The Earth Compels

This new mural in Carrickfergus draws on local connections to literary figures Louis MacNeice and Jonathan Swift, as well as the more distantly located CS Lewis.

The MacNeices moved from Belfast to Carrickfergus in 1909 when Freddie (later Louis) was an infant and he grew up in the town until he was sent to Sherbourne Prep in Dorset, England, in 1917. In the mural, a book is opened to the page of his poem Carrickfergus, which was written in 1937 and describes the town in geological, historical, industrial, and sectarian terms, and more real than the “puppet world” of Sherbourne.

Jonathan Swift was briefly (1694-1696) a Church Of Ireland cleric in Kilroot, near Carrickfergus. In the mural, Carrick-A-Rede rope-bridge is shown strung between the knees of Gulliver as he wakes in Lilliput. The Swift quote on the extreme (viewer’s) right is from Polite Conversation (p. 154): Miss Notable is toasted by both Mr Neverout – “May you live a thousand years”; “Pray, Sir, don’t stint me”, she replies – and Colonel Atwit – “May you live every day of your life”.

Lewisian figures include Aslan the lion and Reepicheep the mouse. The final (right-most) figures would seem to be Katniss and Peeta from The Hunger Games.

Painted by DMC on North Road, Carrickfergus, at the entrance to the Castlemara estate, as a complement and competitor to the PUL boards.