The sister of sporting legend George Best has visited the site where a mural of the footballer will soon be launched.
George’s sister, Grace, has now visited the site in the Cregagh Estate on an inspection visit to see how work is progressing on the mural, which has now had George’s copyrighted signature added by artist Dee Craig.
The new mural portrays the ex-Northern Ireland and Manchester United star at the height of his fame on international duty in 1969.
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Grace was joined by Housing Executive staff and members of the Cregagh Community Association during the visit.
She said: “The new mural is amazing, my daddy would be so proud of it. I love it when you are driving into the estate and you can see it easily as its three stories high.
"A street light shines on it almost like a spotlight in the evening. It makes such a difference with George’s signature on it too, sets if off really well."
An official launch event is scheduled to take place in May, around George’s birthday, where the local community and their children, who love to play football ‘on Georgie Best’s pitch’ beside the mural, hope to hold a tournament to commemorate the event.
Marlene Dodds, from Cregagh Community Association, has worked closely with the Best family and the Housing Executive on this development, including consulting with local residents to decide which image to display.
She said: "We carried out a consultation on this some time ago, but due to the global pandemic we are only seeing the end result now.
"Back in February 2020 a community meeting took place to begin the consultation process. Ballot boxes were placed in the community including local businesses, the local church and the community centre.
"In total 205 ballots were collected. We gave the residents the choice of six images, and the image we used was the clear winner.
“The final result is amazing and there hasn’t been any negative feedback about it at all. The residents in the estate can’t get over how well it looks, and the icing on the cake is we have George’s signature, a copyrighted image that the family holds dear."
Housing Executive manager in South and East Belfast, Gary Ballantyne, said: "There was a mural of George here before, but it had to be removed to allow for external improvement works to be carried out to the building.
"Work is now complete and the area is benefiting from a new piece of public art, and we are so proud to have helped make this happen. We are very grateful that the Best family have trusted us to allow George’s copyrighted signature to be placed on the mural, adding an authenticity to the great work of the artist.
"I think this renews the sense of pride this community has in George being a native of the area."
The Housing Executive provided the project with almost £10,000 in funding.
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