GOING FORWARD PHOTONIQUE WILL BE ADVERTISMENT FREE
GOING FORWARD PHOTONIQUE WILL BE ADVERTISMENT FREE
Originally Photographed October 2026
[[shortcode.limerick.0011]] MY FIRST TIME TO NOTICE THIS MURAL
The Urban Cartographer Presents:
Photographed By William Murphy Using A Sony A7RVI
Marking the peak of Dublin’s Bram Stoker Festival, today was the October Bank Holiday—Ireland’s long weekend celebration leading into Halloween
Rather than a generic Halloween carnival, the city stages an elaborate theatrical spectacle in honour of Dublin-born author Bram Stoker (1847–1912)—the creator of Dracula, who was born in nearby Clontarf, attended Trinity College, and spent his formative decades in the capital.At 7:00 PM, the festival culminated in its signature outdoor parade—staged by the street-theatre ensemble Macnas—winding through the North Inner City.
The dense crowds made photography impossible, but the walk home delivered an unexpected highlight along Moore Street: an arresting piece of street art painted across ground-floor construction hoarding.Passing through Moore Street on Halloween weekend carries a certain local irony.
Long before polished civic festivals took over the October calendar, Moore Street was synonymous with a far more illicit Dublin Halloween ritual. Because fireworks have strictly required an elusive commercial licence in the Republic, the street’s bustling market atmosphere historically doubled as the capital’s unofficial black-market hub for Halloween bangers, screamer rockets, and Roman candles.
For generations of Dublin youths, negotiating the open-air stalls in October wasn't about fruit or winter veg—it was about whispering under the breath to the right hawker and walking away with pockets full of smuggled pyrotechnics.
Today, that rogue energy is channelled through large-scale urban art.
The mural is signed in the lower right-hand corner as @ANDYMC_ART / @CYANIDE_INK.Andy McDonnell (AndyMc) is a Dublin-based street artist and illustrator from Palmerstown and an alumnus of Ballyfermot College of Further Education.
Working under and in collaboration with the moniker Cyanide Ink, McDonnell’s signature style balances dramatic chiaroscuro, stencilling, and sharp, graphic character work.Visual Composition & Symbolism
Figurative Subject: The focal point is a high-contrast, stylised portrait of a woman in profile. Set against a pitch-black background and sculpted with glowing yellow and earth tones, her posture carries an air of quiet, solemn contemplation.
Tribute to Street Culture: The woman’s outstretched hand cradles an apple, encircled by fluid decorative ribbons, stylized foliage, and yellow-and-white butterflies. On Moore Street—ground zero for generations of vocal fruit and flower traders—the proffered apple serves as a visual nod to the street’s market legacy, while layering in classical, mythic undertones reminiscent of Eve or a folklore enchantress.
Nighttime Atmosphere: The palette relies heavily on cadmium yellows, muted ochres, and sharp white line-work. Viewed at night under the city's sodium street lamps and fluorescent shop awnings, the mural's warm golden tones pick up the artificial glare, contrasting sharply with the deep shadows and the bright blue pedestrian bollards lining the pavement.