpline; a firefighter carries two people from a burning building; a surgeon operates; a chaplain reads to troops.

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Copyright © 2022/2023/2024 Paddy Duffy
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The Dark Horse

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Here is a gallery of many of the pieces in the courtyard of the Dark Horse bar in Belfast city centre, presented in clockwise order from the entrance on Commercial Court.

Above and immediately below: the scene in the Klondyke Bar. Links to additional pieces can be found at their appropriate places in the “rotation”, below.

Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley in the clouds

Belfast Stripped Bare – a view into people’s houses by Ciaran Gallagher (web); many of the painted pieces in the yard are by Gallagher.

McBride’s

[The Friend At Hand x7]

Middle/Back Wall

The Hill Street Bar Band by Glen Molloy (Fb) and various famous faces in upstairs windows by Gallagher

Broo Queue

Middle Wall, lowest level

Titanic

The Rapparees

George Best

Right wall

Stephen Nolan

A variety of vintage advertisements from the late 1800s and early 1900s: Lloyd & Yorath’s stout (Newport, Wales), Hall’s paints (Hull), Guinness, Gold Flake tobacco (in both English and Irish: Sásuíonn sıad!), Batey’s ginger beer (London), Gilbey’s wines, Mew’s brewery (Isle of Wight).

“Ourma says if you stick t’herown diet of land-an-dairy prod you’ll be firmanna an’trim down” – a saying in which the names of all six Northern Irish counties are (phonetically) included.

[The Friend At Hand x3]

Entrance Wall:

[Happy Halloween]

Poets And Authors

[Four Horsemen]

Warehouses

Poems:

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Copyright © 2022/2023 Paddy Duffy
Left: T01687 T01686 T03185 T01680 T01679 T01678 [T03196] T01677 T01676 [T01685]
Middle: T01671 T04271 T01673 T01672 T01670 T01674 T01669 T01667 T01668
Right: T01697 T01666 T01690 T01689 [T01696]
Poets: T01693 T01694 T01695
Warehouses: T01681
Poems: T01698 T01664