Belfast gable wall graffiti

[touchingcloth]

Are there more gable ends in Belfast than other cities, or do the Belfasters just spraypaint their local gable ends more readily?

[Magnum Valentino]

Second one.

There's a few I'd love to take a photo of because the drawings of the local violence icons look like they've been drawn by wee boys but I'm too afraid I'd be seen, caught and hid.

Same goes for the photoshopped reelection poster of Trimble on the Donegal road where the head and face are different colours and facing different directions, but I think I did grab a sneaky snap of that one once.

[imitationleather]

Ah, you shouldn't be scared. They love people taking photos!

[imitationleather]

Actually I have no idea whether that is true or not.

But I reckon it's fine.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

If anyone challenges you, just agree with the mural.

[JesusAndYourBush]

I remember in the 90's a friend of a friend being there on holiday and wanting a cab to take them down Falls Road so they could photograph the murals but the cabbie refused to stop so the best they got were some photos taken through the cab window.

I suppose you could see them on Google Maps although the stupid algorithm will have blurred out all the faces probably.

[idunnosomename]

[dissolute ocelot]

You can do tours these days, get a local to show you round, and take all the photos you want.

As to the number of gables - I guess they don't like putting windows in them or making more of a feature? Maybe they get broken. Possibly some arise from demolitions of part of a terrace: there are places where they knocked down buildings to stick a wall up, but that's only a minority.

[touchingcloth]

Yeah, I was going to ask if windowless gables are more of a thing over there, or if there are any examples where a window has been worked into the graffiti, perhaps featuring as, say, Goatse's anus.

[Magnum Valentino]

The beauty of this struck me as I lay unsleeping last night. It is fantastic.

[Glebe]

[Mr Farenheit]

[bgmnts]

I imagine you're able to appreciate the beauty of some street art without being linked to the political message. Tricky though.

[Goldentony]

'Clownquiff, East Belfast' ?????

[An tSaoi]

I imagine you're able to appreciate the beauty of some street art without being linked to the political message. Tricky though.

I was in Derry recently, and I was surprised at how bad the murals are. Really quite shit. The likenesses are almost comical, like that bad waxworks thread. But you can't laugh because you look at the captions and it's meant to be a 12 year old girl who got shot in the head by paratroopers and what have you.

I remember being amazed when I saw the famous Free Derry sign for the first time, years ago. I always thought it was the side of an actual house, but it's just one freestanding gable. It's like when you see those photos of the pyramids from the other side, and it's all Cairo in the background.

[touchingcloth]

I was in Derry recently, and I was surprised at how bad the murals are. Really quite shit. The likenesses are almost comical, like that bad waxworks thread. But you can't laugh because you look at the captions and it's meant to be a 12 year old girl who got shot in the head by paratroopers and what have you.

Can't you laugh? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Oh, it doesn't feel very good, though. I'll make a donation.

[Bereft Isabella]

Second one.

There's a few I'd love to take a photo of because the drawings of the local violence icons look like they've been drawn by wee boys but I'm too afraid I'd be seen, caught and hid.

Same goes for the photoshopped reelection poster of Trimble on the Donegal road where the head and face are different colours and facing different directions, but I think I did grab a sneaky snap of that one once.

Noone will give a fuck if you take a photo!

[dissolute ocelot]

They should open an Ian Paisley theme park with giant animatronic Paisleys and flying red hands and all the murals. And maybe an IRA one for the Catholics. It's no more tasteless than "we built a ship that sank!"

[Fambo Number Mive]

Instead of teacups you can sit in giant bowler hats and go round and round.

Get your face painted red white and blue/orange white and green depending on which theme park you are in.

[NoOffenceLynn]

Bit of an old antidote here but my mum was a nurse who worked in the Republic of Ireland with people who were disabled due to an illness or a car accident etc. They all had to use wheelchairs, but were completely sound and on the ball. Unfortunately still some people just see a wheelchair and think they must be "a bit dence"

On a day trip up to the North of Ireland every vehicle was checked at the border, this included the large minibus they were using, the British army could get on, fully armed and it would take an age to go through everything and everyone.

So my mum and her colleagues used to say "we are coming up to a checkpoint now, you know what to do" so everyone,  including my mum and her colleagues used to pull what l can only describe as a "Derek face" the army waved them through in 2 seconds.
And wanted absolutely nothing to do with them.

So there's a top tip for you all if you're planning on smuggling anything across the border. I think sausages are the issue at the moment due to Brexit and the GFA.


ETA once they were in Northern Ireland everyone treated them with the respect and dignity that everyone deserves.
Northern Ireland a great bunch of lads :)

[Mr Banlon]

This sort of shit will be coming to England soon I reckon. We've already started with the flag fuckeree and the 'Tomorrow Belongs To Me' song for kids bollocks. Big mural of Nige or Tommeh in a white area that's close to a muslim community. Maybe a gable end overlooking an asylum centre with a massive painting of one of those soldiers who was found not guilty of shooting unarmed Afghans.

[Ambient Sheep]

Noone will give a fuck if you take a photo!

Yeah, I stayed with a friend in the area for a week back in 2012 and she gave me a tour of the murals and so forth, there was no issue taking photos.

Politics have got more tense since then, obviously, but if you say it's still fine I'm more than happy to believe you. :-)

[Butchers Blind]

This sort of shit will be coming to England soon I reckon. We've already started with the flag fuckeree and the 'Tomorrow Belongs To Me' song for kids bollocks. Big mural of Nige or Tommeh in a white area that's close to a muslim community. Maybe a gable end overlooking an asylum centre with a massive painting of one of those soldiers who was found not guilty of shooting unarmed Afghans.

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/maidstone/news/striking-pub-mural-honours-wartime-hero-249565/

[touchingcloth]

I've just commissioned "a lad" to do a Captain Tommeh memorial on my gable end. He's battering a Muslim with his Zimmer frame. And in the picture he's going to be making tender love to a cenotaph.

[Ronnie the Raincoat]

There's a great website collating the most notable murals by area here: http://www.belfast-murals.co.uk/

I live in Belfast near a Loyalist area and having grown up in Nationalist West Belfast what always strikes me about the Loyalist ones is how shit the art is and how violent the imagery in Loyalist murals are compared to the romanticism of Nationalist ones. Two random examples:





If you do ever go on a taxi tour, please don't write on the Cupar Way Falls/Shankill peace wall because it makes you look like a dick and locals hate the asinine messages people leave.