Thank you for visiting! Extramural Activity is …
(1) a map/database of the wall paintings in Northern Ireland/north-east Ireland. The database is accessed via the maps. There is one map showing all the wall paintings ever, and another showing only those that are currently visible.
(2) a collection of images and information about them. The collection of images is searchable using the tools in the side-bar. You can also scroll through the entries below — the newest works are at the top. If you want a feed of the latest art, “follow” us using one of the methods in the side-bar — a new entry is added (almost) every day.
(3) a set of “Visual Histories”, that is, pages describing and illustrating the history, trends, and common motifs in muraling and street art, e.g. Cú Chulaınn murals, the Bobby Jackson murals, Free Derry Corner, the International Wall, murals with Iron Maiden’s Eddie The Trooper, etc., etc.
Woodstock Rocks
As a tribute to “the influence the local record shops had on the Belfast hip-hop and breakdancing scenes of the 80s” FGB (ig) and Katriona Designs (ig) have painted track-suited pensioners with a dual turntable setup (“Spin-A-Disc” (Technic?) and “Pensioneer” (Pioneer) brands) in Ardgowan Street at the Woodstock Road.
The documentary Bombin’, Beats And B-Boys is available on youtube. Here is an Irish Times look back at Belfast City Breakers.
See also the shelf of tapes at Portallo Street: Back On The Streets. The other new pieces in the current beautification project are: Up The Cregagh and Down The Woodstock | Up The Cregagh | Heron.
Also included below are two small pieces in Glendower Street, of a ‘Dolphin Lamp Standard’ lamp-post (such as can be seen on the Queen’s Bridge) and a fox.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Queen Of Angels
Queen Elizabeth II died, aged 96, on September 8th, 2022, and is now (according to this board) queen of the angels in heaven (Matthew 28:2), which perhaps allows her to send other angels to Earth (Matthew 24:31) to deliver messages to chosen people.
Also included (below) from the same street is a memorial tarp to British soldiers in the Great War and WWII, including Vickers machine guns, Spitfire aeroplanes, and a WWI tank (perhaps a Mark V (Tank Museum)).
Ballyree Drive in Bloomfield, Bangor.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Westlife
“Another winter day/has come and gone away/In either Paris and [or] Rome/And I wanna go home” – words from the Michael Bublé-penned song ‘Home’ which boy-band Westlife released on its 2007 album, Back Home. For Egan, Feehily, and Filan, home is, or was, Sligo — the three went to Summerhill secondary school and were together in earlier bands; Byrne (and Bryan/Brian McFadden who was a member of the group from 1998 to 2004 but is not included in the mural) is from Dublin (WP).
“With a career spanning twenty years, Westlife are, Shane Filan, Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan and Mark Feehily. A true pop phenomenon with more number 1 hits than any other act apart from The Beatles and Elvis, Westlife have sold 50 million albums worldwide.”
The mural is behind Gilooly Hall, on Temple Street, Sligo. It was painted in 2015 by Kelan Curran (TAPA).
Previously from Sligo: Maud Gonne.
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In The Service Of Our Country
Above are images of a new UDR [Ulster Defence Regiment] veterans association board in Woodburn Avenue, Carrickfergus; below are images of people collecting for Andy Allen Veterans Support (web) on the Shankill, Belfast.
“In memory of those who gave their lives in the service of our country and are still doing so.” At its peak (in 1973) the UDR had more than 9,000 personnel (Statista). The UDR was amalgamated into the Royal Irish Regiment in 1992 and a 2005 estimate put the number of its veterans at about 58,000 (Veterans Services NI).
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we will remember them
Ida
Street art by emic (ig) and Alana Barton (ig) for the Carrickfergus Women’s Group (Fb).
Thomas Street, Carrickfergus.
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Tosaíonn An Domhan Ar Leac An Doraıs
“Think global, act local – [the world begins on the doorstep]”. This environmental message is by UV Arts (ig) at Buncrana Youth Club, Castle Avenue, Buncrana, Co. Donegal (Inish Live), painted for Children In Crossfire (web | see also Derry Lama, A Wall For All, and Break The Bias).
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Copyright © 2024 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
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The Craigavon Two
“There is no lie big enough to cover the shame of jailing two innocent men #JFTC2”. Brendan McConville and John Paul Wootton were convicted of the 2009 murder of Constable Stephen Carroll (BBC), and sentenced to life with 25-year and 18-year minimums, respectively. The case is under review (Guardian | An Phoblacht).
This RNU (Fb) board also appeared on Northumberland Street in west Belfast.
