windows in walls

Radiate Positivity

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Armagh won the All-Ireland Senior football championship in 2024, with a squad that included three players from Crossmaglen: Oısín O’Neill, Cıan McConville, and Rían O’Neill.

In the bottom-left corner, players from Crossmaglen Rangers turn to face the Irish tricolour, flanked by the club flag and the flag of Palestine – the flags fly below the watchtower of a British Army barracks (perhaps based on an image from the 2005 Armagh final – Irish Times).

On the right is an umbrella in pride colours, below which people can pose and take pictures: “Snap & tag us”.

This is a revised version of the mural, which originally bore the Ernesto Cardenal quote, “They tried to bury you/us but they didn’t know you/we were seeds” (ig).

On the side of KIS pizza- and coffee-shop, The Square, Crossmaglen. “The community wall” @kis_pizza_coffee @careforcaolan” [Caolan Finnegan, who died in August, 2024] @Nıamh_Ní_Dhalaıgh_Art July 2024″

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Big Ugg

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“Jon Clifford’s Tristar FC, Derry, founded 1974”. Jon “Ugg” Clifford died on September 3rd, 2011, while waiting for a lung transplant (BelTel). In 1974 he had founded a youth soccer club – initially for boys – called “Tristrar” (web) in Creggan. The park where they played – Bull Park – was renamed in his honour, a portrait on boards was mounted in 2013 (which has now been replaced by the larger painting shown here), and a memorial championship was begun in 2014 (Derry Daily).

Update: The mural was officially launched on October 9th, 2025 (BBC).

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Our City

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Leicester House (Future Belfast), at the junction of Royal Avenue and Lower Garfield Street, and the adjacent Hampden House (Future Belfast), on Royal Avenue. Both buildings (51-63 Royal Avenue) are vacant (the Leicester since 2016) and are part of the long-awaited Tribeca redevelopment – see 2019’s To Be Continued. In the meantime, the façades of the buildings have been given a facelift by Alana McDowell (ig). Below are three in-progress shots from June 20th.

June 20th:

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Digging

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Poet Seamus Heaney grew up in Bellaghy, about seven miles from Maghera where this street-art in the centre of the town (on Walsh’s Hotel) includes lines from his poem ‘Digging’: “Between my finger and my thumb the squat pen rests. I’ll dig with it.”

The main part of the piece depicts local farmer Jamese McCloy, reproducing a picture taken for Tourism NI’s ‘Embrace a Giant Spirit’ campaign (Derry Now).

Painted by Pigment Space (ig) and YellaG (ig) in 2020.

Coleraine Road, Maghera

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The World Is Our Playground

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Children play among and with the landmarks of the world – riding the Sydney opera house, building the pyramids out of sand, climbing the Eiffel Tower, building the Taj Mahal from blocks, blowing on a windmill, and swinging from Samson and Goliath.

This is an old (2016) piece by Friz (web), still in excellent shape on the wall of Currie Primary school, off the Limestone Road in north Belfast.

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Movie Magic

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This is work by David J McMillan (web) for Queen’s Film Theatre (web), next to Cracker Wee Spot in University Square Mews/the alley behind the cinema. On one wall, we have movie-making, with clapboard and camera; on the other, the movie is projected to an audience eating popcorn.

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In Unity Strength Blossoms

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This spring ArtsEkta (web) will launch “Olive Tree House” as a new cultural hub in Belfast city centre with meeting-, studio-, and gallery-spaces. The name is a return to the original name of the building, used from 1958-2014, after which time it has been known as “Concentrix House” (Future Belfast) – Concentrix moved to Maysfield in 2017 (Concentrix). The building’s facade has been painted with olive trees by Zippy (web).

Fountain Street, Belfast

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Flamingo Ballroom

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The Flamingo Ballroom was open from 1960 to 1980 and the building was demolished in 2017 (BBC | BelTel) but it is fondly remembered by fans who got to see some of the biggest names in rock and pop, including the Rolling Stones, Chubby Checker, the Everly Brothers, Thin Lizzie, Rory Gallagher, and Pink Floyd, as well as Irish showbands (here is the bill from September 1961).

Here is an image of a sax player with local band the Cossacks with the tall flamingo inside the club – and this provides the inspiration for this street art by Woskerski (web).

Greenvale Street, Ballymena. (The face in the window in the image above belongs to the Goose Herder opposite.)

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