Belfast Memorials, Statues, and Street Art

This is going to be such a picture-heavy post! Sorry/not sorry.

Let’s start with the Glass of Thrones. Six large stained glass pieces, focusing on different aspects of Game of Thrones and the ten years the show was filmed in the area. Sadly I only saw four of them (ooo, I’ll have to go back!) because one I couldn’t find, and one had been temporarily removed because of some nearby construction.

Next, all of the wall art I saw – which was definitely not all of the wall art in the city! Some were art for art’s sake, some were memorials, some were art projects to beautify areas. All were eye-catching.

I mean. Can you imagine living in a city that has THIS MUCH art just… around? Can you imagine how thrilling it would be to be an artist living in a city like this?!

And there are also statues, everywhere. I love that I saw more statues of women than of men… something I’m not used to here in the States. Here, it’s almost an anomaly if you see a statue of a woman. In Belfast, it just seems natural.

And then there are a couple that I wanted to make their own little gallery.

First up, Beacon of Hope. 15 meters tall, made of steel tubes and a bronze cast globe, she towers over Thanksgiving Square and the Queen’s Bridge. She is beautiful.

And then, the Monument to the Unknown Woman Worker. The story I found out about this when I was researching to find the artist’s name….!

First off, the important part – the artist is Louise Walsh.

Some time in the late 80s, Belfast’s City Council had a competition to design a statue representing sex workers (I KNOW!) in honor of the history of the red-light district. Louise Walsh was irritated by the idea that the young women in the potential sculpture would be demeaned for being sex workers (she’s not wrong). Additionally, she wanted to honor all work women routinely do and don’t get acknowledgement for – not just sex work. So she widened her vision. In the spirit of the Unknown Soldier, she honored the unknown women and the thankless work they do in places from kitchens to offices to the nearby linen factories.

Her sculpture was chosen as the winning one, but, the City Council and the Belfast Development Office opposed it – so much so that the sculpture was cancelled, and banned from ever being put on public land (oh, the irony of a sculpture of women’s unacknowledged work being put in a position where it can’t be acknowledged….!). Eventually the sculpture was put up in the early 90s when a private developer recommissioned it and also provided the land for it to stand on, so that it wouldn’t be on public land.

Belfast. I absolutely love Belfast.