The story behind Belfast’s iconic ‘Nuala with the Hula’ from the artist who designed her

Belfast’s Beacon of Hope, fondly called ‘Nuala with the hula’ or ‘the thing with the ring’, has been gracing the Laganside skyline for almost 15 years.

The ‘big lady’ as her world renowned designer dubbed her stands 19.5 metres high at Thanksgiving Square in Belfast and was the brainchild of Belfast woman Myrtle Smyth who was inspired following a visit to Thanksgiving Square in Dallas, Texas.

Her Scottish sculptor Andy Scott told us she was his biggest project at that time but he has since gone on to create imposing masterpieces gracing beach fronts and parks around the globe, including the monumental Kelpies in his home country.

Now based in Philadelphia, USA, the in-demand artist took some time out from his busy schedule to talk to Belfast Live of his fond memories about Beacon of Hope came to be.

He told us: “It was a fantastic project and she even made it onto Royal Mail postage stamps and was used in all sort of publicity material for Belfast – it was a real thrill to see.

“I was very proud of her and I remain very proud of her. It was just a great honour to have done the project. On a purely personal level I just loved my time in Belfast, it was smashing.

“It was a lovely project to be involved in. I had done quite a few fairly large sculptures but at that point that was very much the biggest one and even now, it’s still a fairly prestigious and grand thing to have been involved in.”

As for her nicknames, Andy says he first encountered them on an open top bus tour of Belfast when they were “driving past the Queen’s Bridge and you could see the sculpture”.

“I was feeling all proud of myself with my wife,” he explained, “and then the fella starts the commentary and says she’s known as ‘Nuala with the hula’ and ‘the doll with the ball’ and I thought it was hilarious. As we were getting off the bus I said to the tour guide ‘I made that sculpture’ and he was like ‘no, way, get out of it – fantastic’.

“I am very laid back about that type of thing – I think it shows it has been accepted by people and shows a sense of ownership.

“It was a real thrill to hear him talking about it and a wee bit about the background.

“Belfast was only just out of a very dark time and it was a very bold thing for people to have the courage and do such a big thing in the city. It was a really humbling experience to be part of it and I have to say Myrtle [Smyth] who was the driving force behind the whole thing was a lovely lady.”

Andy said he was first approached about the project in the early 2000s, a number of years before it was finally complete.

“It was a long, long time ago,” he explained.

“Originally the design competition was a building which was going to be used for peace and reconciliation. The concept behind it was inspired by a place in Dallas Texas which was called Thanksgiving Square.

“The people who had conceived of this project in Belfast were aware of it and they wanted something that would create a multi-faith, multi-denominational everybody space for contemplation.

“The architect came up with a building and asked me to come up with a central artwork feature for it, which I did.”

Sadly, the building was shelved but since “they had gathered a great head of steam for the sculpture itself”, Andy said the architect “nobly walked away from the project” and “handed over the remaining sculpture to me to take it forward”.

But he said he couldn’t have done it without support from original architects Hurd Roland, the Royal Society of Ulster Architects’ Frank McCloskey, driving force Myrtle Smyth “who has sadly passed away now”, Clive Graham of Laganside Development Corporation, Mike Clarke at Kirk McClure Morton which managed the structural engineering.

He also mentioned Dennis Rooney of Dennis Rooney Associates who was “influential in getting the project off the ground” and Diljit Rana who was later involved behind the scenes. Paul Shirley Smith of Camlins – the landscape architects who did the public realm design around the sculpture and last, but by no means least, PF Copeland who “fabricated the sculpture and did an incredible job”.

“I had kind of given up on it but eventually they did get the funding together,” he continued.

“Everybody did it for next to nothing to make it happen because there was so much enthusiasm for it. It was very much a team effort and I was only the man that came up with the original idea.”

When all systems were go, Andy said he “made two small models of it, one was about 6ft, the other was about 12ft, at my Glasgow studio and they were sent over to PF Copeland and they took on the job of fabricating it in stainless steel tubes and I undertook the job of making the globe the sculpture stands on”.

You may not have noticed, but on the cast bronze foundry globe underneath he picked out cities around the world with historic trading links to Belfast.

“I went over the Belfast a couple of times to see the Copeland boys putting the sculpture together and cast my eye over it to make sure it was all looking grand, which it was. They did a fantastic job and eventually it was all pulled together and installed down by the Lagan over one weekend,” she added.

When designing the Beacon of Hope, Andy said he took his inspiration from Myrtle Smyth’s idea of giving thanks, peace and “something that would be an iconic symbol for everybody”.

“One of the symbols that was used in the original place was a ‘ring of thanksgiving’ so I incorporated a ring, the big circle that she holds aloft. I wanted to make the structure herself as open as possible because it would reduce the wind loading on the structure but would also make sure you still had views to the buildings around but still have a powerful presence.”

He added various other strands of local narrative such as St Brigid’s cloak from old Irish folklore “were bubbling about in my head”.

“The globe she stands on is a globe of the world, but if you look very closely, certain cities are picked out. They were the cities around the world were Belfast exported industry to like the ships and linen,” he continued.

“Those were the main strands and I wrapped it all together in this tall female figure and there she stands overlooking the Lagan.”

The sculptor says he has been back a couple of times to see “the big lady” but not in recent years and hopes to return again in future.

His Beacon of Hope of Belfast was first developed by the Laganside Corporation which is no longer in operation and is now owned by the Department for Communities.

A DfC spokesperson said it was not involved in the commissioning and development of this art piece and did not provide any funding to the project.

The iconic figure is understood to have cost around £300k.

“It’s incredible what they did for that amount of money,” added Andy, “as it was a phenomenal amount of work in engineering.”

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