Paddy Duffy Collection

Welcome/Galleries

Thank you visiting the Paddy Duffy Collection!

The galleries below provide a quick way to view the more than 7,800 images added to Paddy’s collection so far. Write-ups with descriptions and background information for many individual images are also available – click on each image in the galleries for individual entries or use the search tools in the side-bar on the right (or simply keep scrolling).

Attack Of The Ulster Division

2026-10-212026-10-30Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

1,000 copies of J.P. Beadle’s painting “Battle Of The Somme: Attack Of The Ulster Division” were produced in 1917 in order to raise funds for wounded soldiers and POWs of the First World War. It has been further reproduced in boards and paintings since the re-imaging wave in the mid 2000s (see Visual History 10 | some early instances: 2007 in Londonderry | 2008 in Belfast), including this one in Cookstown. The original painting hangs in Belfast City Hall. (Irish Untold)

Edinburgh Drive, Cookstown

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T10006

Animal House

2026-10-212026-10-29Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The sills and inset windows are real, and the frames and shadows were painted by Woskerski (web) to heighten the 3-D effect around the animals sitting in the windows: two cats eye up a robin and some swifts.

On the side of Age Care, at the Thomas Street end of Feeney’s Lane, Dungannon

Also by Woskerski: faces in Belfast | asteroid in Crumlin | flamingo in Ballymena | writing in Belfast

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T09992 T09991 T09989 T09993 [T09990]

Cookstown Grenadiers

2026-10-212026-10-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The County Tyrone men from the Ulster Volunteers joined the 9th battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, which were put into the 109th brigade of the 36th Division. The Cookstown Grenadiers uses a (modern) emblem of the 36th – combining Union Flag, Maid Of Erin harp (symbol of the Royal Irish Rifles), and a red (right) hand on a field of poppies – as part of its band emblem (on the right, and on the board of photos, below); the WWI-era emblem of the 36th is the red (left) hand in the middle of the board.

The photographs on the second panel are labelled as follows: “First Parade 12th 2018. A special occasion for the band on its first outing. Accompanying our good friends in LOL 196 to the 12th demonstration in Stewartstown. A bond still strong to the present day.”; “Tribute to a volunteer. The band paying tribute to Vol. Gary Holdsworth (office commanding) [see also Along With The Brave And The Bold] at the local memorial in Monrush.”; “Remembering the fallen. A member of the band lays a wreath at Cookstown cenotaph.”; “Band on parade at the 12th of July demonstration in Coagh 2025.”; “Band on parade in Londonderry for the relief of Derry celebrations 2025.”

The third board shows shamrock, poppy, thistle, rose, and orange lily around the Mid-Ulster UVF emblem and the words, “In memory of volunteers from the east Tyrone area who took the first to militant republicanism. Their deeds and sacrifices will not be forgotten. For God and Ulster.”

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T10009 T10010 T10011 [T10007] T10008

Our Wee Town

2026-10-212026-10-29Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This celebration of the Northern Ireland soccer team is in Cookstown. On the left are the emblem of three world cups. Prior to its twice-in-a-row appearances at the World Cups in Spain (1982) and Mexico (1986), Northern Ireland’s only other appearance was in Sweden (1958), where it reached the quarter-finals.

The three players in the centre – Ray McCoy, Stuart Dallas, and Aaron Hughes – are all Cookstown locals. McCoy made one appearance for the NI team, Dallas 62, and Hughes 112.

Milburn Park, Cookstown

Along With The Brave And The Bold

2026-10-212026-10-24Extramural Activity1 Comment

“In loving memory of Vol. Gary Holdsworth, Officer Commanding, East Tyrone Mid-Ulster Brigade, Ulster Volunteer Force.” Holdsworth died in 2021 and the sources for this information – RBL Football Fb | Mid-Ulster ACT Fb – suggest that the title of “UVF OC” is an honorary or aspirational one. Holdsworth has appeared in the papers in connection with rioting and distrurbing the peace, but nothing involving weapons or drugs. A parade is held in his honour each year (Monrush Social Fb).

Similarly, the lines “Lay him away on the hillside, along with the brave and the bold. Inscribe his name on the roll of fame, in letters of purest gold.” come from a song (‘Lay Him Away On The Hillside’) about James Daly of the Connaught Rangers. He was executed by a British Army firing squad in November, 1920, for leading a mutiny to protest the actions of the Tans and RIC (WP).

The memorial is in the street where Holdsworth lived: Milburn Close, Cookstown

Young Newton

2026-10-182026-10-21Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This Young Newton (the UYM in east Belfast) mural is an extension to the left-hand end of the fiftieth anniversary repainting of “Freedom Corner” (final image) and next to the Young Newton memorial garden (penultimate image).

The group has had a presence on the area’s walls since 1997. See also 2005 | 2009 | 2009 at the other end of Freedom Corner. (Also 1999 in Bangor.)