Ballymoney Mural

Down towards the bottom of the main drag in Ballymoney is a small shopping arcade and on one of the wall there's a mural depicting the Dunlop family of motorbike road racers: Joey, brother Robert and his two sons William and Michael (out of shot on the right).  The Dunlop family hail from the village of Armoy, not far away.  I stood opposite the mural for a while in the hope that someone would walk past and eventually they did, although I could have timed it better as he kind of blurs into the background a bit:

 

Three of the Dunlop family, plus anonymous walker, Ballymoney.  OM4ti/85mm/HP5+/Ilford MG Classic paper.

All three riders depicted here were killed while doing what they loved, road racing motorbikes, a sport that doesn't give you many second chances.  The second of Robert's son's, Michael, still rides - he took his 20th win at this year's Isle of Man TT.  Both sons famously decided to race at our local North West 200 event in 2008, two days after their father Robert had been killed in practice - in spite of race organisers ruling they shouldn't/couldn't.  Both lined their bikes up on the grid and no-one was going to physically haul them off.  Michael went on to win the 250cc race and it's fair to say there was a lot of emotion in that win.

Joey Dunlop (on the left) was for many the main man - the first of the Armoy Armada road racers.  I didn't know him personally, but as a lad I photographed him often at the North West 200 races around the  Portstewart-Coleraine-Portrush triangle, always with his trademark yellow helmet. He seemed a happy soul, always smiling and looking like he was enjoying every moment.  He famously slept in his van at race weekends, beside his bikes and covered from head to toe in grease, even as a multiple world champion.  When asked once about what it was like on a machine at a rate of knots along country roads, he replied:  'There's a grey blur and a green blur - I try to keep on the grey one'.