Grannymar

I think I am headed in the right direction….

Not far to go….

I found it!

Anne ~ Slate resin figure on Mirror polished stainless steel
Sculptor ~ Lucy Glendinning

A 7m high mirror polished stainless steel column with internal lighting a laser cut pattern with coloured perspex insets and a life size figure cast in slate resin. The figure faces Saint Anne’s Cathedral.

On Lucy Glendinning‘s website, not alone can you learn about her but, see her commissions, exhibitions and read her poetry.

Anne is a commissioned sculpture for Saint Anne’s Square, the new city centre piazza behind Saint Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast. The sculpture was installed in November 2009.

A multi £million leisure, commercial and residential development on redeveloped land in the Cathedral Quarter, it was partially open when I visited. This elegant scheme will comprise of ground floor bars and restaurants with turnkey offices at ground and first floor level.

Rising over four floors from the second level will be residential apartments. The focal point of the development will be a new 14,000 sq ft piazza creating a new public space with potential for performing arts and events. An hotel is already open on one corner of the scheme.

The Metropolitan Arts Centre (MAC) is set to open in early 2102.  The venue, will be six storeys high with two theatres, visual arts space and dance studios.

Joy’s Entry – What a lovely name.

It is very narrow and connects Ann Street to High Street.

Home to several pubs, such as McCrackens Cafe Bar.

The Entry takes its name from the Joy family who were prominent 18th Century residents of the city. Francis McCracken, shipowner, married Anne Joy, daughter of Francis Joy. The Joy family made their money in linen manufacture and Francis Joy McCracken was founder of the Belfast Newsletter in 1737. It was first printed here in Joy’s Entry.

Henry Joy McCracken, a grandson of Francis, became interested in radical politics and joined the Society of the United Irishmen in 1795. He was court martialled and hanged at Corn Market, Belfast, not many yards from Joy’s Entry in July 1798, on land his grandfather had donated to the city.

The best view is from the Ann Street end.

I saw soft colour

and a sharp spike

The Spire of hope atop St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast.

More anon…

Before the drop in temperatures that are promised over the next while, I am off to air the camera.

I wonder if they have harvested the leaves yet?

It was the colour that drew me to this entrance.

A colourful doorway in Belfast that holds a surprise:

A Doorway to learning Circus Skills!

My New Year Toast

May the year ahead open doors

to interesting and heart warming experiences

for all my readers.

Flying Cow Batman, do you see what I see?

A coffee shop, in Royal Avenue, Belfast.

A closer look

I didn’t have time to go inside and explore, and much as I tried, I found no info on the Interwebbythingy, so I have chalked it up for a visit on another day.

Not today since this is Magic Money Day, or so I gather from the radio… we are expected to believe that £Millions will be spent today on the last Saturday before Christmas.

Perhaps the traders will accept Monopoly money.  Don’t laugh. Go back and listen to all the newsreels for the past months.  Every hour we were told THERE IS NO MONEY anywhere in the Western World!

Winecellar Entry

Winecellar Entry is a small Entry just off Lombard Street, it is home to White’s Tavern, a popular pub founded in 1630. Whilst considered to be the longest serving pub in Belfast, it has largely been rebuilt after a fire in the 1990s.

Belfast has a series of historical narrow alleyways  they are mainly to be found in the vicinity of High Street and Ann Street. It is thought they date back to at least, if not before 1630, these entries are the oldest parts of Belfast city. In days long gone, they played an important part in the residential and business life of the then town – now city.

The names gracing these alleyways are almost romantic and I intend returning to them at a future date.

Donegall Street Place

I found this archway in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter,
you will find it beside the John Hewitt Bar.

John Hewitt

Just a little taste…. I will return to it again tomorrow.
The entry, and not the Bar!

In the meantime take a closer look at the bicycle below:

Every turn of the wheel is a revolution.

Thanksgiving Sculpture ~ Stainless Steel & Bronze
Sculptor ~ Andy Scott

Sculptor Andy Scott graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1987. He is a figurative sculptor who works in steel and bronze, combining traditional figurative symbolism with contemporary fabrication techniques.

This sculpture measures 19.5 metres & is made of stainless steel and cast bronze. It celebrates the spirit of thanksgiving and regeneration. The female figure holds a ring of thanksgiving and the globe at her feet refers to universal peace and harmony, it has marked on its surface the cities where the people and industries of Belfast migrated and exported to.

As with other public works of art in Ireland the sculpture has been given several nicknames. These include the Beacon of Hope, the Nuala with the Hula, the Bell on the Ball and the Thing with the Ring.

Designer stripes or peeling paint?  Doorway to a store house on West Pier in Howth, Dublin.

Toyboys playing on the pier.

Having a chat.

Howth Lighthouse

Any Food for me?