Flowering plants and a monarch butterfly with caterpillar are used to illustrate the thesis that “change is safe”. This painted board replaces Education Is A Journey in Orlock Gardens, Kilcooley, a stone’s throw from two UDA emblems and the Tommy Herron and UDA barricade murals.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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In January, Bangor singer-songwriter Foy Vance (web) had reason to feel good when he, along with Ed Sheeran and Max Martin, won the (Primetime Creative) Emmy for ‘Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics’ for the song ‘A Beautiful Game’ (youtube) which was used in the final episode of the TV show Ted Lasso (Billboard | Emmys).
Vance’s portrait has been painted by Jossie Pops (ig) in Primrose Avenue. “Upbeat Feel Good” is a song (youtube) from his 2016 album The Wild Swan.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Here is a selection of art from the Cupar Way section of the west Belfast “peace” line. Some of the artists came into town for Hit The North 2024 (Lidia Cao, Lours, Elno). We also see work by DEUX, SNAK, NOYS, BAISE?, NOTA, Keyto, and Kilian (Road Rage Ruth).
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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The cover Jim Fitzpatrick did in 1973 for Thin Lizzy’s ‘Vagabonds Of The Western World’ album was reproduced in 2024 in east Belfast as a tribute to local guitarist Eric Bell (the middle figure). There is video of Bell playing the solo to ‘The Rocker’ in Berlin the week of the album’s launch, in September, 1973 (youtube). Bell – aged 22 – left the band at the end of the year, a few months after the release of ‘Vagabonds’ (WP). He currently lives in Co Down (BelTel).
By Blaze FX (web) Woodstock Road at Jocelyn Avenue. Tom McClean has video of the launch (youtube).
The album is also one of the cassette tapes featured in Back On The Streets further along the Woodstock Road. There is also a Thin Lizzy mural in Bangor.
There is a Visual History page on The Influence Of Jim Fitzpatrick on muraling.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Here is a gallery of images (and a list of artists, from top to bottom, and from North Street to Royal Avenue) from the (Hit The North) Paint Jam last Saturday (the 25th) in Lower Garfield Street, organised by Seedhead Arts (ig) and the Belfast Improvement District (BID web).
Stag (above) by HMC (ig)
Rose by Ollie Amscai (ig)
Pigeon by Strangford (ig)
Smelling The Flowers by Lost Lines (ig)
Melting House by Illoustrates (ig)
Dexter by NRMN (ig)
Crow by MWAK (ig)
Broken Hearts by Laura Nelson (ig)
House Panels by All The Doodz (ig)
Garfield by Cha Cha (ig)
Crow Chain Gang by FGB (ig)
Geometrical Flower by Katriona (ig)
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Cat by Jam2 (ig)
SNAK by SNAK (ig)
Wasp by Conor McClure (ig)
Leopard by Friz (ig)
Seed Heads by ?
Design by Not Pop (ig)
Gremlin by Wee Nuls (ig)
Embracing Our Creativity by Zippy (ig)
plus a pair of angel’s wings on the other side of the street.
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Australian artist Sophi Odling (web | ig) stuck around after HTN24 and painted this piece in Whiteabbey. It is perhaps part of phase two of Antrim And Newtownabbey Borough Council’s beautification project; for phase one, see Botanical Borough.
Odling also painted a large piece for HTN24 in York Lane, called Tomorrow.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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‘2 Royal Ave’ (web | ig) – the building designed by WJ Barre (Victorian Web) for the Provincial Bank and more recently a Tesco Metro – was turned into a civic and cultural centre by Belfast City Council in 2023 (Belfast Live).
Coincidentally, the building’s rear doors open into Bank Street (formerly Bank Lane) and Bank Square. (It’s not clear whether they were so named because the Farset flowed along Bank Lane, or for the Bank Buildings, constructed in Castle Place in 1785-1787 (WP | Belfast Live); in any case, the streets already had these names well before the construction of the Provincial building in 1867 (Belfast Media)).
Street artist Decoy (ig), with support from DaisyChain (ig), has painted various shutters and electrical boxes. Bank Square is also home to a series of ‘life in the old days’ panels (see A River Runs Through It) and more recent work by Rob Hilken (see The Grid) and DanK (Fast Cars).
Also included (last below) is the art on the shutters of The Sagart in Chapel Lane.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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The mural on the wall of Madden’s bar in the city centre has been updated. Fiddler Art Lundy and the “decommissioned” ashtray are retained, but much else has changed. (For the previous version, see Madden’s.)
Traditional Irish and Irish-language music features in multiple places:
— a poster for new group Biird (ig) is in the mirror behind Art’s head (and next to an Acht Na Gaeılge fáınne (see #AchtAnois) and a Pride flag);
— by his fingering hand is a poster for Féıle Na Gealaí (web);
— the “Fine Art” in front of the pints is the cover of Kneecap’s (web) forthcoming album – DJ Próvaí’s familiar tricoloured balaclava can be seen on the side-door in the third image, below (see also their two murals in Beechmount, Incendiary Device and England Get Out Of Ireland);
— the album cover to its right is the EP “Sásta A Bheıth Anseo” [Happy To Be Here] by Múlú (Mıaḋaċluġaın Ní Doṁnaıll | ig) which you can hear on youtube.
The other main change is the addition of two newspapers. In the Andersonstown News in Art’s pocket trumpets Cliftonville’s 3-1 victory over Linfield in the Irish Cup on May 4th (youtube highlights), while on the table a copy of The Irish News reports on DUP (now-former) leader Jeffrey Donaldson being prosecuted on charges of rape and sexual assault (BBC).
Update: The newspaper was soon changed to DUP Backs United Ireland.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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The inspiration for this new piece of street art by KMG (ig) was the Strand Spinning Mill (formerly the Jaffe Spinning Mill) which closed in 1983 and is now the Portview Trade Centre. During WWI the mill made munitions and during WWII viscose rayon. The film Lint And Linen (youtube) covers both pre-industrial and mechanical linen-production (though mostly focused on yarn from line fibres rather than from tow, which was the Strand mill’s claim to fame (Duffy Rafferty)); the painting appears to present a more primitive and imaginary age in which fibres could be spun using the human hand.
For photographs of the old mill on the Trade Centre, see previously the image of A Block in Strand Spinning Mill.
“Spinning memories” is the name of a planned collection of stories for an archive at Portview (Portview Stories).
Townsley Street, east Belfast, next to the White Witch and facing Aslan Is On The Move.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Francis “Frank” McKelvey grew up at 56 Woodvale Road (based on Lennon Wylie and the blue plaque on the wall at this address – Street View). That would put him a stone’s throw from Woodvale Park, which provides the backdrop for this new mural at the end of Woodvale Street. The photograph reproduced, of “Woodvale park pond”, can be seen on the Old Shankill Fb page. The pond was filled in after the second World War (City Council). McKelvey’s ‘A Summer’s Day‘ is perhaps of Woodvale Park pond. He died in 1974 (Ulster History Circle).
By Holly Hooks (ig) in Woodvale Street, west Belfast.
March 24th
February 14th
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Paddy Duffy Collection 