5 must-see street murals in Belfast

1. Deep Love

“It’s almost like a beacon,” says tour guide and artist Ray Bonner (also known as FGB), who shows visitors Belfast’s contemporary street art for local business Seedhead Arts. The striking piece by artist ADW portrays a diver in an old-fashioned diving suit carrying a mermaid against the backdrop of a setting sun. It’s visible from the M3 and A2 that run through the city, beckoning traffic towards a changing Belfast. 

2. Festival of Fools

Belfast is known for its political murals, but its contemporary street art highlights the city’s transformation from Troubles to tourist hub. Political murals “became territorial markings, giant keep-out signs basically”, Ray says, but this piece on the Belfast Community Circus School by KVLR marks a zany contrast. “We’re changing that narrative — it’s ‘come in and have a look at what we’ve got’.”

3. True to our Words

This piece by Christina Angelina (Starfighter) on Little Donegall Street portrays a woman opening a kind of Pandora’s box. Words emerge, affecting her in unknown ways. The piece is on the side of the Irish News building, with blue colouring also evoking the paper’s old masthead, Ray says. A projector was used at night to create the outlines for the mural, with the artist returning to add detail by day. 

4. Lyra  

‘It won’t always be like this. It’s going to get better.’ The quote from journalist Lyra McKee accompanying her portrait by artist ESTR on Union Street is both hopeful and tragic. McKee was killed observing a riot in Derry in 2019. The piece speaks to Northern Ireland’s tradition of memorialising people through murals, and is surrounded by bright works by artists like Aches, Inkie and Ray himself. 

5. Dance by Candlelight, The Duel of Belfast

Conor Harrington’s sombre yet operatic mural adorns The Black Box arts centre in the Cathedral Quarter. It shows two men fighting over a dead animal, evoking a ‘troubled past and irritating present’, in the words of Seedhead Arts.

Belfast’s Seedhead Arts runs regular walking tours and organises a street art festival every spring.