Category: Logo: Nuala with the Hula

Connswater Greenway

25 October, 2016 / samkendal

Van Morrison, CS Lewis & George Best

The third stage of Connswater Community Greenway, which includes The Hollow and Conns Bridge has been opened. The £40 Million Greenway Project will transform the Knock, Loop and Connswater Rivers turning them into an environmental asset. It will help flood management and widen public accessibility. The Project includes 26 new or improved bridges, 10miles of foot and cycle paths and the CS Lewis Square.

East Belfast has many famous sons including Van Morrison, CS Lewis and George Best. Van grew up in nearby Hyndford Street, knew the Hollow and went to Orangefield Boys School. He sings about the Hollow in Brown Eyed Girl. See the video below

Hey, where did we go, Days when the rains came Down in the hollow, Playing a new game, Laughing and a-running, hey, hey, skipping and a-jumping In the misty morning fog with, Our, our hearts a-thumping And you, my brown-eyed girl, You, my brown-eyed girl.

CS Lewis, a novelist, poet and academic grew up in Sydenham and wrote the Chronicles of Narnia.

George Best, who was possibly the greatest footballer the world has ever seen, grew up in nearby Cregagh. A local wall once bore the following graffiti:

Pele Brilliant

Maradona Fantastic

George Best

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AsvlJSU6qE

Genealogy is an insight to local history. The Greenway is steeped in the local history of East Belfast. It winds its way through the communities of Braniel, Castlereagh, Loopland, Clarawood, Orangefield, Bloomfield, Beersbridge, Avoniel, The Arches, Mersey Street and Sydenham. Along its way it encounters our industrial heritage including the Castlereagh Industrial Estate, Owen O’Cork Mills and the Belfast Rope Works. It terminates at the Sam Thompson Bridge in Victoria Park, adjacent to Shorts Aircraft Factory and Harland & Wolff Ship Yard, the birth place of the Titanic.

For more see Connswater Community Greenway

Mount Rushmore does Bohemian Rhapsody

26 May, 2016 / samkendal

We have seen a moving Nuala with the Hula, a dancing Lady Liberty, heard Molly Malone and now, Mount Rushmore does Bohemian Rhapsody!!!

Mount Rushmore, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, depicts the faces of four US Presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

Doane Robinson had the original idea for a monument as a means of developing and promoting tourism in the area. The granite monument was sculpted by Danish-American Gutzon Borglum and his son, between 1927 and 1939.

Many Americans can trace their family origins back to Europe and American Presidents are no different. George Washington’s Great Grandfather was from Essex in England. However, he also had Dutch, French and Irish ancestors. Thomas Jefferson’s mother was from Tower Hamlets in London but he was also of West Indian descent. Although Theodore Roosevelt had predominately Dutch ancestry, he also had a Great, Great, Grandfather from Scotland and another from Donegal in Ireland. Abraham Lincoln’s roots have been traced back to Norfolk in England but it is believed he also had, Dutch and Scots-Irish ancestry.

Research Ancestors Ireland can help trace your ancestry. Please see the contact form.

Molly Malone

10 May, 2016 / samkendal

Belfast’s Nuala with the Hula, New York’s Lady Liberty and now Dublin’s Molly Malone. Honestly, although I come from a seafaring family, I don’t have a girl in every port.

Molly’s statue which dates from 1988 originally stood in Dublin’s Grafton Street before being relocated to Suffolk Street in 2014. She is an attraction for many tourists visiting Dublin, including those tracing their Irish ancestry and family history. Her buxom nature is purely incidental! As with many Dublin statues, she has a nickname: The Tart with the Cart.

The Molly Malone song tells a tale of a 17^th century fishmonger and hawker who traded from a cart on the streets of Dublin. One story suggests she plied a different trade by night!! Poor Molly caught the fever and died prematurely. She is immortalised in the song of her name, sometimes referred to as “Cockles and Mussels” or In “In Dublin’s Fair City”.

Liberty Lives

29 April, 2016 / samkendal

Nuala with the Hula is not alone

Sometime ago I posted Belfast’s Nuala with the Hula playing hoopla. Nuala has now found a kindred spirit: a moving Lady Liberty.

Like Nuala, New York’s Statue of Liberty has a long standing connection with genealogy. The statue is an icon of the United States and was a welcoming sight to many Irish, Scottish, English, Welsh and other European immigrants arriving from abroad. She is located on Ellis Island and was the gateway for over 12 million immigrants to the United States.

The Ellis Island Foundation projects include a museum, The American Immigrant Wall of Honor and the American Family Immigration History Center. The Centre is a valuable resource when researching family history

To find out more, click on the following link:

Nuala Lives!!

29 March, 2016 / samkendal

Meet our new genealogist, Nuala. She lives on the banks of the River Lagan in Belfast and is eager to trace your Ancestry.

Nuala by Night

23 March, 2016 / samkendal

Met this girl by the river last night.

Isn’t she beautiful?

Nuala with the Hula

21 March, 2016 / samkendal

A number of people have asked me about my logo. It represents the Thanksgiving Statue which stands on the banks of the River Lagan in Belfast. It was constructed in 2007 and is almost 20 metres high.

As with other public works of art in Ireland the sculpture has been given several nicknames. These include:

Nuala with the Hula

The Belle on the Ball

The Thing with the Ring

She represents various themes associated with hope, aspiration, peace and reconciliation and is derived from images of Classical and Celtic mythology. Her position on the globe signifies a unified approach to life on this earth. It encompasses oneness, while celebrating the diversity of culture. The globe at her feet indicates the universal philosophy of peace, harmony and thanksgiving, and has marked on its surface the cities where the people and industries of Belfast migrated and exported to.

The aim of the sculpture is to bring people together, change hearts and minds and to make bridges across the divides in our community.

As a genealogist I believe researching your ancestry, discovering your family history and developing your family tree gives you an insight into your own social history and provides an opportunity to understand others.