Larne – Paddy Duffy Collection

The Friends’ Goodwill

2026-10-092026-10-16Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A four-day festival was held in in May, 2017, (News Letter) to mark the three-hundredth anniversary of the departure of the ship the Friends’ Goodwill, which is thought to be the first ship to take emigrants to North America. The voyage took four months – see the Ulster Scots Agency for a description of the challenges it faced and the kind of reception the emigrants might have received in Boston. As part of the festivities, an information panel was added to the memorial, designed by Ed Barton (tumblr), that had stood in Curran Park, since 1992.

“This memorial, unveiled on 16th May 1992 by Professor Bobby Moss PhD of South Carolina, is dedicated to the memory of those first Ulster emigrants who sailed from Larne in May 1717 upon the “Friends’ Goodwill”, bound for Boston. They were to be the first of many. “There is no other race in the United States that can produce a roll of honour so long and so shining with distinction and who shall deny our claim to have done more, much more than any others to make the United States.”

“On the 300th anniversary of the departure of Friends’ Goodwill, we honour the Ulster-Scots who left their homeland to forge new lives in America. Through resilience and courage, their character helped shape a nation revered for freedom and opportunity. To this day, we extend the hand of friendship to our kin in the United States Of America.”

Curran Park, Curran Road, Larne

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Fit To Be Tied

2026-10-092026-10-25Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The town of Larne continues to beautify its town centre as many of its shops are shuttered and town down. The piece above and immediately below is by FGB (web) and Katriona (web) in Dunluce Street on the site of Campbell’s pub; the subsequent piece is by Rob Hilken (web) in Main Street, on a site that has been vacant for as long as Google has been mapping streets.

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Community, Culture, Heritage

2026-08-212026-10-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This new “welcome to Boyne Square” sign was mounted in late June in preparation for this year’s Twelfth.

The dates in Roman numerals in the corners are (top) 1688-1690 and (bottom) 1914-1918. The emblems in the background are of (l-r) Clyde Valley flute band (Fb), Rangers Supporters’ Club – Larne (Fb), ABOD Walker Club Larne Branch (Fb), Boyne Defenders LOL 1297 (Fb), George A Dummigan accordion band, Constable Anderson Memorial flute band (Fb), Larne & District Great War Society (Fb), Boyne Square Bonfire Society (Fb).

Herbert Avenue, Boyne Square/Factory, Larne

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Craigyhill Bonfire 2026

2026-07-082026-07-13Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here are images of this year’s (2026) Craigyhill bonfire, shrouded in sea-fog. The bonfire was finished on July 5th, a week in advance of its lighting, which will be at midnight on Sunday, amid two days of entertainment by DJs, dancers, and flute bands. The kids’ bonfire (in the fifth image) will be lit on the 11th at 10 p.m. (Fb)

The banner on the fence celebrates an “International bonfire community” between Craigyhill and Scheveningen, in the Netherlands, which holds the official record for the world’s largest bonfire by volume (Guinness). The largest bonfire by height – officially recorded – was in Lustenau, Austria; for Criagyhill’s claim to the title, see the entry on the 2024 bonfire.

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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The World’s Biggest Bonfire

2026-03-312026-08-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Welcome to Craigyhill, home of the world’s biggest bonfire.”

The board in the image below was mounted circa 2019 (replacing the controversial Craigyhill Provost Team board that showed a hooded gunman with a pistol). The community was already claiming that its annual bonfire was “Northern Ireland’s biggest”.

But the claim was expanded to the entire world with 2022’s bonfire, which was measured at 202.3 feet (see March 2023’s Welcome To Craigyhill). The builders took a break with the (July) 2023 bonfire but the 2024 pyre (not “2023”, as in the image above) was measured at 205 feet, 2.69 inches (Belfast Live).

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Be Proud Of The Lads Of Millbrook

2026-03-312026-04-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Millbrook remembers – they gave their all for our freedom.” Here is a new installation in the Millbrook area of/just outside Larne, celebrating and commemorating the sacrifice of locals who lost their lives while serving the British forces during the World Wars.

