Street Art in Ireland

I'd like to share with our friends in Community a very nice tour I did in Belfast recently.

It's called Street Art Walking Tour, and as the name says, it's focused on some of the beautiful wall paintings that can be found in the city.

The tour lasted 2 hours and it's organised by SeedheartArts, and guided by actual street artists.

The meeting point, Commercial Court, it's famous for its red benches and hanging flowers, perfect place to start enjoying Belfast's personality.



The first stop takes you to the Belfast Community Circus School, where a colourful street art piece matches the activities taking place inside.



Our next stop, it's a very delicate stencil style piece, with the added value of being painted in one of Belfast's characteristics red brick walls, that provides a special texture to the painting.



Another graffiti we came across was this vivid portrait of a Golden Lion Monkey, an endangered species that the artist created using his tag name as the monkey's mane.



And just in front, a bright galaxy landscape catched my eye.
Can someone tell us where else in Belfast did this artist paint a similar galaxy mural? ;)



We even saw an octopus and fish during the tour! 



An interesting piece took advantage of the architecture and was the perfect canvas for a crocodile.



This piece, one of my favourites during the tour, was very intriguing. That look in her face....



We also saw how street art pieces can be very useful to business owners, as it will serve as a distinguishing feature for the shop, like in this case, where the kid in the painting is holding a rod in the shutter of a fishing gear shop. 



And some of the newest additions to Belfast's street art collection, the ones found in the entries running between High street and Ann street, had many different styles and sizes. I only took pictures of a few of them, does anybody saw any other pieces during their visit?







To finish our fantastic tour, we came back to the cathedral quarter and appreciate this amazing painting.
Who could say that both sides were done by the same artist?


Thanks to our wonderful guide I discovered many things about the city and its history, so I recommend this tour not only to people interested in art, but also as an original way to visit and know more about Belfast.

I would love to see other Community members favourite's street art piece in Ireland! Any photos?

Marta. ☘️

I absolutely loved the Seedhead Street Arts Tour through Belfast as well. It's great to learn more about the history of the city through art, as well as hear the stories behind the pieces that you've seen so many times. 


Since the tour guide is an actual artist himself, you learn about all of the techniques and different styles being used, which for me as a layman was very interesting. The tour takes places every Sunday at noon and takes around two hours. Besides having lovely weather, we were also lucky because Hit The North Street Festival took place that day. We saw a lot of the new art in progress which made it extra special.

Ok, so Marta and Melin have already shared so many pictures, and I could not agree more that this tour was a great way to discover Belfast in an all-new angle.

I have been living in Belfast for over 10yrs and used to be involved in street-arts back home, so this was a treat for me.
You dander around town, discover new entries - narrow streets, learn a bit of the history behind the evolution of street art, and its impacts on the city. Not to forget that you also meet a local artist that can share with you his tips and recommendation on things to do after the tour.

For me, one thing that I loved during this tour is finding out about those "easter eggs" hidden in Belfast entries and alleys. Those small art pieces celebrate the old shops that used to be the life of those narrow streets. I haven't found them yet, but it's a cool activity to do, even more so if you are visiting with young ones.

Here is one:


Another fun hunt is finding all the art pieces from the same artist like this one:
you can see that Melin found a few more as well. 


As you see, street art takes many forms. I cannot wait to walk the streets and find new ones. 

If you saw some amazing street art around Ireland, please make sure to share them with us. As this type of art is sometimes ephemeral it is always nice to have some pictures in our community. 🤩