Street art by emic (web) and Alana Barton (web) in Pat’s Brae, Ballymena
The pair also collaborated on a piece that they called Ida in Carrickfergus.
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Working With Flowers
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California Dreamin’
These are end-of-life images of the street-art by Hicks at Connswater in east Belfast. The piece was painted in 2012 and so it is now twelve years old.
Update: the wall itself was torn down in June, 2025.
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Writing On The Wall
This new piece from Belfast One BID is full of literary references (web). The blackberries (top left of the image above) are perhaps for Seamus Heaney, and the kites (bottom right of the image above) are perhaps for John Hewitt. Comment/Get in touch if you can identify others.
Below the Linen Hall library in Fountain Street, Belfast city centre.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Fox In The Bluebells
Bluebells flower in April and May, which is also the time of year when foxes are frequently seen, foraging to support their new offspring (Discover Wildlife).
This Peaball (web) creation (with support from @daisychaininc) is on a wall at Ellie May’s restaurant (web) in Dunadry, outside Antrim.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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An Elephant At Home
This new Glengormley street art pays tribute to an elephant from Bellevue Zoo during WWII.
In response to the blitz of April 1941, thoughts turned to what might happen if the zoo was bombed. Thirty-three animals that would be dangerous to the public (if they escaped) were executed. A zoo-keeper, Denise Weston Austin, brought Sheila, an Asian elephant, to her home on the Whitewell Road, where she lived for several weeks, before being returned to the zoo in time for the bombing of May. (See WP for dates of the Belfast blitz.) For photographs of Sheila and Denise, and the tale of how Sheila’s absence was discovered, see Wartime NI.
By DanLeo (web), with DaisyChain (web).
Ballyclare Road (just below Moss Road) in Glengormley, Newtownabbey.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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The Dark Dreamer
“The Dark Dreamer – The Silkie mural by Loretta Lizzio is a recreation of the oil painting “Dark Dreamer” by world-famous Irish artist Patrick Jones who lived here in the family home.”
Patrick J. Jones (web) grew up in Belfast before leaving for London, England, in 1984 and Brisbane, Australia, in 1997. Lizzio, (web), who is also from Australia, reproduced Jones’s original (Fb) on the side of the Stax coffee-shop on the Cliftonville Road, renaming it ‘The Silkie’, though it depicts a mermaid rather than one of the seal-folk; compare with KMG’s interpretation of the Selkie myth in the city centre.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Hotel? Motel?
Friendly faces by Aches (web) on the side of the “Sandy Row” Holiday Inn, officially in Hope Street/Bruce Street, but more familiarly above the car-park where the Twelfth bonfire has previously taken place, starting in 2016 – see Stuff We Don’t Need – and continuing into 2024 – see News Letter.
October 20th:
October 13th:
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Take Back The City
The city in question here is Bangor, Co. Down (rather than London, which features in the video (youtube) for the song of the same name). The band Snow Patrol (and in particular, guitarist and Bangor native Gary Lightbody) have organised a music festival in the town’s Ward Park in 2007, 2010, and 2019 (Soul Surmise). There are no public plans for a ‘Ward Park 4’ (Chord Blossom) but there is some speculation on-line (Fb) of a concert in 2025, which artist Jossie Pops (web) is trying to drum up support for with this painting of Lightbody on the side of Harrison-Morris-Waugh chartered account’s office, in Southwell Street, Bangor.
Also in Bangor: The cover of Snow Patrol’s ‘Wildness’ album was painted for Ward Park 3 – see This Is Not The Same As Other Days.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Handsome Dave
“In loving memory of Davy Wilsdon” – Wilsdon appears to have been a member of the Somme Memorial flute band (Fb) in Bangor. He died in January, 2022 (funeral service on youtube). The band sponsored a memorial bench in Wilsdon’s honour in the village of Mesnil-Martinsart, France (Fb | Street View | see also Ulster Tower). In addition, his portrait has been painted by London artist Olivier Roubieu (web) in Beatrice Avenue/High Street, Bangor, replacing the painting of Terry Bradley’s Don’t Look Back.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Zoom!
Here is a gallery of new street art on the ever-changing wall in the ‘Project 24’ space off Queen’s Parade, Bangor. Above is a tribute by Glen Molloy (Fb) to fellow sprayer JOHNDEN1; below is the piercing gaze of an eagle by Keyto (ig).
Here are some pieces on the same wall from July (Bangor Is Buzzing), April (How About This For Art?), November 2023 (Stop Ruining Art), March 2023 (This Is Not The Same As Other Days).
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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