Shrunken Heads

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Here is a gallery of images from the Project 24 space along Queen’s Parade in Bangor, whose east wall is frequently painted by local street artists (see the links below for an attempt to keep track of all of the activity).

From top to bottom, these pieces are by Imogen Donegan (ig) and Ana Fish (web), Etchaflesh (web), Keyto (ig) x2, Codo (ig), Ana Fish and HMC (web), Sharon Regan (web).

2024-11 Zoom
2024-04 How About This For Art?
2023-11 Stop Ruining Art
2023-04 Around Every Corner
2023-01 This Is Not The Same As Every Day

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Ward Park

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Ward Park was acquired by the Bangor “Urban District Council” circa 1910 (Spectator | Bangor Historical Society) and now includes various greens for bowling, tennis, and cricket, as well as a playground for children. A series of ponds runs through the park, home to ducks and other wildlife. (For detailed maps of the park, see Bangor By The Sea’s plans of the current on-going renovations.)

This new art is by Danni Simpson (web) and Karl Fenz (web) for Ards & North Down borough council (web).

There is also a duck on an electrical box, painted by Sharon Regan (ig), and an info board about the 50-person WWII air-raid shelter that still stands in the park.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Shore Life

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Here is a survey of some street art in Donaghadee, Co Down (along with Donaghadee Harbour).

The owls, puffins, and bee painted on the electrical boxes on the Parade are by Sharon Regan (ig) who also did a series of windows in Bangor.

Grace Neill’s (web) which claims to be the oldest licensed bar in Ireland, dating back to 1611.

“S McC” and the artist(s) of the other pieces in High Street are unknown, as is the artist of the octopus on the front of The Captain’s Table (Fb).

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Attack Of The Ulster Volunteers

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The uniforms of the graveside mourners are from WWI and the image on each side is JP Beadle’s Attack Of The Ulster Division (Royal Irish) at the Battle Of The Somme in 1916, but the names on the pillar (in the image immediately below) are from the modern UVF. Little information about any of those listed is available on-line, but ten of those listed were also on a plaque in Abbot Crescent, which was similarly in front of a 36th Division mural.

Castlereagh Way, Bowtown, Newtownards

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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The Rising Of The Moon

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This RNU (Fb) board features the closing words from Sands’s prison diary, from March 17th, 1981:

“They won’t break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the Irish people, is in my heart. The day will dawn when all the people of Ireland will have the desire for freedom to show. It is then that we will see the rising of the moon.”

In the corners, funeral volleys are being fired over the coffins of Kieran Doherty and Joe McDonnell, two of the deceased 1981 hunger strikers who were local to the area. For background information, see the board that this one replaces: To Whom Do We Owe Our Allegiance Today?

Bingnian Drive, Andersonstown, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Bring Nature Back

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“The Ark Of Extinction.com – Barn Owl – artist Marc Craig – Thanks to the Bog Meadows Community [Fb] and Ulster Wildlife [web], March 2025 – Bring nature back”.

This giant barn owl at the top (Falls-Road side) of the Bog Meadows is one of several pieces being painted by Craig in various UK locations to highlight local species that are endangered. The other piece, so far, is of a red squirrel in Cornwall. In the case of Belfast and Northern Ireland, only 30 pairs of barn owls remain, at most (Ulster Wildlife).

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Solidarity With Gaza Health Workers

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In this graffiti outside the Royal Victoria Hospital, west Belfast, a person in a white coat faces a tank bearing an Israeli flag. Israel’s renewed bombardment of Gaza on March 18th killed more than 400 people (Independent), including an OB-GYN specialist in Rafah (Al-Jazeera); on the 23rd, an airstrike on Nasser Hospital killed five (Reuters).

Detailed figures of casualties among health-care workers in Gaza can be found at Healthcare Workers Watch.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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An Camchéachta

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In Irish, the seven bright stars of the celestial group Ursa Major are together known as “an céachta” or “an camchéachta” – the bent plough, though the reason for the modification “bent” is unclear (Vıcıpéıd). (In other cultures they are thought of as a wagon/wain, or dipper, or the hind-quarters and tail of a bear.)

The “starry plough” flag was originally proposed in 1914 for the Irish Citizen Army and flown over the Imperial Hotel during the 1916 Rising (WP); it is now the symbol of the INLA/IRSP (web) and many current anti-Agreement groups,

The starry plough shown here, in Cliftonpark Avenue, north Belfast, has the correct number of stars – seven – but has lost its typical shape.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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