Property search Taken to a new level by Liam Neeson mural

Johnny Hamilton, also known as Jossie Pops, is keen for Liam Neeson to see his most recent creation, a mural of the star, on the gable wall of Independent Property Estates in the Co Down city.

The mural, featuring a portrait of Neeson and his famous “I will find you” quote from the film Taken, is located on the corner of Bingham Street and Hamilton Street. “With the Liam Neeson one, it was just more to create humour and have a bit of fun with it,” said Johnny, who has also painted murals of NI stars Foy Vance and Gary Lightbody.

“It was [the building owner and managing director] Michael Rushe’s idea to play on the words ‘I will find you’, because they’re an estate agents, and people are finding the joke in it, so it’s tongue-in-cheek humour.”

He added: “Everyone knows him for that line. And then there are wee brackets at the bottom saying ‘a property’, just to really direct people to the estate agents.

“But it’s serving its purpose. The business sees the value of putting art on the side of its building, which will bring people to it. And on a business level, they’re getting their logo in every photo people take of the [artwork].” Michael had originally wanted to feature a big name outside of NI, such as Elvis Presley or Muhammad Ali, but he is glad he agreed with Johnny to depict Neeson. “I approached Johnny and said: ‘Let’s do something that has a property twist.’ It’s been great to see the feedback we’ve got out of it. It has been exceptional to say the least,” Michael said.

Johnny wanted to stick to the theme of NI celebrities, not only to celebrate them but to also attract more people to Bangor itself.

“There was a bit of criticism as to why the Neeson mural was in Bangor. ‘Why not Ballymena?’ But we sort of thought of this idea of Bangor as the city of faces,” he explained.

“Bangor is failing to get footfall because of the failed Queen’s Parade. I think if we had an attraction which brought people into Bangor, that could be massive for tourism.

“You could get Liam Neeson’s traffic. He’s an A-lister, so he’s going to bring a lot of footfall from America; they love him so much.”

Unsurprisingly, Johnny is keeping his fingers crossed that the actor will get a chance to view the mural up close.

“We’re praying we could get Liam Neeson down to it. I’m quietly confident; I think at this stage he’s seen it,” Johnny said.

“If he’s an art critic and wants to come down and critique it, that would be brilliant.

“Or if he just wants to enjoy us celebrating him as a hero in NI, that would be great too.”

Johnny is currently raising money through a GoFundMe page for his next mural. You can find out more about his work via https://jossiepops.com/