Here is a selection of city centre electrical boxes, painted as part of the Belfast Canvas project, which first recruited artists to paint electrical boxes in 2019. For more on the painting of boxes in Belfast, see the Visual History page.
These electrical boxes are at the entrance to the Glencolin estate in west Belfast. The one above previously had an RSF stencil on it – see Restoration Of The Monarchy – but now bears an image of a Palestinian child in the ruins of Gaza flying a kite. (For the symbolism, see Tell My Story and My Kite You Made.
Gort Na Móna CLG (Fb) has been “at the heart of the [Turf Lodge] community”, inculcating “muıntearas, mısneach, féınluach, bród [friendship, bravery, self-esteem, pride]” in its young people “ó/since 1974”.
The text and emblem appear here against a montage of photographs over-washed in the club colours of maroon, saffron, and blue.
[A small typographic note: different fonts are used for the Irish on the left and the Irish in the middle; the font in the middle (correctly) lacks tittles/dots on the letter “ı”.]
Springfield Road, at the upper entrance to the estate and across the road from the electrical boxes seen in Lóıste Na Móna.
For International Women’s Day (March 8th) HM Constance (web) went to work on Lanark Way (next to Times Change) painting a celebratory piece for SHE Youth Club (“Supporting Her Empowerment” – Belfast Live) that is one of the programmes at R-City (web).
“I am intelligent, I am beautiful, I am funny, I am determined, I am powerful, I am graceful, I am independent, I am influential, I am strong, I am confident, I am a women [sic]”.
The shutters of the Peppercorn café on the Woodstock Road were painted with a WWI theme back in 2015 (In Flanders Fields) and were re-painted in late 2020.
The first panel (above) shows “our wee country” – Northern Ireland, on the occasion of its centenary.
The second features the “Light Of Foot” (web) programme supporting the mental health of bandsmen in Scotland and Northern Ireland. “Marching mental health”, “It’s okay to talk”.
The final panel reproduces (in reverse direction) John Singer Sergeant’s painting Gassed – for a photographic version, also in east Belfast, see Observe The Sons Of Ulster. “Their sacrifice, our freedom.”
This entry updates 2023’s Leaders Of Unionism Against Home Rule, which shows portraits of Carson, Crawford, and Craig, and describes their efforts in 1912, with creation of the Ulster Volunteers and the importing of arms into Larne and Donaghadee.
To the original board have been added the two plaques (shown above and immediately below), one on either side:
On the right: “In memory of our absent friends. Forever remembered by 1st East Belfast Mens, Cosy, East End and Laganville Somme groups. ‘They live in our hearts forever'”
On the left: “Jim Holt – forever remembered – forever in our ranks [of the UVF]. West End Somme Association, Glasgow.” There is a large board to Holt in Beechfield Street.
“In our hearts your memory lives on”: the sixteen republicans executed in connection with the Easter Rising (in 1916) and the ten hunger strikers who died in the second (1981) hunger strike are remembered in a new board on Northumberland Street, west Belfast (Visual History).
64 republicans died during the Rising (An Phoblacht) and 3,500 arrested. 187 people were tried by court martial and 90 were found guilty and sentenced to death. Of these, 14 were executed over a period of ten days in May, 1916, including all seven of the signatories to the Proclamation (WP). Tomás Ceannt did not take part in the Rising; he was executed in Cork for shooting dead one of the RIC officers who were sent to round up the brothers Ceannt (WP). Roger Casement was executed in August, convicted of treason for attempting to smuggle weapons from Germany for use in the Rising. (Irish Times)
The sixteen are: Pádraıg Pearse, Thomas Clarke, Thomas McDonagh, Joseph Plunkett, Edward Daly, Michael O’Hanrahan, Willie Pearse, John Mac Bride, Eamonn Ceannt, Seán Heuston, Michael Mallin, Con Colbert, Tomás Ceannt, Seán Mac Dıarmada, James Connolly, Roger Casement.
Spring – or at least some dry days – is upon us, and with it the chance to get outside. This is a new piece by FGB (web) on the shutters of what was Quality Life massage parlour, in a row of mostly abandoned shop-fronts in (upper) North Street.