Berwick Road, Ardoyne, north Belfast. For the Fıanna mural, see Gal Greıne. For the pro-Palestine board, see Old Is The New New. For the right-most board, see Óglach Sean McCaughey.
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Born For A Storm
The family of “Andrew Jackson 1767-1845”, seventh president of the United States, hailed from Carrickfergus (Discover Ulster-Scots | Carrickfergus History) and there is a period cottage that functions as a museum on the site of the home from which his parents and two older brothers departed (Discover NI).
There is a Visual History page on Ulster-Scots murals. A series of murals was painted, beginning in 1999, under the title ‘Pioneers To Presidents’, the last of which was of Andrew Jackson in the lower Shankill in 2007. Why he was chosen as the subject of this new mural in Pinewood Avenue, Sunnylands, Carrickfergus, is as yet unknown.
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How About This For Art?
Here is a gallery of three waves of painting (24 pieces) from the Project 24 space (Spectator) on Queen’s Parade, Bangor. From top to bottom, the images are from late March, the bank holiday at the start of April, and mid April. (The wall was also painted in January – see Stop Ruining Art.)
Above is a self-portrait by artist Jossie Pops (Johnny Hamilton) (ig) who also painted the portrait of actor Gerard Butler immediately below. Shortly, after, RickyDrewAPiccy added a piece between these two – a robot with the words “Don’t drink flat whites. Don’t wear massive coats. Don’t be a robot.” (Fb) – but it was quickly replaced by the Codo heads (under ‘April 7th’, below).
Good Boys by Ana Fish (ig)
Seahorse by ?
Quest Love by Chop Suey (ig)
Utility box painted by Codo (ig)
April 7th
Bananas 4 You and How About This For Art by ?
Fish by HMConstance (ig)
Octopus by Cha Cha/Carla Hodgson (ig) (see previously her 2021 octopus in This Is Not The Same As Other Days)
Witch by Ana Fish (ig), replacing Jossie Pops’s self-portrait
Heads by Codo (ig)
[Gerard Butler remains untouched]
Sleeping Dog by Jo Pearson (ig) replaces Ana Fish’s Good Boys.
Groundskeeper Willie (from The Simpsons) by ?
Dandelions by Imogen Donegan (ig)
Surfer by Soaring Tides (ig)
“Love” by Benjomac (ig)
All-Seeing Eye by Dara Condon (ig)
The Caterpillar by ?
A utility box painted by Codo (ig)
April 21st
Orangutan by ?
Writing by ? replaces Dandelions
Captain Pikachu by ? replaces Surfer
Wide shot. The gable on the left is Ward Park 3 by Friz.
“Key to 2024” Penguin and Luxo Jr by ?
Dory by ?
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The Lion Of Judah
“But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”” Isaiah 43 continues: “When you pass through the waters I will be with you … When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched.” Thus, although the text is addressed to Jacob/Israel and the lion is a symbol of Jacob’s son Judah, whose eponymous tribe later gives its name to the Jews, Christians interpret it more generally as a promise to all believers.
In this way, this new board at Rehoboth Evangelical Mission in Mount Vernon is perhaps in the same tradition as the previous board, with its quote from John 11 (in the New Testament) promising that believes shall never die (shown last, below).
The inclusion of the flag of modern Israel which dates back to the Zionist movement in the late 1800s, however, gives this board a political edge, seeming to make it a token of support for Israel in its current conflict with Hamas and attack on the Gaza Strip. (The roaring lion and the lightning also give a sense of physical power.) As such, it would be (to our knowledge) the first printed board in support of Israel and an advance over the more typical flying of the Israeli flag.
Hill & White (2007 – paywall) begin their article with a survey of newspaper articles (including this free piece in Salon) about the flying of Israeli flags in Northern Ireland in 2002, explaining the practice as a response to the flying of Palestinian flags during the Second Intifada (p. 33) and an expression of admiration for Israeli’s use of physical force against its minority population (p. 37). The first appearance of an Israeli flag in the Peter Moloney Collection is from 2006, at a republican bonfire site.
If the Rehoboth board is counted as religious rather than political, the most sophisticated graphical expression of PUL support for Israel is the small paste-up seen in Ulster Supports The People Of Israel. (There is also implicit support for Israel in the board in Peter’s Hill to John Henry Patterson, which includes amongst his other exploits – Operation Lion – his role as Godfather Of The Israeli Army.)
See also: PUL swastika graffiti 1985 | 1993 | 2008 | BelTel 2015
See also: Rehoboth The Well
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