Art - Murals

Billy Connolly - Northern Ireland's Murals

During a visit by 'The Big Yin' - he spent some time travelling around Belfast visiting various sites. Part of the programme he toured some Belfast Murals, here is a clip.

Many of the mural's are excellent pieces of art, depicting history, etc, etc. Of course I won't agree with the meaning behind quite a few of the murals, however I do enjoy looking and the images.

In the lambeg drum tradition the art work is painted on the front of the shell - not on the side like the flute band tradition. Symbolism is vitally important in Ulster, so for example if you own a lambeg drum you choose the images that say something about you.

I have already posted 15 drums on my blog, a few months back, touching on or explaining the artwork on the front of the drum - I stopped posting for a while as I did not have my drum book for a time - I gave my copy to Billy Montgomery of Rosemount, now I have a new copy I will again publish a few snaps of drums.

Image is everything to a tradition - you can't say you're one thing, then try to be something else!

HMA