Cardiff mural celebrating diversity painted over by advert

A mural that aimed to "celebrate the multiculturalism of Wales" has been painted over by an advert featuring Wales rugby international George North

A mural that celebrated the diversity and multiculturalism of Wales has been painted over by an advert.

The "My Cymru My Shirt" artwork first appeared in Cardiff to mark Wales' Euro 2020 campaign, commissioned by Adidas.

Created by art collective Unify, it has now been replaced by an advert for watch company Breitling featuring Wales rugby international George North.

Yusuf Ismail, co-founder of Unify, said he was "incredibly proud" of what the mural had meant to the city.

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"Initially the mural was just for the [Adidas] campaign, and that finished when Euro 2021 finished," said Yusuf, who founded Unify alongside fellow artist Shawqi Hasson.

He said the owners of the wall had been "super gracious" in letting the mural stay up almost two years after the end of the tournament, which took place in 2021 after being delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The mural has been on display on Quay Street, Cardiff, since June 2021

Yusuf said the purpose of the mural was to "use football to showcase the history of multiculturalism within Wales presently and historically".

The artwork is based on a photograph of Nicole Ready, from Cardiff, and is an homage to George Berry, a former footballer who played for Wales in the early 1980s.

'Real people, real fans'

"A lot of people don't know that Wales had black people play in their team back in the day," said Yusuf.

"Many murals have gone up on the wall, but nothing is really impacted Welsh culture, or football culture the way this one has."

Yusuf said the artwork was an homage to footballer George Berry, who played for Stoke City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and the Welsh national team in the 1970s and 80s

"It's because we use real people, we could have put Gareth Bale up if we wanted to do, but we were quite insistent that we get real people real fans on our wall," he added.

Unify's earlier artwork, in Butetown, Cardiff, which was dubbed the area's "Mona Lisa", was accidentally painted over for a McDonald's advert in March 2022, before being repainted.

At the time Yusuf said McDonald's had been "incredible" and were "very engaged" in getting the mural reinstated.

The Quay Street mural followed and earlier artwork from Unify in the Butetown area of Cardiff

As the mural's time in Cardiff comes to a close, Yusuf said he's happy for a new artwork to take its place, and said his collective had "a lot of exciting new projects on the horizon".

"Naturally we're so proud, but probably more, I think we really have our finger on the pulse of how people perceive Wales," he added.

"It was an incredible campaign and they let it stay up for so long, there's not a bad thing I can say about it."

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