BELFAST
BEYOND BELFAST
Everyday Adventure
“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
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Bat-Bricks And Bouquets
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 three projects so far have been aimed at house martins (A Bird In The Hand), swifts (Swift-Tailored) and sparrows (Seeds For Sparrows).
(For more nocturnal activity, see also the Suggestions For Stargazing project in the Waterworks.)
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Seeds For Sparrows
“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.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Today, Everyday, And Always
There was a David Ervine mural (and memorial sculpture) on the building at the corner of Albertbridge Road and Montrose Street South in east Belfast but the corner unit was knocked down and over time the hoarding around the site became dilapidated and graffitied. The hoarding has been given a new coat of paint and decorated with WWI memorial banners and small children’s cut-outs.
The other David Ervine piece (to the right in the wide shot) remains.
Image of the hoarding in 2021:
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Hair Style
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.
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The Pitt Stop
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).
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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All Together Now
At the heart of this east Belfast homage to the healing power of soccer are German and British soldiers shaking hands over a ball in ‘no man’s land’ on the Western Front, on Christmas Day, 1914. The image is not from a contemporary photograph but a modern one of a 2014 sculpture depicting such an even by Andy Edwards (TruceStatue) (who also did the Pat Jennings sculpture in Newry – seen in Pat Jennings). For more images of the WWI soccer statue, see WWI Cemeteries.
It’s not clear that matches between opposing forces – rather than simple fraternisation – were actually played; see Wikipedia for a review of the evidence.
Dee Street, east Belfast.
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Great Northern Railway
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).
Adelaide Avenue, south Belfast.
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For National Liberation And Socialism In Ireland
This entry updates Let The Fight Go On!!! from December 1st, which showed the new INLA 50th anniversary wall in Oakman Street but without the (pink) roll of honour on the left. Those listed in the roll of honour are: Hugh Ferguson, Danny Loughran, Brendan McNamee, Miriam Daly, Ronnie Bunting, Noel Little, Jim Power, Matt McLarnon, Joe Craven, Paul “Bonanza” McCann, Thomas “Ta” Power, John O’Reilly, Mickey Kearney, Emmanual Gargan, Gino Gallagher, John McColgan, Patrick Campbell, Christopher “Crip” McWilliams, Harry O’Hara, Barry “Bar” McMullan, Martin McElkerney, James McWilliams. The last five post-date the Agreement, starting with Patrick Campbell, who died in 1999 at the hands of drug-dealers in Dublin (Irish Times | Bel Tel).
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