Rise.

A typical scene in Belfast ... window cleaners zig zag along Donegall Pass in the early afternoon traffic as workers on Rise create what will be Belfast's biggest art installation.

Already "Rise" is nicknamed "Balls on the Falls"!  The traffic lights stopped me at Broadway roundabout today so I managed to snap a couple of quick pictures out of the car window.  This is going to be impressive.  The artist's impression is inspiring.

It is still hard to imagine it at this stage even though the work is well under way.  Wolfgang Butress has created an almost forty metre high double sphere which will be lit to resemble the rising sun ... these two globes of silver and white steel - the Bog Meadows are represented by the spikes that will support the balls.... I can't wait to see (and photograph) the finished product.  

   You're certainly not going to be able to miss it as you drive into the city!

It is a symbol of hope ... of a new future for Belfast ... 

Today was Saint Comgall's Day - he was the Abbot of Bangor Abbey in the sixth century and an example of scholarship and spirituality.  A prayer written by Brian Mayne to close: 

Almighty God,

you raised your Son to be Lord of Light and Saviour of our race

and to your saints have given wondrous grace:

We praise you for holy and learned Comgall

whose scholarship made this land

a bright shining light in ages of darkness:

Pour out your Spirit to renew your church in Ireland

making it once again a land of saints and scholars,

and bringing glory to your name:

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen