Night time in Randalstown, and the ‘Old Congregation’ Presbyterian Church stands aglow, a beacon of warmth and hope. Captured with my Fujifilm X-T50, this moment is a gentle reminder that even in the darkest times, light and love can shine through.
May we all find the love and light of Christ in our hearts this Christmas.
A visit to Kilcooley Estate in Bangor today, left me reminiscing about my teens and early twenties, when I lived with my parents and family on Owenroe Drive, – one of the main routes through this large social housing development, – the third largest in Northern Ireland.
A visit to the Co.Down town of Royal Hillsborough (The home of Hillsborough Castle – a Royal Residence) on Tuesday 30th September, gave me the opportunity to add another image to my collection of photographs of the town, made on a few earlier occasions.
The people I was visiting lived directly across the road from Hillsborough Presbyterian Church, and while on earlier visits I have been able to photograph the historic and beautiful Anglican Church building, this was my first chance to get up to the Presbyterian building.
Continue reading Royal Hillsborough ChurchesNo.2 Royal Avenue
I was wandering about Belfast City Centre, with the Fujifilm X-T50, and quite honestly, I was tired! It had been a busy week, and the old heart arrhythmia was playing up. I needed somewhere to sit down for a few minutes. It was then I came across No.2 Royal Avenue and being a public building, owned by Belfast City Council, I wandered in to see what was inside. It’s an open space inside, with lots of seating and a cafe, and a library and a piano, which someone was playing, – very nicely too. I took a seat, wondering how long it would be until someone came and asked me why I was there… But it didn’t happen.
The building, described by the City Council as an ‘Indoor Park,’ is for everyone to enjoy, and all are welcome. I sat inside the building for around 20 minutes, just to get my breath back, and rest my legs, and it was while I sat there that I noticed this truly magnificent dome, and as you’d expect, it was just asking to be photographed. (I did ask one of the staff members for permission – and they were most obliging, – there’s no problem with photos inside the building, so long as no-one else objects).
Continue reading No.2 Royal Avenue: A Community Hub in Belfast“The Watson”
Another gem of Belfast’s architectural heritage, this Grade B1 listed, triangular building (known locally as ‘the smoothing iron’) in Little Donegal Street, Belfast, was once the premises of Robert Watson’s furniture manufacturing company, suppliers of beds to the Royal family, and whose beds were installed in many luxury liners built in Harland and Wolff, the Belfast shipyard, including the Titanic. The building was designed by William J Fennel and built between 1898 and 1907, originally known as ‘Library House.’
Chapel Lane Belfast
As a boy of 12 or so years of age, so, in the late 1960s, a real treat was a Saturday afternoon in Belfast City Centre with my grandfather, – for although he seemed to spend ages browsing through the stock in various tool and equipment stores, – what would probably be known now as DIY shops. But the compensation for this period of boredom would be when we eventually got to Smithfield, the old ‘shambles’ style covered market in between Royal Avenue and Millfield, off Gresham Street. Smithfield wasn’t a market with stalls, nor a modern style shopping centre, but a unique shambles of musty run-down outlets packed with books, records, tools, second hand furniture, bric-a-brac and much much more, including a popular ‘joke shop’ – every small boy’s favourite.
To get to Smithfield from the city centre bus stops required a walk along Queen’s Street, and then along Chapel Lane, and past the Roman Catholic Church of St Mary, and its strange and imposing Marian shrine. To a small boy, not of the Catholic persuasion, and unused to Catholic piety, the shrine appeared mysterious, unwelcoming and even frightening. We hurried past it with eyes looking away and heads bowed.
Clash of Construction
A city centre walk around Belfast brought me to Royal Avenue,, where classic Victorian architecture clashes with garish modernism. This example stands out…
Fujifilm X-T50 F=18mm, f/5.6 @ 1/60th sec, on ISO80.
I’m always glad to be asked to provide press photography coverage for events, everything from business conferences to lobbying groups meeting at Stormont to church events and occasions.
This recent project was a church installation service at Dromore, Co.Down…
Holywood, Co.Down is a (rather posh!) suburb in North Down, between Belfast and Bangor, and part of Northern Ireland’s gold coast, – the so called ’stockbroker belt.’ I happened to be driving through it on Monday 1st September 2025, en-route to Newtownards. As I drove past St Colmcille’s Catholic Church, I reminded myself that I’d promised to take a closer look at this remarkable building, set high on a hill on the approach to the town, a fusion of an old bell-tower and a modern circular building. So, on my return journey, I stopped for twenty minutes or so, armed with the Fujifilm X-T50.
Caught a moment of calm, just off the hustle and bustle of Belfast’s busy Royal Avenue, a homeless street person, lost in the pages of a book, challenges our perceptions, reminding us that not everyone in those circumstances is there because of illiteracy or wasted opportunities, or substance addiction. For the photographer, such stories can be found everywhere, even in the most unexpected places.
The Fujifilm X-T50 captured this seemingly contradictory slice of life.
Continue reading Street Stories: A Book in the Chaos of Belfast
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