The Great War 1914-1918:
“Be proud of the lads of Millbrook, who at the bugle call/put on the Country’s armour and rushed to duty’s call
They have gone to beat the Kaiser, we are sure they will succeed,/To drive him out of Flanders, And Belgium shall be freed!
Their names shall live in history, Their names we will adore,/And Ulster shall be proud of them, when they return once more.”

On the left are three medals: Pip, Squeak, and Wilfred (that is, the 1914 Star, for service in France or Belgium, the War (service) medal, and the Inter Allied Victory medal) (Identify Medals), with the ‘Dead Man’s Penny’ on the right.

The names on the headstone between the two World War panels are [from WWI] John Blair, David Linn Ritchie, Robert Erskine, Wesley Campbell, James Steele, Samuel McKay, Robert McFall, Thomas Kirkpatrick, Samuel George Mathers, Charles McNally, William John Kirkpatrick, Daniel McMichael, [from WWII] Cyril Cecil Whitley, William Magee. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you – Deuteronomy 31:6”

Second World War 1939-1945:
“Here inscribed the names of friends we knew, Young men with whom we often flew
Scrambled to many angels high, They knew that they or friends might die
Behind each name a story lies, of bravery in summer skies;
Though many brave unwritten tales, were simply told in vapour trails
Many now lie in sacred graves, and many rest beneath the waves
Outnumbered every day they flew, Remembered here as just ‘The Few'”

The medals on the right are the Burma Star, Defence Medal, and the War Medal, with the RAF brass cap badge on the left.

Along the main road in Drumahoe Gardens, Millbrook, Larne.

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Hit The Coast 2025

2025-09-022026-05-10Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

34 images from this year’s Hit The Coast paint-jam in Larne. Here is a gallery of images from Hit The Coast 2024.

Codo (ig) + Ohhi Ohno (ig) + Decoy (web) + Codo

[Katriona Designs (web) – not included]

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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I Get Knocked Down

2025-09-022025-10-14Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Latharna House – the last remaining of three tower-blocks in Larne – is still standing, despite plans to demolish it in 2022 (Belfast Live) and in 2024 (NI World) and in 2025 (NI World). While awaiting its ultimate demise, it serves as a canvas for writers (including AKSEL and ANCO) and an advertising hoarding for the recent Hit The Coast festival – full gallery here.

Antiville UDA

2025-06-222025-06-29Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This entry updates Dieu Et Mon Droit from 2023. The boards are showing some signs of wear, and the large ‘Eddie The Trooper’ board is missing.

George Walker

2025-06-222025-07-08Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Mr George Walker, Minister of Dungannon and Gouernour of London Derrie in Ireland when besieged in 1689.” Walker evacuated from Dungannon after Lundy’s troops pulled out and became joint governor of Derry after Lundy’s authority collapsed, first with Henry Baker and later with John Mitchelburne.

Walker put himself at the centre of his own “True Account Of The Siege Of London-Derry” (which can be read at archive.org) and drew criticism for minimising the role of Presbyterians (Walker was Anglican/CoI).

After the siege, Walker went on a victory tour of Scotland and England; while in London, he argued against a Derry trial for Lundy, on the ground that Lundy still had support there. He returned to Ireland in time to greet William III in June 1690 when William travelled from Carrickfergus to Belfast (see June 14th, 1690) and he went south with William to the Boyne, where he was shot and killed. (DIB | DIB | WP)

“The Walker Club was formed in 1844 in Londonderry to perpetuate the memory of siege governor, Rev. George Walker, who was a[n] inspirational great clergyman and soldier. He fought with King William at the Battle of the Boyne, where he was killed on 1st July 1690.”

The image of Walker is a line-engraving by John Savage, viewable at Sinclair Genealogy. “Life, truth, victory” is a translation of Londonderry’s Latin motto “Vita, veritas, victoria”.

These new boards are at the Rangers Supporters’ Club (Fb) in Boyne Square/Greenland, Larne.