Irish Heritage Celebrated At City Hall

A new painting, celebrating Irish culture, heritage and history in Belfast, will be unveiled at the City Hall this evening.

The painting, which celebrates five people who have made a significant contribution to Irish culture and language, both in Belfast and beyond, will be unveiled by the Lord Mayor, Councillor Pat Convery.

Edward Bunting, musician and harp music collector, John McKay, a journalist with the Irish News and the Cork Examiner, and one of the seven founding members of the 'Gaelic Athletic Association and Alice Milligan, poet, playwright and member of the Gaelic League, and a leading light in the Irish Literary Revival will be included.

Sean Maguire, fiddle player and teacher will also feature with Anna McCoy, champion Irish dancer and teacher - and the only living person featured on the artwork.

Above the five portraits is the phrase 'Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireas na daoine', while underneath them is the English translation, 'It is the shelter of each other that the people live.

Each of the portraits also features Drury's signature style of overlaying and integrating text relating to each of the subjects into the work.

The 6’ x 4’ painting, which is located in the corridor leading from the main City Hall reception to the Bobbin coffee shop, is the work of the Belfast artist, Keith Drury, who won an international competition to undertake the Belfast City Council commissioned artwork.

Councillor Máire Hendron, Chairman of the Council's Good Relations Partnership, said of the new artwork: "When we embarked upon the recent restoration of the City Hall, the council took a clear decision to ensure that, when it re-opened, it would be a shared building for all of the people of Belfast, and that it would be welcoming to, and representative of, all the traditions in our city.

"This painting was commissioned to celebrate the role that the Irish culture and language, and those who have actively promoted them, have played in the development of the Belfast we know today.

"We are delighted with the finished result, and also with the fact that it will be displayed so prominently, in one of the busiest corridors in the City Hall, where it will be seen by hundreds of people every day," concluded Councillor Hendron.

(BMcC/GK)