East Pier Maritime Murals

The Greek-registered cargo ship, the 'Eliana', was the first maritime mural painted on the old east pier. It was created by a crew member of the ship in 1971.  In 1976, I was requested by some local people to revive the piece as it had suffered deterioration. This was my first artwork on the pier. The 'Eliana' was a large vessel which regularly deliverd phosphate from Casablanca, Morocco to Wicklow Town harbour. This was used as a component for fertiliser that was produced in Arklow (the 'Eliana' being too large to birth there). I have fond boyhood memories of being allowed to play on the ship's decks and having my first 'foreign' meal there - spaghetti bollanaise!

The 'LÉ Aoife', a former Irish naval vessel, is the largest of my  maritime murals on the East Pier. It was inspired by the generosity of a 9-year old girl from Avoca, named Aoife who, having found 50 euros, donated the money to me towards the cost of my paints. I promised to dedicate a new mural to her when I had researched it. Two years later, in 2021, I painted the vessel - my 50th mural on the pier. The 'Aoife' was built in Verolme dockyard in Cork in 1978. She was named after Aoife, the step-mother of the Children of Lir. She was used by the Irish Navy as a fisheries protection vessel. In addition, she assisted in emergency rescues including the refuelling of Richard Branson's 'Virgin Challenger II' in Newfoundland in June 1986 and assisted in the rescue of over 100 children in a sailing regatta off Dun Laoighre harbour in July 2007. Although her home port was Haulbowline Island in Cork, she had close ties to Waterford City. She often anchored outside W...

This mural is my tribute to the lost seafarers and to their families of the UK-registered cargo ship, 'Verity' which, tragically, sunk after a collision with the much larger Polish-managed bulker, the 'Polesie', on 24 October 2023 in a busy shipping lane off the island of Helgoland in the North Sea. The 'Verity' was a regular visitor to Wicklow harbour loaded with scrap metal and ballast. She was admired by locals for her beautiful colouring. The 'Verity' was carrying steel cargo from Bremen, Germany on route to the port of Immingham, Lincolnshire on the Humber Estuary. Of her crew of 7, only 2 survived, with the body of the ship's captain found, but the bodies of the other 4 crewmen not recovered. The crew came from the Philippines, Indonesia and Russia. None of the 22 crew members of the 'Polesie' were injured. The 'Verity' sank fully intact at the bottom of the seabed.   Then, on 8th September 2024, G ermany’s Waterways and Shippin...

I painted this evocative mural in 2022 a tribute to all sea rescuers who risk their lives on a daily basis to save people in danger at sea. I was deeply moved by the sad story which inspired my mural In the early hours of 14 March 2017, a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter operated by CHC Helicopter under contract to the Irish Coast Guard (call sign Rescue 116) en route from Dublin crashed into the sea while supporting a search and rescue operation off the west of Blacksod Bay, County Mayo. Tragically, all four crew members on board -  Captain Dara Fitzpatrick, Chief Pilot Mark Duffy, winch operator Paul Ormsby, and winch man Ciarán Smith - were killed. The Air Accident Investigation Unit released its final report on 5 November 2021. It concluded that the probable cause was that while the helicopter was flying towards its intended landing spot at 200 ft, at night, in poor weather, the crew was unaware of the presence of a 282-foot obstacle, Black Rock Island, on their flight path, which did ...

  I completed my mural of the 'Great Eastern' ship on my 66th birthday and on my last day of work as a postman in Wicklow Town. The mural was commissioned by Gerry Johnston, film-maker and producer. When the 'Great Eastern' was launched in 1858, she was the largest ship in the world. She was designed by the great Victorian engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and was built at Milwall on the River Thames. It would be 40 years before a ship so large was built again. The 'Great Eastern' was 211 metres (692 ft) long, 25 m (83 ft) wide. She was designed to carry 4,000 passengers, plus crew and could travel around the world without refuelling. She was powered by sails, plus paddle wheels and also a screw propeller. She had five engines with a total power of 8,000 hp. She had six masts named after the days of the week from Monday to Saturday, which could carry a huge amount of sail. On her maiden voyage in 1860, an explosion killed several of the crew and the ship became ...

  This is my mural of the 'Ilen', a sailing ketch originally built almost 100 years ago in 1926 - Ireland's last-built sailing ketch. She moved to the Falkland Islands for a period of 70 years transporting farm animals between the islands. On returning to Ireland in the late 1990s, she was restored to her original glory over a 10-year period in Hegarty's boatyard, Baltimore, western Co. Cork, and was completed in 2018. Today, she is part-used as a training vessel for young people. She stopped over in Wicklow harbour for a short visit on 28/29 July 2024 en route to Arklow.