Lugh, or Lú, rises across the Gateway Hotel in Smug’s monumental 2021 mural. The figure from Irish mythology lends the work its name. At 41 metres high, it is described by EPSO as the tallest mural in Ireland, bringing photorealistic street art to an extraordinary scale.
Lugh is more than a warrior. In The Second Battle of Moytura, he gains entry to the royal court by demonstrating that he unites many skills in one person. The episode gives a literary background to a figure associated with mastery, invention and leadership.
Smug’s monumental 2021 portrait translates that myth into a contemporary human presence. Creative Ireland’s festival report records the Crowne Plaza Hotel as its canvas and described it at the time as Ireland’s tallest mural. The building is now identified in the collection as the Gateway Hotel.
Smug is a world renowned Australian artist based in Glasgow, Scotland. He paints in a photorealistic style introducing additional light sources giving each large-scale piece real character.
He is renowned for many of his large scale installations all across the globe and has painted “The Tallest Mural In Ireland here in our home town of Dundalk in 2021 standing 41 meters in height
