{"id":32738,"date":"2025-07-11T13:07:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T13:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/mural-removed-from-grand-central-station-before-unveiling\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T13:07:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T13:07:14","slug":"mural-removed-from-grand-central-station-before-unveiling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/mural-removed-from-grand-central-station-before-unveiling\/","title":{"rendered":"Mural removed from Grand Central Station before unveiling"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Hayley Halpin and Laura Trueman<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC News NI<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"DillionDillion Osborne \/ BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The question mark banner has been removed from Grand Central Station<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A mural of a local celebrity, which had been due to be unveiled at Belfast’s Grand Central Station, has been removed. <\/p>\n

The painting, thought by sources to be the musician Van Morrison, remained covered at the station for a month after its installation.<\/p>\n

Artist Johnny Hamilton was commissioned to create the portrait, but its unveiling had been postponed indefinitely last week. <\/p>\n

Translink, which operates the station, and the company representing the celebrity have been contacted by BBC News NI regarding the latest development. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Following the confirmation last week that the project was being delayed, Exile Productions, who it’s believed commissioned the mural, did not provide a response after being contacted by the BBC.<\/p>\n

Translink said last week that it only facilitated the space and further questions should be directed to the artist and company that commissioned the work.<\/p>\n

Speaking to BBC News NI on Friday, Mr Hamilton said: “It’s disappointing because when you’re approached by a company to do a collaboration with them you do your part and you expect them to do their part.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"DillonDillon Osborne<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The mural remained covered weeks after its installation<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The painting had been positioned at the front doors over the glass frontage at the station but was covered by a large pink question mark painted onto a black background.<\/p>\n

The whole thing has now been removed completely. <\/p>\n

Writing on his website last week, Mr Hamilton, who works under the alias Jossiepops said: “This is not only disappointing, it’s humiliating.”<\/p>\n

The BBC had been in contact with the artist with a plan to film the unveiling of the 5m x 2m portrait last month. <\/p>\n

Mr Hamilton had been teasing followers on social media about who he might be painting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The artwork hung near an entrance to Grand Central Station<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The painting itself took two months of preparation, involved more than 15 tins of paint and was altered twice from its original design.<\/p>\n

Everything was filmed; from the actual painting, to its framing and then installation in Belfast’s Grand Central Station.<\/p>\n

The painting itself took six people to move comfortably due to its scale.<\/p>\n

Mr Hamilton said part of his brief was that the piece had to be movable and Translink agreed to facilitate it.<\/p>\n

But then he was told that the unveiling, set for the early hours of 10 June, was not going ahead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"DillonDillon Osborne<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Johnny Hamilton, who works under the alias Jossiepops, had more than 200,000 views on social media posts teasing followers about who he might be painting.<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Mr Hamilton has been unable to disclose the identity of the celebrity behind the question mark due to a non-disclosure agreement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Hayley Halpin and Laura Trueman BBC News NI Dillion Osborne \/ BBC The question mark banner has been removed from Grand Central Station A mural of a local celebrity, which had been due to be unveiled at Belfast’s Grand Central Station, has been removed. The painting, thought by sources to be the musician Van Morrison, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[811,2065,8980,4334,424,10925],"class_list":["post-32738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-n-ireland","tag-central","tag-grand","tag-mural","tag-removed","tag-station","tag-unveiling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32740,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32738\/revisions\/32740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}