The buzz over steel dragonfly

The large steel dragonfly, located at the car park alongside the jetty, is part of a joint art project between Coleraine and Ballymoney councils.

The project, 'The Art of Regeneration,' has been funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, with funding from the National Lottery.

One of six pieces in the Coleraine Borough, the dragonfly has been a topic of conversation amongst locals who use Christie Park regularly.

Malcolm Murchison, from Flowerfield Art Centre, who was involved in the project, told The Times: "This project has been ongoing now for some time. There are 12 pieces in total, six in the Coleraine area and six in the Ballymoney area.

"We wanted to get young people involved and give them a sense of ownership, so all of the artwork is located in play areas.

"Recycled material has been used in all of the pieces, so there is a lot of variety.

"We have been working with schools and youth groups with the aim of getting our young people involved in recycling."

Artist Alan Cargo was the man behind the Christie Park pieve, but there were four different artists who worked with local schoolchildren and youth groups on the different structures in the borough.

The Christie Park artwork is an environmental piece, which illustrates a dragonfly landing on a bulrush, making reference to the rushes growing on banks of River and the ever reducing population of dragonflies on the Bann.

Malcolm added: "The piece is made of steel washers for the body, nuts for eyes and stainless steel tube wings.

"Areas of the dragonfly's body also have green and blue sandblasted inserts, and the wide part of the bulrush has 14 square bronze 'tiles', which were made by pupils of Coleraine High School."

The project is almost completed with artwork already in place at play areas at Lansdowne Crescent in Portrush, Mettican in Garvagh, Glenullin in Garvagh and Larchfield in Kilrea. A final piece will be erected in Windyhall within the next few weeks.