A NEW mural at Solitude stadium in North Belfast has been unveiled to celebrate the connection between Cliftonville Football Club, the community and the environment.
Thanks to Belfast-based Italian artist Daniela Balmaverde, the McAlery Stand now sports a compelling new mural celebrating the natural landscape of the Waterworks that surrounds Solitude.
In the foreground, a female, specifically chosen to represent the club's hugely successful Ladies team and ever-growing Girls Academy releases a house martin blending movements of the sport with the birds’ flight pattern. The background features the lush colourings of the Waterworks and Cave Hill, merged with the famous red of Ireland’s oldest football club.
Featured within the functional mural are eight house martin boxes that mimic the endangered birds’ natural mud nests. The boxes provide a species which has been in decline since 1995.
The mural is the first instalment of Safari in the City, a project which hopes to combine art and conservation in Belfast's urban environment.
Said a Reds' spokesperson: "Cliftonville Football Club are only too pleased to have joined forces with Wild Belfast for this collaborative living mural project.
"We look forward to seeing further living murals springing up across the city in the weeks and months ahead, and trust that visitors not only to Solitude but to the Waterworks itself continue to enjoy the newest addition to the local landscape."
