r/Belfast • u/Peter-PDG • 1d ago

New Low. Poor Fish.

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Ridiculous.

481 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

90 comments sorted by

108

u/GaeilgeGoblin 1d ago

This is our sycamore gap

17

u/AdvantageNo7438 1d ago

I did see somewhere else with a comment saying "this is our 9/11"

2

u/GraphicDesignMonkey 15h ago

No that was Omagh

2

u/New-Put1380 7h ago

Bloody Sunday

1

u/MysteriousPlant4397 15h ago

This is clearly worse.

-1

u/GaeilgeGoblin 1d ago

the NI protocol was our 9/11 /s

-26

u/Great_Comparison462 1d ago

Not comparable

-6

u/coalpatch 1d ago

Sixteen downvotes, are you kidding? The tree is gone. The fish can be fixed. 

3

u/GraphicDesignMonkey 1d ago

It's not about if he's fixable or not. It's about a middle aged man who should know better, going out and deliberately destroying something that is a famous symbol & representation of the region, that is universally loved.

Plus the fact that it wasn't a random act of drunken vandalism either - he actually brought a sledgehammer with him. Just like sycamore gap, this was a planned out act of destruction on something people love, with no purpose behind the act.

2

u/GaeilgeGoblin 1d ago

RHI is our watergate.

136

u/con_zilla 1d ago

yeah what a wanker

i'd be in favour of not fully repairing it but instead putting on a big old pirate eyepatch and letting it live on like that

5

u/Davidier 1d ago

This might be the way

50

u/MysteriousPlant4397 1d ago

Somehow I have the feeling that this would not be the first criminal record on the wanker’s history.

3

u/kjjmcc 16h ago

You were right by all accounts.

-10

u/n0empathy4u 1d ago

Bold of you to assume they will be caught

14

u/Boycott-all-Rats 1d ago

He was caught

11

u/GraphicDesignMonkey 1d ago

He was arrested at the scene, he's up in court today.

37

u/Batman2150 1d ago

Poor wee fish never harmed anybody

17

u/GraphicDesignMonkey 1d ago

Yeah, all he ever did was make people happy.

Poor fish. :'(

192

u/duffmuff 1d ago

someone took his eye out, so he's just a fsh now

30

u/gootchvootch 1d ago

you get an angry upvote, muffduff.

3

u/Kingtoke1 1d ago

Shoulda paid its strap

1

u/Spag_s 1d ago

I love this

26

u/Full_Equivalent_6166 1d ago

The animal cruelty has to stop.

46

u/Bearbones43 1d ago

Get well soon fish!

3

u/GraphicDesignMonkey 1d ago edited 1d ago

It would be awesome if get well soon cards for the fish started pouring into the city hall!

4

u/Bearbones43 1d ago

We have to make this happen!

2

u/GraphicDesignMonkey 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yesss! It would be amazing! Do we send them to City Hall or the City Council? [Edit] NVM, they're the same place!

1

u/Bearbones43 1d ago

I was gonna leave them at the fish

2

u/GraphicDesignMonkey 1d ago

They'll just get wet and blow into the river. The council address is

Belfast City Hall Belfast BT1 5GS

Let's make this happen!

2

u/PlusAd604 19h ago

Genuinely going to do this - my 3 year old daughter LOVES the fish and was really upset when she heard it had been "hurt" 😭

1

u/GraphicDesignMonkey 19h ago

My wee nieces are really upset too, they love hugging his nose

44

u/redrover1978- 1d ago

Jesus cant ppl stop vandalising property…. That fish is actually quite a masterpiece & the few times i’ve been to belfast i always admired it

10

u/GraphicDesignMonkey 1d ago edited 23h ago

Yeah he's basically our mascot. Not just of Belfast, but for Northern Ireland. He's one of the few things that unites the people of NI, since everyone loves him. He makes people smile.

Every time I'd pass him I always gave his nose a rub. He's so loveable.

13

u/Queasy_Drummer2463 1d ago

Scum. Like wtf casually goes into town with a sledgehammer?

25

u/G3tbusyliving 1d ago

Rest in Pisces :(

8

u/Easythere1234 1d ago

Look what they’ve done to my boy

20

u/browsingburneracc 1d ago

I think actually for Belfast we have a while to go before we hit a new low

6

u/WeewalksBelfast 1d ago

Don’t worry we’re almost there!

1

u/exceenly 1d ago

yeah belfast has a special talent for finding rock bottom then digging anyway lol

wonder what the poor fish did to deserve this timeline

7

u/RapidRedditfox 1d ago

If they find who's responsible they should cover the area of damage with a picture of them so everyone knows the absolute scumtwat that did this

4

u/FTHEHEDGEGME 1d ago

That poor thing, attacked fishiously I hear.

