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Arrivals

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Here are two final pieces from the street-art make-over of Banbridge in 2022. Below is Holly Pereira (web)’s “Welcome To Banbridge” in Newry Street; above and immediately below is Decoy (web)’s piece in Downshire Place depicting how the town grew up around a coach stop at the eponymous “Bann bridge” on the route from Belfast to Dublin (ABC borough council). According to Connolly (Google Books) and History Ireland, a short-lived coach service c. 1740 from Dublin to Belfast stopped in Drogheda and Newry; permanent service did not begin until 1788. According to the Downshire Arms (web), a Georgian coaching inn built in 1816, Banbridge was the second stop along the route from Belfast.

The other paintings in the 2022 ‘Arrivals’ project, organised by Daisy Chain and the Council, are by Friz (The Jingler), FGB (Ernest Walton), and Rob Hilken (Damask For Dignity).

For a list of other borough council projects, see Visual History 11 on the rise of street art.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Damask For Dignity

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This is a Rob Hilken (web) piece in Linenhall Street, Banbridge, and in connection with the location and the linen tradition of Banbridge, the piece features a chrysanthemum pattern (visible at Lisburn Museum) from one of the 1,600 glass plates found at the Ewart-Liddell weaving factory in Donacloney when it was dismantled in 2007 (Lisburn Museum), as well as holes from a Jacquard loom punch-card (Science & Industry Museum). (ig)

Commissioned by Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Borough Council (web), with support from Daisy Chain (web).

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Day Of The Dahlias

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English artist Sophie Mess (ig) says that this variety of dahlia “represent[s] wealth, change and creativity, a fitting symbol for the [Ballymena] area’s history: rich farmland and mineral deposits meant the town was turned into a prosperous market town” (press-release from Mid- And East-Antrim council, which sponsored the work). Purple dahlias are also said to symbolise “grace, beauty, dignity, kindness” (Saffron Marigold) or royalty (Bouq’s). So, whatever you want, really.

Mess also painted flowers in Belfast for HTN 2022.

Wellington Court, Ballymena.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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The Specials

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Jack Nicholson and Noel Gallagher have disappeared from Glen Molloy’s (ig) Corporation Street gallery, replaced by Amy Winehouse (above), who died in 2011 (Guardian), and Terry Hall (below) of The Specials and Fun Boy Three, who died in December 2022 (BBC).

For Nicholson, see God Of Madness; for Gallagher and others, see Runner & Hunter On The Wild Frontier.

Update 2024-03: Carrie Fisher, in Princess Leia guise, is being added – see final images.

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Great Expectations

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There are now nine planters and ten bird boxes, with a backdrop of tropical plants and birds, at the junction of Downshire Place and Great Victoria Street (Linen Quarter BID).

Part of the ‘Great Expectations’ revitalisation of the area, including Linenopolis and the tribute to Terri Hooley and Good Vibrations.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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