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I did an interview yesterday with an Irish artist, Joan Walsh-Smith. She discovered only a few weeks ago that a public art piece she did for Derry in the 1970s had been demolished. She only realised it was gone when her daughter did a search on Google Maps for it when she was updating her website for her. Joan and her husband Charles, now in their mid 60s,听co-created the "City People" art work in 1972. They now听live in Perth, Australia and听are highly-regarded听artists there, even听being awarded听

听"City People" won an Arts Council of Northern Ireland competition in 1972. A new urban park on Foyle Street was chosen as its location听and it made up part of the perimeter wall. In the 1990s Foyle Street Urban Park was demolished to make way for a carpark. I can't get听Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi out of my head.听

Now I have only a hazy memory of the park and of the art work.听If I'm honest, I didn't even notice the park was gone, and it was only a journalist Sean McLaughlin, writing for the Derry Journal, who broke the story.

I suppose you assume that public art is protected. You would imagine the piece had been carefully dismantled, put into storage or relocated. It's got me thinking about how public art is stewarded after it is听put up? Are there contracts now, the rights of the artist respected?

Or does public art have a shelf life?听Does it have to cede to听new ventures 20/30 years after it's put up? It changes the whole idea of why public art is commissioned if it is to be arbitrarily听de-commissioned.听It also听begs the question about the worth of one piece of public art over another and the fame of one artist over another. Since I started talking about this on Twitter (@marielouisemuir) and on my facebook page last night, I've had some interesting responses. The FE McWilliam Centre tells me that The Judo Players by FE McWilliam, which听is听part of Derry City Council's public art work portfolio, is going to get repaired. It has had a hand missing since vandalism years ago. The council want to get the hand remade to repair the piece.听As the gallery said to me on facebook: "I 听think it does beg the question about the worth of art or rather different artists' work. Do you think if The Judo Players was by a relatively unknown artist the council would be looking to repair it?"

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Another comment asks about the Emigration Statues by the late Derry-born听artist Eamon O'Doherty, whose public art work includes the Anna Livia monument aka the Floozie in the Jacuzzi. It was听once a major installation on Dublin's O'Connell Street until it was relocated to Heuston Station.听His public art work "The Emigrants", from 1990, was originally located on Waterloo Place.听When Waterloo Place was re-developed, the statues were re-located to down by the quay, locally known as 'behind Sainsburys'.听But one comment on my facebook page asks听about the piece when it was on Waterloo Place "there was a statue of a girl reaching into the fountain there; was she part of the Emigration Statues because she has not made it on the move down behind Sainsburys?"

Where is that statue? Or did she just miss the boat?

The irony is that Joan Walsh-Smith still has the original fibreglass moulds of her piece. She says that it would be relatively inexpensive to recast the work. She is willing to ship them across, especially with the UK City of Culture next year. Derry City Council's Town Clerk Sharon O'Connor speaking to me on 成人快手 Radio Ulster's Arts Extra last night says it is unlikely to happen. She doesn't want to look back. CIty People won an Art in Context competition in 1972. It's context is over.

So why is there a push to reunite Anthony Gormley's 1987 Sculptures for Derry听for next year? The double-sided Janus figure cruciforms听were听commissioned by Declan McGonagle of the Derry City Council-run Orchard Gallery听and were put in in three particular locations on the Derry Walls: on the east overlooking the Foyle River, over the Bogside by the remains of the Walker Monument and on the Bastion overlooking the Fountain. Of the three originals, only one remains in Derry, now outside the Millennium Forum. There听is an apocryphal story that it was actually found in a skip.听The other听two are in the United States. It wouldn't have anything to do with Gormley's status in the art world since Angel of the North that this push is on to bring them "home" so to speak? Or maybe it's because his grandfather is from Derry?

Should City People be re-moulded and rise again in 2013? Or did they just pave paradise and put up a parking lot in time for all the cultural tourists in 2013?

Spent today walking the streets of 1831 Belfast with the writer Glenn Patterson.听And the city hustled and bustled as noisily as it would have done on a Monday lunchtime 181 years ago,听although you didn't have to shout to be heard over听bus engines then. More likely nothing more intrusive than a horse-drawn gig or maybe even a sedan chair. I couldn't get over how noisy the city centre was. Between buses, buskers, bypassers,听one-sided mobile phone conversations, newspaper vendors, piped music from shops, it was the height of cacophony! But Glenn reckoned that in 1831, a听Monday lunchtime in Belfast would have been just as noisy. I didn't want to argue as he has just written a mighty book on that time, including not only sounds, but sights and smells too. You can smell the streets (they don't smell pretty).听

Glenn's new book 鈥淭he Mill for Grinding Old People Young鈥� is听a historical love letter to his home town, his many layered听research worn lightly, in a way very similar to Joseph O'Connor's 鈥淪tar of the Sea鈥�. The characters are writ large, against the social, political and economic history.

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Gilbert Rice is the central character, introduced听first as an 85-year-old in 1897, then taking us back to听his teenage self, in 1831, living with his grandfather on what is now Royal Avenue.听We听stood outside what are now the Clarkes and Zara shops where the house would have been,听with Glenn colouring in how the street was mainly residential back then. The young Gilbert then got a job听working in the Ballast office at the busy City Port, getting drunk, falling in love and听getting exercised about the Donegalls who owned Belfast. There's a beautiful sense of a rite of passage for the young man and for the reader too who is on that journey of discovery with him.

It's almost like we are time travellers, with all our knowledge of what is to happen to Belfast in the future, from the yet to be built听City Hall to the sinking of the Titanic to two World Wars to civil unrest to powersharing.听听

Glenn听said that he found the mid 1800s fascinating, 30 odd years after the 1798 uprising,听many of the people听who took part in that were still around were politicians and business people,听in a way, he says, similar to contemporary Northern Ireland.听

Off mike, he was still pointing out remnants of the past - 听alleyways, buildings and streets that map out听how little the city has changed, holding onto its past with pride. It's no coincidence that the publishers of Glenn's book, which he finished writing a year ago, have held off publication to the Titanic centenary. The city is now ready to face the horror of the听tragedy of the Titanic,听and remember it as it was when it left here. Likewise Glenn's book takes us back in time, to a听people and a place that fed Titanic听Town and shaped听what this place, despite all that has happened, remains.听

It's a great read. I'm just sorry that I've finished it.

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"The Mill for Grinding Old People Young" by Glenn Patterson is published by Faber on 15^th March.

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