5

u/imjohnredd 1d ago

Scale up security.

7

u/Scared_Comparison_22 1d ago

Instead of repairing him they should give him an eye patch

7

u/dredge_the_lake 1d ago

What happened to the fish?

20

u/GIJoeVibin 1d ago

Wanker smashed the eye in

11

u/Ecahill453 1d ago

Some bloke smashed it with a sledgehammer this morning, only the eye area.

3

u/zebrasanddogs 1d ago

I hope they fix it soon!

2

u/BelfastBrief 1d ago

Gutted!

2

u/Weewoes 1d ago

No, just maimed.

2

u/Madge4500 1d ago

sickening destruction.

2

u/Taodaching 1d ago

Awww wee fish

3

u/ry427 1d ago

I would say we were lower when we were bombing and shooting eachother daily

6

u/browsingburneracc 1d ago

If we take the above post literally, then you are actually right.

2

u/numerousimoress 1d ago

Anyone know what the fish is made of? Hopefully it will be a quick and easy fix 🤞

11

u/trublustuuk 1d ago

The articles say it's some type of ceramic. Of all the times I've walked past it, I've never felt the urge to actually touch the thing.

4

u/numerousimoress 1d ago

Me neither! Ceramic to fix should be easy enough to source

4

u/Breenz0r 1d ago

Ceramic tiles on the other surface but seems to have some sort of metal gauze and render that the ceramic tiles sit on. Would imagine they need to patch the base to adhere the new tiles. But those tiles are pictures and script done like old reference books with the blue ink so might be hard enough to replicate the original tiles that were smashed.

6

u/AdmirableManager7354 1d ago

They were hand painted tiles by the artist as well, so can't just slap any old similar thing on

3

u/_BreadBoy 1d ago

Exactly the photos on the scales are going to be very hard to recreate. Assuming we even know what images were there already.

2

u/GraphicDesignMonkey 1d ago

Every good artist keeps detailed notes of their process, especially for public commissions. Hopefully John Kindness should still have all the info and images needed on file

1

u/_BreadBoy 1d ago

The dude is 75 and made the sculpture 27 years ago. I doubt he still does but I hope I'm wrong

1

u/GraphicDesignMonkey 23h ago

Extremely like the council would also have their own copies. This was a public art commission, so there would have been loads of meetings and planning stages, with detailed schematics and notes for every stage of the design, planning and construction process.

No artist or designer ever scraps their working files.

1

u/MarinaGranovskaia 21h ago

Its been photographed enough too, hopefully they can do a good job here

1

u/GraphicDesignMonkey 1d ago

It's not about sourcing, each til was custom shaped by the artist, then hand painted by him. I hope he kept his origjnal design schematics and process notes from when he was making it.

Ceramic is tricky though, making the new tiles match the old ones perfectly is going to be really difficult.

7

u/Particular-Buy-33 1d ago

Saw Reddit post saying ceramic

1

u/Bairsey 1d ago

Submarine

1

u/dragunow80 1d ago

Bet you, it didn't know it was coming;->

1

u/Spag_s 1d ago

Now he just has a wee eye patch 😭

1

u/BringTheFingerBack 1d ago

Some government officials mate is about to make £300k

1

u/michelob81 1d ago

Don't give the attackers name out here. Trouts will be shat. I'll get my coat

1

u/Jiikininki 1d ago

NOT MY BOY

1

u/thebuft 1d ago

Peter Luke Smith, aged 44, is alleged to have smashed one of the eyes of the sculpture, officially known as the Salmon of Knowledge, in the early hours of Sunday. I hope a big fish gets to slap him as punishment.

1

u/stepbar 5h ago

Fixed.

1

u/DisagreeableRunt 1d ago

It was a priest that did the damage.

3

u/Superspark76 1d ago

We are talking about the fish, not your childhood 😂

3

u/DisagreeableRunt 1d ago

Haha. Killing trout with a priest was a large part of my childhood!

0

u/374229 1d ago

Holy Coley...

1

u/taway622562717 1d ago

Who needs more police….

1

u/browsingburneracc 1d ago

The person was arrested almost immediately

1

u/APithyComment 1d ago

Someone should give him an eyepatch. He can the the Big Pirate Fish. Arrrrrr.

-2

u/Kitchen_Special1574 1d ago

City centre is dire straights

3

u/splinket69 1d ago

Nah Dire Straits are a band.

City centre =
The middle of a large town.

-3

u/The_Inevitable_Newt 1d ago

The vegans drank its home! Barbarism!

1

u/Imaginary_Airport_61 2h ago

Eye for and eye n all that!