Before rock band Thin Lizzy played the King’s Club at the Queen’s Court hotel in Bangor on July 27th, 1974 (Thin Lizzy Guide), they took to the water in order to take in the town. They were photographed in the act by Dublin photographer Liam Quigley (Indo profile), and the picture (see it at Thin Lizzy Guide) was turned into a mural by Friz (ig) in Crosby Street, Bangor, last year.

One of the band’s album covers can be seen on a wall in east Belfast – see The Rocker – and original guitarist Eric Bell (who was also a member of Them) is featured in a mural of famous faces from the area – see Inspiring Belfast.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02872 [T02871]

Planning permission for the re-development of the Bangor Marina was granted in September 2022 – here’s an overview of the plans. Until work begins however, Sharon Regan’s (ig) depictions of nature scenes will continue to cover up the disused buildings along Queen’s Parade.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02869 T02868 T02867 T02866 T02865 T02864 T02863 T02448 T02449

This is Irony’s (ig) tribute to Julia Volchkova, a street artist raised in Siberia, based in St Petersburg, Russia, and painting all over the world, particularly in Malaysia. The mural seems to be based on image of Volchkova painting a face in Mexico city (ig).

Hibernia Street, Holywood.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02828 [T02827]

Images from the east side of the Strand underpass in Holywood, beginning with Conaty’s Arch and ending with Van Morrison: “Smell the sea and feel the sky/Let your soul and spirit fly – ‘Into The Mystic'”. See also: images from the west side of the tunnel.

See also: images from the Priory Park tunnel.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02830 T02853 T02852 T02851 T02850 T02848 [T02849] T02847 T02846 T02845 T02844

Here are images of street art in the green space off Queen’s Parade, (following on from Sharon Regan’s boards along the street – Nature Is Healing). The works are:

Friz’s (ig) Snow Patrol ‘Wildness’ cover for their “Ward Park 3” festival,
unknown artist “As they reach for the heavens/They forget to be earthly good”.
local artist Carla Hodgson’s (ig) “Rock, Paper, Scissors” octopus,
Codo (ig) x Jimbo Slice (ig),
FGB’s (ig) “Don’t look wack in Bangor”,
HM Constance’s (ig) stag.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02442 T02447 T02443 T02444 T02445 T02446 T02857

Lí Ban became a mermaid – half-human, half-salmon – after a year spent living in an underwater bower, taking shelter from the family’s uncovered spring that overnight formed Lough Neagh. Three hundred years later (circa 558 A.D.) she told an envoy of Saint Comgall’s who was on his way to Rome, that she would come ashore at Larne a year later. She forwent another 300 years of sea life in favour of being baptised and dying immediately. She was baptised by Comgall, the abbot of Bangor, and christened “Muirgen” (sea-born) and was buried in the Lough Derg (Donegal) abbey (O’Grady | WP). Muirgen’s feast-day is January 27th (Sacred Sisters).

Painted by Friz (ig) for the Bangor Seaside Revival Festival, with support from Seedhead Arts (ig).

For a different style of presentation of Lí Ban, see Shaped By Sea And Stone in Larne. The end of the story is similar to the fate of the children of Lear, who spend 900 years as swans before a monk hears their song, puts them (willingly) in chains, but in protecting them from others touches them, which restores them to human form only for (baptism and) death to follow immediately. (See The Children Of Lear.)

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02451 Quay Road

After centuries of pitiless exploitation by Bangor locals, a new hope is taking the knife into its own hand and striking back – revenge of the crustaceans. Work by Irony (ig) on Mill Row.

In Belfast: a lobster is boiled.

In Bangor: an octopus plays rock-paper-scissors.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02450

The Priory Park tunnel goes links Priory park with Seapark Bay in Holywood by going under the A2. On the one side are images from the countryside (with a few lines from Frost’s ‘Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening‘) and on the other are images from the seashore. “The creation of these works has been supported by NIHE and the Holywood Residents Assoc.” “urbanartsni.com” is a dead link.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02311 T02318 T02312 T02317
T02313 T02314 T02315 T02316