Conánn FitzPatrick

I have been up here in Belfast for a short while now and really love it. There people are really nice and the landscape is very impressive, cave hill dominating North Belfast. There is so much I want to see here and unfortunately most of it will have to wait for fairer weather. High on my list however has been the murals which the North of Ireland is famous for, I have seen the ones in Derry which are stunning (taken on print film soon to be scanned) but I have always wanted to see the ones in Belfast and last week I got the chance to go to West Belfast.

When I got up to the Sinn Fein offices where the Mural of Bobby Sands is it was actually being worked on which was cool because you really don't get any idea of how big these things are until you get a person half way up for scale. The quality of the painting was also far better then I was expecting. This one at the back of the Spring Hill estate is by far the best piece of mural painting I have ever seen, if it was on canvas it would still be great. Unfortunately the details in the red did not come out; there were figures playing sport and other motifs of Irish culture throughout which where really delicately painted.

One of the other highlights of the day where the portraits along the fence of the Royal hospital , not only are the portraits really nicely done but the railings themselves have been placed at angles so as to break up the light along the line of the fence. I have put a selection of photographs in the photo section.