Ardrossan: Tragic O'Hara completes mural on Glasgow Street

Over the past five days, local artist Tragic O'Hara has been hard at work creating a new mural on the the building at the corner of Glasgow Street and Princes Street - right opposite us here at the Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald office.

Ardrossan Community Development Trust (ACDT) was successful in securing cash from Sustrans Scotland’s Art Roots Fund to commission the mural.

Trustees Scott Mould (chairperson), Eddie Gibb (development officer), Michael McCulloch (director) and Christine Powell (vice-chairperson) were delighted to be joined by some local youngsters as they stood alongside Tragic to celebrate the murals completion today, Friday, July 28.

Work on the wall started on Monday, with Tragic since transforming the once rather dull brick into a colourful masterpiece - celebrating the town of Ardrossan.

Prior to beginning the project, Tragic was involved in engaging the youth from the area, with events held at Ardrossan Academy and Winton Primary school - as well as a full public consultation.

The pupils were keen to give him their ideas for how it should look.

And their ideas have now came to fruition, when each section of the mural is broken down.

From left to right: Tragic O'Hara, Michael McCulloch and Eddie Gibb in front of the mural. (Image: Staff)

From the right hand side of the above photo, you can see a seal swimming in the water wearing an Ardrossan Winton Rovers jersey - the seal was an idea pitched at Tragic's school visits.

Above is the Lairds Isle ship - one of Ardrossan's most famous vessels which ran services from Ardrossan to Belfast back in the 1930s.

After being requisitioned by the Royal Navy for convoy duty during the Second World War, the Lairds Isle resumed the Belfast run in 1946. She continued to operate this service until she was broken up at Troon in 1957.

Above the ship is one of Ardrossan's most recognisable landmarks - Ardrossan Castle.

To the left of this is a transmission tower - which is to signify when radio history was made in Ardrossan.

In December 1921 the signal from amateur station 1BCG in Greenwich, Connecticut, was heard in Ardrossan, Scotland, marking the first successful transatlantic radio transmission using shortwave frequencies.

Below this, and slightly out of picture behind those in the photo, is an underwater memorial which signifies the sinking of HMS Dasher off the coast of Ardrossan during the Second World War.

Left of this is again is a shark, another suggestion which Tragic took from his visit to local schools.

Next to it is a bowl, to represent the bowling clubs of Ardrossan.

Above the water once again is a train, which signifies that Ardrossan once had five train stations, considered to be the most of any town in Scotland. At present, the town still has three.

Flying above the train is an aeroplane, which pays homage to Janet Hendry - Scotland's first registered female pilot.

Rounding off the mural, just out of picture to the left hand side, is a barrell jellyfish - and mesmorising sea creature which is often spotted off the Ardrossan shoreline.