The mallard duck is common throughout Ireland (Birdwatch), including on Belfast’s Lagan (Geograph). These drakes are on an Annadale Embankment electrical box, painted by Katriona (web) as part of the latest round of painted electrical boxes in the Belfast Canvas project.
With organisational support from Daisy Chain (web).
Also included is an earlier (2023) south Belfast box, from the Lisburn Road, by Zippy (web).
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Spring – or at least some dry days – is upon us, and with it the chance to get outside. This is a new piece by FGB (web) on the shutters of what was Quality Life massage parlour, in a row of mostly abandoned shop-fronts in (upper) North Street.
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The “West End Horse” in Bundoran was painted by John Deegan (Fb) in 2013 (Discover Bundoran). The “Big wave” on the wall of Madden’s is by Nik Purdy of Blow Designs (ig), who also did murals of James Connolly in Sligo and of local literary figures in Carrick-On-Shannon.
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“Up the airy mountain/Down the rushy glen/We daren’t go a-hunting,/For fear of little men.//Wee folk, good folk,/Trooping all together,/Green jacket, red cap,/White owl’s feather! – Wm Allingham”
Customs-officer, magazine editor, and poet William Allingham was born in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, in 1824, and his ashes – brought back from London – are interred in St Anne’s church in the town (WP). “The Faeries” (poetry.com) was first published in his 1850 collection Poems (UCC) and remains a staple of children’s and mythological collections.
The art shown here is on The Mall/An Mál in Ballyshannon/Béal Átha Seanaıdh.
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Paper x Clips (web) – providing queer books and haircuts, and also hot drinks – moved into its new North Street digs in November (2024) and to go with the renovations and re-opening had the shutters to the shop painted by Zippy (web) with the genderqueer symbol between barbed-wrapped daisies and linked chains.
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Work by RAZER (ig) and NOYS (ig) of Peaball (web) at the Bullitt hotel/bar in Belfast city centre. With support from Seedhead Arts (web).
The final image is of a framed piece on the wall below these two, supporting Jameson whiskey’s “black barrel” variety (web).
Also at Bullitt: work by David McMillan in the alley-way and work by Rob Hilken on the Church Lane frontage.
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This colourful fish replaces graffiti reading “Don’t Listen 2 SF Traiters” (in the Peter Moloney collection) in Fountain Street, Strabane.
The cause or sponsoring group is unknown – please comment/get in touch if you have any information.
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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This sunflower was painted by Peaball (web) outside the Old Library Trust’s Healthy Living Centre (web) in Creggan, Derry, as part of Derry & Strabane’s ‘District Of Hope’ initiative (NWMF | Derry Now).
The wall was previously used for a COVID-era mural: Someone To Watch Over Me.
Another sunflower in Derry: We Carry On.
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The Maritime Festival (web) in various years held a ‘bubble challenge’ that involved people running inside a large inflated tube (youtube video from 2016). Aquatic animals on the other hand come up the river Foyle under their own power, such as Dopey Dick (shown above), an orca who swam up the Foyle in 1977 (Derry Journal) and the otters (in the final two images below) painted by HM Constance (web).
We also see two musical crows – one is playing DJ and the other is carrying a cassette tape – and five humans, who also didn’t come up the Foyle in a bubble – “I didn’t come up (or “float up”) the Foyle in a bubble” means “I’m no fool” or “I wasn’t born yesterday”.
With support from UVArts (web).
For street art using the Belfast/Lagan version of the phrase, see Mother Of God.
Dopey Dick also appeared in a board in the Fountain (CAIN | M03914) and in a piece of street art in Ebrington.
Foyle Street, Derry, which is undergoing a major sewage update (Derry Now).
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