Some Bray Love Writ Large

The love is on the wall

aving brightened up the streets of New Ross in August, Greystones artist Holly Pereira has now worked her mural magic in Bray. 

Commissioned as part of the Bray For Love campaign, this inspired piece of melting pot happiness writ large is currently sitting pretty on the street side of The Harbour Bar.

“I was delighted to be commissioned by Bray for Love to create an anti-racism mural,” Holly told the Guide this afternoon. “I wanted to make a piece that was about diversity and inclusivity, but also something that was fun to look at, and added some colour and vivacity to the street.”

After a series of racist graffiti began springing up around the town, Bray woman Emer O’Neill started a group entitled Speak For Racial Justice, and Holly’s mural is part of their campaign to counteract such hatred.

“When George Floyd was murdered,” O’Neill told The Irish Examiner, “it had a huge impact on me. I felt I just couldn’t stay quiet anymore. I felt I had to voice the racism that I have endured here in Ireland. I felt people needed to know.”

Like O’Neill, local Green Party councillor Erika Doyle [above, left] has found herself targeted directly by the racist graffiti, whilst Greystones Labour politician Anne Waithira-Burke feels that the Bray For Love campaign should be adopted around the country, “so as to stop the far right, hate and discrimination in its tracks.”

As part of their Bray For Love campaign, the Speak For Social Justice group issued a stickers for businesses and homes in the town, and, after a GoFundMe page was set up, commissioned the Harbour Bar mural to spread some positive graffiti for a change.

“Murals are an excellent way to augment our experience of the public space,” finished Holly, “especially in previously-unloved areas. They literally bring life to dark alleys, and create new relationships with the environment.”