 One of the side effects of the policy of Ann Doherty and the team at Cork City Council to create near traffic standstill on MacCurtain Street is that one gets plenty of time to look at the buildings and also the cars in adjacent lanes.
In previous years, I probably would not have seen these cats – reminded me of Dingle.
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 Last week had me in Capel Street in Dublin which has an eclectic mix and is much changed from my college days. And there I spotted another art installation by Oré. It was a few years ago that I learnt of the artist but it has taken those years for me to spot another.
 This afternoon, walking up O’Connell Street in Ennis, I was surprised to see street art underfoot, pleasantly surprised. The incorporation of the utility covers into the street art was a thing of beauty.
When we turned around the corner, another art installation combining a road gulley with paint was absolutely brilliant, if showing signs of wear and tear. Enjoy    A few years back, I wrote a blog about a peacock that I spotted at 6:40 one morning walking home, crossing the main Tralee to Dingle road as if he owned it.
DK texted me shortly afterwards to say that it is a sad case that a bird cannot go out for a night without photographs appearing on social media. Yesterday, on Pine Street, I spotted a hare complete with cigarette and bottle of (what I took to be) vodka, after what looked like a similar long night, but a possibly different outcome. If the objective of street art is to raise a smile, this was a complete success.  We spotted this stencil art when up around. Maybe the dogs are reclaiming the streets during this lockdown.  The Crawford Gallery was a place of refuge – a place where I could sit with my own thoughts, trying to put things back in some sort of order. Since we moved office, my visits have not been as regular but I need to correct that. The first floor gallery houses many of my favourites including Time Flies. In 2015, I was delighted when the Gallery put on an exhibition called W. B. Yeats: Resonances where they matched a piece of Yeats poetry with a painting – a combination of different art forms. My visits were longer. I was reminded of the poem/art combination on a visit to the City Library earlier this week and there was poetry from Gerry Murphy with art on the walls – perfect for a lunchtime recharge. I have been a Gerry fan since I read of the statue at Stalin visible in the distance from Knock for the first time over thirty years ago. His work has been quoted hereabouts on more than one or two occasions. I even followed the example of Poe-A-Tree and pinned one of his poems to a tree on Grand Parade one day – radical or what…. I met Gerry at the swimming pool recently. He mentioned that he is retiring, again, around now – Happy Birthday. I would dearly love if his poems and the work of other Cork poets could adorn the gables of buildings, just like Leiden in The Netherlands . I have a folder of photographs on my drive of walls suitable for the receipt of poems. I even have my choice of some of the poems. But I expect that Cork street poetry will remain a dream. For a bit of fun and relaxation, I recommend the installation at the library – John & Gerry. My list of wishes for a Christmas present has doubled. This latest blog post from Eoin MacLochlainn hit the Inbox this morning. I was well impressed with his work on fireplaces in disused houses when showing in Limerick a few years back – if only funds had permitted. In this morning’s read, the artist has donated a piece of work of Glencar Waterfall, associated with a poem to the Phlebotomy Dept. at St James Hospital – the waiting rooms that I have graced have never had such an art combination. Three connecting dots are enough reason for a blog post after a bit of an absence.  Last month, we spent a few days in a friends’ house near Phibsboro – the location of a number of my student flats in times past. I took a couple of walks about the place to places known and also on roads not previously travelled. I walked down towards Mountjoy. I have been in three active prisons as well as Cork Gaol and Kilmainham but Mountjoy was the first where there was #StreetArt to welcome visitors on what was the main gate. I left smiling.
I had spotted on Twitter a while ago of utility boxes in Blackrock being painted in the colours of Blackrock Hurling Club.
Today, driving up to Mayfield, I noted that Brian Dillons have taken up a similar marketing strategy on the northside, with three utility boxes spotted at St. Lukes Cross, Dillons Cross, and Old Youghal Road. A welcome introduction. Last week was the first time that I encountered Art Of Asbestos. Twitter suggests that the artwork has been in Dublin for at least the past year and had been around years ago. I don’t know when the sticker campaign started in Cork but they have had me smiling since the weekend. There are probably more that I have not yet seen. Art of Asbestos is on Instagram, with even more. If the humour is not to your liking, you could try the Bonnie Tyler ‘Lost’ version.  On 9th May, the head on Widerlings Lane was the Street Art that I tweeted in my on-going efforts to tweet one PostBox, Roadside Memorial, StreetArt work, and, Ghostsign every day for 2019 – a means to an end of sorting out and cataloguing all of the photographs that I have. I had assumed that the art was completed, but I was wrong. Yesterday, cycling on Popes Quay on my way to final evening of classes at U.C.C. for the term, I spotted that the art had been developed. There was Michael O’Riordan keeping an eye on passers-by.
The head appears to be from the photograph that accompanied the temporary memorial around the corner on Popes Quay a short while back, placed by Michael’s nephew Pat Cadogan. Eighty-three years ago, Michael O’Riordan left the North Mall and headed to Spain. Well done to MYO Café. Today’s StreetArt offering has been the updated version on Widerlings Lane.
I was well impressed when I spotted some stencil art this morning on a utility box at the corner of Popham’s Road and Farranferris Avenue. The image of Roy Keane was the first of the pieces that I spotted heading up the hill, resulting in an immediate left, and stop. There are other stencil pieces but it is the boy Roy that has had me searching the web for this blog post this evening. The photo on the left below is from Farranferris Avenue. It shows Roy holding the head of a raven in his right hand over his right eye. The photo on the right is from the Crawford Art Gallery and shows Roy also holding the raven’s head in his right hand over his right eye. The original photograph was taken by Murdo Macleod and the homepage of his website shows the image hanging in the Crawford – bird in right hand. There appears to be no issue but if you look really closely you might sense an image of Keano, laughing …..
 I am in the process of getting my thousands of photographs catalogued and uploaded. One of the groupings that I am working on is Street Art so I have been going through different photos over the past while. On Tuesday, I spotted a beauty on Connaught Street in Cabra – absolutely lovely.  I saw this mural on Sunday through the open gate to a car park and was immediately humming Leonard Cohen’s Anthem. 
This mural is in a car park off Talbot St in Belfast. The gable end of the building accommodates the commemoration to the 1913 Lockout which was the street art uploaded on the first day of 2019. These are the Street Art photos uploaded for day 2 of 2019. I was so impressed with the image, particularly the imagery on the feathers of the arrow Enjoy the art – and the humming. 
 I spotted some street art on Reed’s Square a short while back. It definitely brought a smile to this reader – and a quick visit to YouTube to listen to the entire once again. The web revealed that it was voted saddest song of all times – lies, damned lies and statistics methinks. Everybody Hurts
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