BALLYHAISE GAA CLUB X BLOOM | THE ART PROJECT
Location: Ballyhaise, Co. Cavan
Key Message: One Club! Celebrating a community coming together and using art to give a new sense of life to a much used and much loved target wall.
A collaboration between Bloom | The Art Project and Ballyhaise GAA Club to transform a bare target wall into an epic mural that represents the entire club as one.
Our biggest, boldest and best mural to date!
When we first began discussing this mural for the lovely folks in Ballyhaise back in June, it seemed like lightyears away. Low and behold, in what seemed like a flash, we were standing in front of the hu(uuu)ge target wall, paint brush and spray can in hand, ready to rock.
Of course, it wasn’t as simple as showing up with a few buckets of paint. This project required a lot of collaboration with the club members. It was very important to us and them that everyone in the club felt that they were represented and taken into account for in this mural. Ballyhaise GAA Club recently amalgamated with the local Camogie club, Castletara to, in essence, become one club. This fusion was a beautiful move that really highlighted the sense of inclusion, togetherness and community that permeates through the town of Ballyhaise.
Our design included actual members of the club. To our amusement, guessing the identities of the women & men in the mural caused quite a stir among onlookers. But we have taken a vow of silence and won’t reveal their true identities. The members of Ballyhaise will have to just keep guessing! We also wanted an even representation of GAA and Camogie club colours throughout the mural. Incorporating lots of targets was also a priority as the club hoped to use the wall for target practice and training.
The mural took us two weeks to complete. There were some turbulent times as the autumn rain came to visit us on more than one occasion, sending us home earlier than we would have liked and forcing us to revisit parts that had already received lots of love. (oh, Ireland!)
But we stayed positive through the unruly weather and the sun came out to say hi on the final day. (hallelujah!)
We really enjoyed this project. We got to experience the life and soul of the club everyday as different teams came and went. We overheard funny conversations about the mural from onlookers and received lots of support from the local kids as they kicked a ball around the neighbouring pitch “Fairplay on the wall lads!!”. In our eyes, there was and could be no greater complement. Thank YOU wee lads!!
We hope this mural brings all the teams and club members in Ballyhaise much joy over the coming years.