Signs, Signs: Beachcomber Mural

My neighbourhood is enriched by this colourful wraparound mural decorating  the outside of a manufacturing plant just minutes from my home.

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Painted by international artist and muralist, Paul Ygartua, it is the largest such work done entirely by hand.  

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Ygartua was commissioned to do this work in 2000 by Keith Scott, founder of Beachcomber Hot Tubs. Titled 'Legends of the Millennium', it recently underwent a touch up by the artist and once more bursts with life.

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 Mr. Scott's vision has provided a piece that belongs  in, and to, the community. As good art should, it gives pleasure, elicits reflection and is accessible for all to enjoy.

The walls celebrate  those who impacted our lives in the last century. Religious leaders, sports heroes and film stars are but a few of those represented in the 31 figures the mural portrays. I wonder how many you can name on sight...I admit that a couple of them still give me pause.

It is stunning to remember in what extraordinary ways these exceptional individuals have enriched the quality of our lives, and more importantly, how they've served to remind us that absolutely nothing is impossible if we back up our dreams with hard work and relentless determination.
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Being a great fan of basketball, I end with Michael Jordan, whose unwavering focus has always filled me with awe... 

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I'm linking this post to Lesley's wonderful 'Signs, Signs' meme. For more signs from around the world, do drop in for a visit!

 http://signs2.blogspot.com/

I would also like to dedicate this post to Klaus Peter, an astonishing wildlife photographer and naturalist. Klaus was founder of That's My World, and owner-administrator of Skywatch.  He will be missed by the many of us who've come to love his work, and the generosity with which he shared his knowledge and his spirit.
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You won't be forgotten, Klaus...
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 http://www.showyourworld.blogspot.com/
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http://skyley.blogspot.com/
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Signs, Signs: Belfast Murals

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The Twelfth of July parades in Belfast and elsewhere in Northern Ireland commemorate the victory of Protestant King William of Orange over Catholic King James II at the Battle of The Boyne in 1690. People begin celebrating this event on the Eleventh Night with the lighting of huge bonfires that have been months in the building.

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Gathering fuel for the fire...

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This ‘marching season’, as it is known, historically re-ignites sectarian violence. Members of the Orange Order assert their right to walk with Protestant marching bands along the same route every year, accompanied by the racous protests of nationalist groups decrying what they consider a  blatant show of Unionist dominance over their Catholic neighbourhoods.

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This year was no exception:

violence broke out and

riot police were called

upon to deal with the

hooligans.

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On a visit home a few years ago, I took
pictures of the murals that were painted
at the height of the Troubles.

These murals are beautiful, horrifying
 and heartbreaking
 all at once…they are people’s lives and
hearts laid open for
 the world to see.

I pray that my beloved Northern Ireland will one day find its way to a lasting peace that recognizes each of her citizens as equal and free...

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For more signs from all over, pop into Lesley's wonderful meme and check them out...

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http://signs2.blogspot.com/
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If you'd like to know more about Northern Ireland and the Troubles, you might enjoy a few of my earlier posts...
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http://imaginationlane.blogspot.com/2010/08/city-divided.html
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http://imaginationlane.blogspot.com/2010/07/young-of-belfast.html
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http://imaginationlane.blogspot.com/2010/07/immigrant-experience.html
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A City Divided

A ‘Peace Line’ cuts the capital city of Northern Ireland in half. Euphemistically named, it is actually a series of twenty-six walls of brick and corrugated iron that separate the Catholic and Protestant communities in Belfast. It was built in the tumultuous years of religious and political strife known as the Troubles, but even today, gates in the walls are locked each evening and every weekend.

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Tour guides are quick to point out that it’s best to stay with one’s own, and take no risks going into areas where a welcome is not assured.
It is the familiar mantra of my childhood, made all the more chilling by decades of strife that have made this division worse, not better.

On a visit to my birth city three years ago, I was devastated to see the damage that’s been done in the name of liberation. In thirty plus years of civil war, the city has ceased to grow. Though my first time back in many years, I might have stepped off a bus anywhere and found my way to the town centre, so little has the city grown in size.

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The ravages of time are evident on every street. The ubiquitous Peace Line fences abruptly end streets, and
are boldly marked with sectarian graffiti.

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On a rain-soaked day, we drove past Divis Tower, situated by the fence that separates the opposing factions of the Falls Road and the Shankill Road. It is the sixth tallest building in Belfast...in the Seventies, the British Army occupied the top two floors. It was a hot spot during the Troubles, particulary after an Army sniper at the top shot and killed an IRA member on the ground below.

Ruin is to be found everywhere.

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The Crumlin Road Courthouse was designed by architect, Charlie Lanyon.

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A stunningly beautiful building, it closed its doors in 1998, and sits unused behind a tall fence topped with barbed wire.
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Everything about Belfast has been changed by the fighting. Today, it resembles nothing more than a war zone. Indeed, it brings to mind the Israeli Apartheid Wall between Israel and Palestinian West Bank, which has its own bloody history of confrontation. The similarities are patently obvious, and equally distressing. When will we start breaking down walls, not building more? When will human life become more important than religious differences or property lines? I don’t have an answer, but I know we must find one.

Israeli Apartheid Wall

http://mondediplo.com/2010/01/20palestine







Belfast Murals Wall

We are a planet in crisis. No longer do we have the luxury, or the promise, of pristine air and bountiful food for all. As a species, we are using up resources at a faster rate than they can be replenished. Greed and selfishness have become the driving forces that threaten our children’s futures, and put the whole world in peril. This is not a time to divide, but to unify. We are one family on earth, no matter which God we chose to follow,
and like a family, must trust one another and work together to heal our weary world. .

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At the end of our first day in Belfast, still reeling with shock at the desecration of my beloved city, we took a stroll along the banks of the River Lagan that I’d walked so often as a child. Here, little had changed. The beautiful green hills that Ireland is known for were freshly splashed with spring rain, and the pristine river was still home to the stately swans I had always admired. As if to remind us that beauty can thrive even in the midst
of horror, the sun peeked through the clouds and a glorious rainbow began to form in front of our eyes.

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I choose to see it is a sign of things to come, an acknowledgement that dreadful damage can be undone, and reason can prevail once more.

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For the sake of the world's future, I have to believe that I 'm right.