community

New Lodge Then And Now

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This pair of murals, on the New Lodge Road, Belfast, contrasts life for young people in the “1900s” to life in “2000”. Instead of working (and dying – in the headlines from the Irish News) in mills, they work in fast-food restaurants and drive black taxis (and suffer unemployment, suicide, and anorexia – again, in the newspaper), and instead of playing in the streets and wrapping themselves in blankets, they sit on walls and drink.

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Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
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Pushing For Others

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Joe Hughes was confined to a wheelchair and could not speak or properly use his hands. Nonetheless, he became a boy scout, visited Lourdes and Rome, and raised thousands of pounds for disability causes. He was awarded an MBE and a People Of The Year award. The board includes a poem by Brian Smeaton and a biography of Joe.

Beechview Park, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2001 Peter Moloney
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Scenes From Yesteryear

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Here are two murals from Alexandra Place (off Foyle Road), Derry, one of a train running through the countryside and the other of a street of terraced houses. According to McLaughlin 1999, the person on the bicycle is SDLP councillor and former Derry mayor Mary Bradley; the mural was paint-bombed.

Both were painted by Bogside Artist Tom Kelly, as was a mural in similar “photographic” style (to the second image) in Gobnascale (see D00501).

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Copyright © 1993 Peter Moloney
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Divis Flats

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Four images from Divis Flats, Belfast, in 1985.  First and second, the two murals in the middle of the complex, both from 1981, one to INLA volunteers Matt McLarnon (killed in action on 12 May, 1981) and Danny Loughran (killed by the OIRA on 5 April, 1975) and the other (on the left) a street scene from yesteryear, part of the City Council’s Community Services programme from 1977 to 1981 (see chapter 2 of Bill Rolston’s Politics & Painting). Third, “Touts beware”. Fourth, “Stop the strip searches” on the top of the flats (to the right of faded “Divis Flats supports the hunger strikers”).

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Copyright © 1985 Peter Moloney
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