Mural in East Belfast is removed and redesigned with the support of the local community

Mural in East Belfast is removed and redesigned with the support of the local community

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A former paramilitary mural in East Belfast now celebrates the success of local ice hockey team the Belfast Giants.

The mural on Lord Street in the east of the city is part of a project to get paramilitary murals painted over with images of a shared history.

People in the Lord Street area of East Belfast have been involved in a three year consultation process to get UDA and UFF images, as well as old rundown murals, replaced with pictures of well known boxers and the Belfast Giants.

Gable walls are being painted over with new murals and street names are being spray painted on in a modern style while red, white and blue kerbs have also been replaced and areas used to dump rubbish replaced with new paving in a push to regenerate the area.

This weekend one of the nine murals was unveiled with its new image. Glen Black, one of the Blaze FX artists involved in creating the new images, said it was about “translating” the view of the community into images.

The project has been run by both the Charter NI and the Housing Executive. Charter NI were able to drive the project after securing £30,000 funding from the Housing Executive’s Community Cohesion budget to oversee the project.

The Lord Street re-imaging project forms part of a wider regeneration strategy for the area called The Diamond Project, which includes plans to bring empty social housing back into use and develop an environmental scheme alongside the Housing Executive, Charter NI and other organisations.