Belfast east – Paddy Duffy Collection

Always On Our Minds Throughout The Year

2026-09-102026-09-17Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Loyalist culture – unbowed, unbroken.” The Sydenham Bonfire is constructed annually on the Inverary playing field and there is now a mural announcing the group who build it, to go along with the bonfire’s Facebook page. The phrase “unbowed, unbroken” has been frequently seen in CNR muraling, beginning with a 1996 mural in Lenadoon.

There is a memorial plaque in the top left: “Dedicated to Reece (Leeper) Leeman. To our friend that we hold dear, hard to believe that your [sic] not here. Thankful our memories won’t disappear. Always on our minds throughout the year.” Leeman, aged 21, was stabbed to death in 2019 (BBC) when he and a friend attempted to raid cannabis from the Kyle Street house of an aquaintance (ITv | News Letter).

Inverary pitches and bowling green, Sydenham, east Belfast

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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McMaster Street Remembers

2026-06-212026-08-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

McMaster and Lendrick streets – part of a conservation site of Victorian terraced houses (Dept For Communities) – were the epicentre of last week’s anti-immigration riots, with cars and houses in the street set ablaze and families evacuated to safety by the security forces (BBC video).

Also in the street: An Act Of Betrayal (about the Sea Border) and (before that, c. 2010) Young Newtown UDA.

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Pride Of Lord Street

2026-06-142026-06-18Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The association of lions with the English monarchy goes back to Henry II and his sons Richard (“the lionheart”) and John (WP). Why they were represented by lions is unclear; it perhaps stems from the prominence of lions in the Bible and the Lion Of Judah from Genesis 49:9.

These lions, somehow carrying Union Flags, are in Lord Street at Lord Street Mews, east Belfast

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An Architect Of Peace

2026-05-082026-08-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The UVF boards at the junction of London and My Lady’s roads in east Belfast have been completely replaced (compared to 2022). The hooded gunmen on the short side have been replaced by “Joy, peace, love” while a tribute to David Ervine now replaces the lettering reading “East Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force”. Ervine was a UVF member from 1972 to 1980 before turning to a career in politics. “He asked the question “why can’t I be an Irish citizen of the UK?” … “An architect of peace. An inspiration to us all.” Always remembered by his family, comrades, colleagues and friends.”

Next to Ervine is a UVF roll of honour in which Roy Walker joins Robert Bennett, James Cordner, Joseph Long, and Robert Seymour, who were previously portrayed (Ulster’s Brave). Walker was killed in a feud with the UDA in 1976. And around the corner the UVF emblem has been replaced by a board to the Ulster Volunteer Force Regimental Band, containing a controversial photograph of the band marching past the site of the 1992 Sean Graham bookies massacre (Crime World). Update: the photograph has been replaced – see the parallel entry in the Seosamh Mac Coılle Collection.

The largest panel remains a tribute to the dead of WWI, for which see again the parallel entry in the Seosamh Mac Coılle Collection.

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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We Didn’t Last

2026-04-062026-08-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This entry updates 2022’s They Said We’d Never Last, showing the space where previously there were four panels of historical photographs from the Ulster Volunteer Force flute band.

For the John Singer Sargent painting in the bottom-left corner of the wall, see Observe The Sons Of Ulster.

St Leonard’s Crescent/(old) Newcastle Street, east Belfast

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When All That Was Solid Melted Into Air

2026-04-062026-04-14Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

At its peak, the Harland & Wolff shipyard employed 35,000 people (IndustriAll) and the flat-capped worker became a symbol of east Belfast, along – much later – with Samson and Goliath, the two gantry cranes at the shipyard that were raised in 1974 and 1969 (WP) and which have become the symbol of Belfast.

The title of this entry is the first line of Martin Mooney’s poem ‘Launching The Whaler Juan Peron‘.

The silhouetted workers and cranes are on a mobile office in Fraser Pass, Newtownards Road, Belfast, at the end of the Pitt Stop next to the Belfast Bikes racks.

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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A Spaceman Came Travelling

2026-03-222026-04-02Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This jaunty spaceman was painted by Ralph Connolly (ralphatronic on ig) in Bannagh Corner, east Belfast.

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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All Gave Some

2026-03-222026-08-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This entry updates a similar entry from 2022 with images and close-ups of the now-faded red and orange paint in the mural on the back wall of the “36th (Ulster) Division Victoria Cross Memorial Garden”.

For close-ups of the board picturing the WWI VC winners, see The Dead We Honour Here. “‘Throughout the long years of struggle … the men of Ulster have proved how nobly they fight and die’ – King George V, 16th November, 1918”

St Leonard’s Crescent/old Newcastle Street, east Belfast

Remembering Is Not So Easy

2026-01-102026-08-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

On the anniversary of David Ervine’s death, January 8th, a new board was launched in his memory, with images of Ervine “yearning for peace” in the cages of Long Kesh, where he met Gusty Spence (the pair can be seen together in the middle of the first column of photographs).

After his release, Ervine turned to politics, running unsuccessfully as a PUP candidate for Pottinger in the Belfast City Council elections of 1985 (WP); he would eventually be successful in 1997. In 1998 he was returned by Belfast East in the Assembly election (ARK). He helped bring about the loyalist ceasefire in 1994 – which was read aloud by Spence (youtube) – and was pro-Agreement in 1998 (DIB | Guardian | Slugger).

The information about the Memory Chair sculpture makes mention of Ervine’s boots but it seems they have not survived the mothballing of the sculpture which was last seen on site – boots included – in 2014.

Montrose Street South, replacing the various pieces seen in late 2024’s Today, Everyday, And Always.