Month: January 1995

Weary People, What Reap Ye?

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“Weary people, what reap ye? Golden corn for the stranger.
What sow ye? human corpses that wait for the avenger.
Fainting forms, hunger–stricken, what see you in the offing?
Stately ships to bear our food away, [amid the stranger’s scoffing].
There’s a proud array of soldiers — what do they round your door?
They guard our masters’ granaries from the thin hands of the poor. – Speranza”

The poetry is the first few lines of The Famine Year by “Speranza”, i.e. Lady Jane Wilde, mother of Oscar.

In the centre an aboriginal figure holds the flags of Ireland and of the Native Australians.

This is one of about nine murals painted in 1995 on the Great Hunger (Visual History).

“Painted by Síle Na Gıg & St James Youth Aug 95” in St James’s Crescent/Donegall Road, west Belfast.

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00155 [T00206]

The Children Of Lear

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In Irish mythology, the children of Lear were turned into singing swans for 900 years by their step-mother Aoıfe. They are then restored to human form but, being 900 years old, die immediately.

“Lır” (in Irish) is the genitive of (the Irish) “Lear” and the story is often referred to in Irish as “Clann Lır“; neither “Lear” nor “Lır” is pronounced like the English “(King) Lear”.

Painted at “Cáısc [Easter] 1995” by “Síle-Na-Gıg”.

Rockville Street, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00154 [T00166]

Part Of Our Heritage

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“Gaelic games – part of our heritage.” Athletes play hurling, football, and camogie and the local GAA club Ardoyne Kickhams (Fb) is celebrated. “Is treıse dúchas ná oılıuınt” means “heritage is stronger than upbringing”. “Fáılte go dtí Ard Eoın” [“Welcome to Ardoyne”] appears in the apex.

Havana way, Ardoyne, north Belfast

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Copyright © 1994 Paddy Duffy (undated image)
T00165 [T00176]

Saoırse

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The frame of this mural in St James’s was originally painted by Andrea Redmond (Fb) in 1994 for a mural (included below) showing local pensioners remonstrating with a British Army soldier, under the title “The Spirit Of Freedom”, reproducing a photo that appeared in a French-language magazine (see below).

The central circle was repainted (again Redmond) for the 1995 “green ribbon” campaign: the dove holds the keys that will set free the republican prisoners, symbolised by the barbed wire and the lark in the apex. There was also a side-wall, showing two rows of green ribbons, each with the name of a POW (see immediately below).

“Sponsored by AP/RN” has been moved from the side-wall to the main wall.

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00106

(D00218)

The 1994 ‘Spirit Of Freedom’ mural:

(S00027)

In small letters on the part of the circle at the back of the soldier is written “This mural is dedicated to the memory of J[…] D[…] and M[…] Fitzsimons”.

On the side wall is a verse from the poem The Crime Of Castlereagh by “Volunteer Bobby Sands MP”: “All things must come to pass as one/So hope should never die/There is no height or bloody might/That a freeman can’t defy./There is no source or foreign force/Can break one man who knows,/That his free will no thing can kill/And from that freedom grows.”

Fág Ár Sraıdeanna

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This is a mural on Whiterock Road, west Belfast, bidding “Slán Abhaıle” to a British soldier who is himself standing on Whiterock Road in front of the 1916 mural (Who Fears To Speak Of Easter Week?).

In the medallions to the left and right are four demands from during the (first) ceasefire: “End collusion, Release POWs, Disband RIR RUC, End Unionist veto”. 

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00105

Battle Of The Bogside

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A fist in flames to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the battle of the Bogside, and the beginning of the Troubles, 1969 – 1994. The Battle began on August 12th, 1969, with the declaration of “Free Derry” and exclusion of police. The British Army was deployed on the 14th.

For more information, see the documentaries Battle Of The Bogside and No Go on youtube, and the WP page.

Painted by Arlene Wege in Lecky Road, Bogside, Derry

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00103

The Petrol Bomber

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The Petrol Bomber was the first mural painted by the Bogside Artists – Kevin Hasson, Tom Kelly, and William Kelly – as part of what would become The People’s Gallery (Visual History).

It shows 13 year-old Paddy Coyle (Derry Journal) with a Molotov cocktail and wearing a gas mask (used to protect rioters against CS gas). The original did not have the green ribbon on the boy’s badge – it is a symbol of the movement to have POWs released as part of any peace agreement.

The Rossville flats are in the background of the mural (though not of Clive Limpkin’s original photo, included below from this gallery of Limpkin’s images of Derry 1969-1972).

Lecky Road, Bogside, Derry

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00200
Copyright © 1996 Paddy Duffy
[T00102] [T00191]