New Star of the Sea artwork at Stella Maris, Sailortown Belfast

A community-led collaborative arts project in the Sailortown area of Belfast, has created a new triptych which reflects the history of the area, the connection it has to seafaring and the community spirit which ties them together. 

The triptych, which now hangs on the walls of Stella Maris, and other new arts work were formally unveiled by John Finucane, MP and includes the work of residents of Stella Maris.

Stella Maris provides a home for up to 23 long-term homeless street drinkers. Radius housing are the landlord for Stella Marris, DePaul Ireland are the partner organisation who run the service.

The project, co-ordinated by Radius Housing, is a collaboration between Stella Maris residents, Sailortown Regeneration Women’s Group and young people from New Lodge Arts, who have worked with Eleanor Wheeler, an architectural ceramicist and sculptor, to create the triptych.

Hope, help and moving forward

A triptych of ceramic panels symbolise the notion of hope, help and moving forward to a positive future, using imagery of gulls as a metaphor for strength, a message in a bottle, light buoy and life preserver depicting survival on rough seas. The artwork also references the main window in St Joseph’s Church, (now a community hub), which is the main feature in the central panel, incorporating a compass rose and ships wheel. 

Three smaller panels depict a stevedore and a mill worker: men and women that were the mainstay of the Sailortown working community. Along with the central Stella Maris compass image, these are linked together by rope knots (stevedore knot, sheet bend, figure of eight), symbolising the strength of community and unique identity of the area.

 Made from terracotta, carved in relief, fired and glazed, the artwork and its colours reflect the maritime location and themes and also visually link the city of Belfast, with the delft and majolica ceramic panels from other sea faring nations; Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands.

Melted bottle glass are included as highlights throughout the panels, along with gold lustre and the whole work is framed with moulded tiles depicting stylised waves with sailors’ buttons in the corners.

Sense of belonging

Catherine McGarrell, Project Group Manager at Stella Maris, Depaul, added: "This mural collaboration has been a really positive experience for each of our service users in Stella Maris. It has given them a sense of belonging within the Sailortown community and has shown them that the community is a safe place to be. 

The experience of homelessness can be disenfranchising, but this project has helped to break down the visible and invisible barriers that people who are homeless face and has given community members an opportunity to get to know them as individuals. 

A lot of our service users are highly skilled or educated but have fallen on hard times and it really brought it home that any one of us could find ourselves in their situation. When people have a stake in their community, great things can happen. Our focus now is on strengthening these relationships and solidarity within the Sailortown community."

Find more more about the work done by DePaul at Stella Maris here.