URBAN EXPRESSION AND DEPRESSION

Street Photography That Highlights Urban Life

A7RIII

MONUMENT TO THE UNKNOWN WOMAN WORKER

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LOUISE WALSH FROM CORK IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS SCULPTURE IN BELFAST

The Monument to the Unknown Woman Worker is a 1992 sculpture by Louise Walsh in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

I first photographed this sculpture in June 2014 and again in May 2018 and I must admit that I like it.

The sculpture is located on the city’s Great Victoria Street adjacent to the Europa Hotel. It is cast in bronze and features two working-class women with symbols of women’s work embedded on the surfaces. Domestic items such as colanders, a shopping basket and clothes pegs are part of the sculpture.

The Department of the Environment’s original commission, in the late 1980s, was for an artwork to reflect the nearby Amelia Street’s history as a red-light district. Walsh’s design “Monument to the Unknown Woman Worker” was accepted by the project’s landscape architect and the Art in Public Spaces Research Group, however the Belfast Development Office and the Belfast City Council opposed the project and the selected design, and the project was dropped in 1989. A few years later a private developer recommissioned the work and it was erected in 1992 (30 years ago).

Walsh was born in County Cork, and received her MA in sculpture from the University of Ulster.

LOUISE WALSH FROM CORK IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS SCULPTURE IN BELFAST

A SHAPE SHIFTING FLOCK OF STARLINGS KNOWN AS A MURMURATION

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BELFAST CITY AT NIGHT MARCH 2019

Unfortunately while I did take a number of photographs this was the only one that was useable as the low light performance of my camera is not the best.

A shape-shifting flock of thousands of starlings, called a murmuration, is amazing to see.

Ireland hosts hundreds of thousands of Starlings from numerous countries all over northern Europe each winter, and every evening they group together and perform mesmerising murmurations before settling down to roost together for the night. Wherever you are in Ireland, keep an eye on the sky from around an hour before sunset and you’ll likely see groups of Starlings all flying in the same direction – to a local lake to roost in the reedbeds on the lake fringes, or maybe to an area of forestry to roost in the trees.

NICE DAY AT WINDSOR TERRACE – PORTOBELLO AREA OF DUBLIN

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NICE DAY AT WINDSOR TERRACE – PORTOBELLO AREA OF DUBLIN

Portobello is an area of Dublin in Ireland, in the south city centre, bounded to the south by the Grand Canal.

It came into existence as a small suburb south of the city in the 18th century, centred on Richmond Street. During the following century it was completely developed, transforming an area of private estates and farmland into solid Victorian red-bricked living quarters for the middle classes on the larger streets, and terraced housing bordering the canal for the working classes.

As a fast-expanding suburb during the 19th century Portobello attracted many upwardly-mobile families whose members went on to play important roles in politics, the arts and the sciences. Towards the end of the century came an influx of Jews, refugees from pogroms in Eastern Europe, which gave the name “Little Jerusalem” to the area.

YOU ARE GOING TO REAP JUST WHAT YOU SOW BY CONLETH GENT

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YOU ARE GOING TO REAP JUST WHAT YOU SOW BY CONLETH GENT

Conleth Gent was born in Newbridge, Co. Kildare and studied at U.C.D. University College Dublin. His love of wood and working with wood can be clearly seen in each of his unique pieces. He is concerned mainly with personal expression through the use of figurative elements and occasionally abstract forms. His approach is individualistic, communicating something of the character of the particular piece of wood and his interaction and relationship with it.

NORTH CIRCULAR ROAD – PHIBSBOROUGH AREA

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NORTH CIRCULAR ROAD – PHIBSBOROUGH AREA

The North Circular Road, designated as R101 regional road, is an important thoroughfare on the north-side of Dublin, in Ireland.

The regional road was constructed as the northern boundary of the city, and was laid out with the South Circular Road in 1763. It is still considered to separate the city centre from the inner suburbs. It runs from the Phoenix Park in the west through Phibsboro, to North Wall in the east. A number of important institutions are located along the road, including the Mater Hospital, Dalymount Park and Mountjoy Prison, and both Croke Park and St. Brendan’s Hospital are nearby. The majority of the original, large Victorian red brick houses have been converted into flats or apartments.

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