funeral volley/graveside mourner – Paddy Duffy Collection

All Gave Some

2026-03-222026-04-25Extramural 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

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08687 T08688 T08689 T08690 [T08691] T08692

Republican Clady

2026-03-082026-03-16Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“We salute all those who have fought, died and assisted in the fight for Irish freedom. Ar dheıs Dé go raıbh a n-anamacha. West Tyrone remembers.”

Above is a recent (2025-06) mural painted in Clady of IRA volunteers c. 1971 defending the bridge a stone’s throw outside the town, to prevent it from being blown up by the British Army. A history of the bridge, and the photograph which the mural reproduces, can be found at The Pensive Quill. The work of painting the mural and refreshing the window-boards of the building has been undertaken by the Joseph Plunkett 1916 Society Clady/Grebe (Fb).

The two monuments, to volunteers generally and Neal Lafferty (d. 1975) specifically (Fb), stand together at the junction with Cluney Gardens. There is also a memorial to James McPhelimy (d. 1988) on the other side of Urney Road, and one to Jim McGann (d. 1973) on the bridge.

Urney Road, Clady

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08555 T08557 T08556 [T08558] T08559 T08560 T08561 T08562 [T08563]

Cuımhníonn An Srath Bán Orthu

2026-03-082026-03-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Ceannasaíacht [sic Ceannasaíocht] Iarthar Thír Eoghaın – Cuımhníonn an Srath Bán ortha [sic orthu]. [West Tyrone leadership – Strabane remembers them]”. This large tarp replaces another one that used similar language – Cuımhníonn An Srath Bán Orthu Go Deo – but where that tarp remembered the dead of 1916, this one commemorates Sands and Guevara (who are also painted together just to the viewer’s right on a yard wall – see Revolutionaries) and the hooded gunmen of the Troubles-era armed struggle.

Fountain Street, Strabane

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08574 [T08575] T08576

To Keep Our Country British

2026-01-022026-01-08Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This entry updates 2024’s Here Dead We Lie – the plaque to Boyle and Somerville remains as before (it was originally mounted in 2005) but all three of the boards have been updated. The two on the extremes have the same content as before, while the central board marks the “50th anniversary” of the death of “Volunteer Harris Boyle”, “eternally remembered by the officers and volunteers of Mid-Ulster UVF”. Both Boyle and Somerville were members of both the UDR and UVF; they were “killed in action” when the bomb they were planting on the minibus of the Miami Showband went off prematurely. A parade in Boye’s memory took place in Portadown (BBC). Surviving Showband members and their sympathisers also marked the anniversary – on July 31st, 2025 – with a service at the spot of the attack (BBC).

The boards are at the junction of Gloucester Avenue and Princess Way in Portadown – Boyle was from the Killicomaine estate; Somerville is individually commemorated in Moygashel.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08274 T08273 T08275 T08276 T08277 T08278

Old Comrades Remember

2025-12-172025-12-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This entry updates the images seen in November’s Lest We Forget, with the addition of six military insignia to either side of the ‘Old Comrades’ board that was added just after Remembrance Sunday.

On the left (top to bottom): Royal Irish Rifles (later the Royal Ulster Rifles), 36th (Ulster) Division, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers; on the right: Royal Irish Regiment, Order Of St Patrick, British Light Infantry.

Shore Road, north Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T08150 T08151 T08152

Continuity, Not Compromise

2025-11-142025-11-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The CIRA (Continuity IRA) is the military wing of Republican Sınn Féın (RSF web), which split from Provisional Sınn Féın in 1986, though the military campaign did not begin until the Provisional IRA ceasefire in 1994. Like all of the various IRAs, the CIRA claims to be continuing the fight for (all-island) Irish freedom begun with the 1916 Easter Rising – the board (above) commemorates the centenary of the Rising.

To the left is a slightly newer RSF board: “Stop the extradition of Liam Campbell now – don’t hand him over, don’t play England’s game”. Campbell was extradited from the Republic to Lithuania in 2022 (BBC) but was returned to Ireland later the same year when a court ruled the statute of limitations has expired (RN).

The CIRA’s armed campaign is represented by the hooded gunman in the ‘warning sign’ below.

Also included (last below) is a small IRSP (web) stencil.

The pieces are in the adjacent Meadowbrook and Drumbeg areas of Lurgan.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T08028 T08027 T08040 T08041

Inky & Candy

2025-11-012025-11-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“25 years from home. In proud and loving memory of Inky & Candy. Gone but not forgotten.”

October 2000 was a violent month in Tiger’s Bay, north Belfast, as the UDA and UVF feuded. David “Candy” Annesley (commonly known as David Greer – BelTel) was shot in Mountcollyer Street on October 28th by the UVF. On the 31st, Bertie Rice, veteran UVF member and canvasser for the PUP, was killed by the UDA at his Canning Street house. Later the same day, Tommy “Inky” English – UDA commander in north Belfast who had previously lived in Tiger’s Bay – was shot death by the UVF at his Ballyduff home. Mark Quail of the UVF was shot in Rathcoole on November 1st. (BBC | BBC | WP) There were fears that the feud would end (An Phoblacht) but it was formally ended on December 15th, with a joint statement by both groups (RTÉ).

This twenty-fifth anniversary tarp is on the multi-use pitch on North Queen Street at Upper Canning Street.

We Are Here Today

2025-10-232025-11-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is a new version of the board seen in 2022, in which the central emblem was of the 8th battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, whereas it is now of the “East Belfast & North Down Veterans’ Association”.

Below, a small plaque reading “We were there yesterday, We are here today, We will be here tomorrow” has been added

Albertbridge Road, east Belfast

Derrybeg Volunteers

2025-09-052025-09-30Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

On the left of this Newry memorial is a list of the “1916 Easter Rising Leaders executed by the British government: Thomas Clarke, Padraig Pearse, Thomas Mac Donagh, Joseph Plunkett, Willie Pearse, Ned Daly, Michael O’Hanrahan John Mac Bride, Eamonn Ceannt, Sean Heuston, Con Colbert, Michael Mallin, Thomas Kent, Sean Mac Diarmada, James Connolly, Roger Casement.”

On the right are five members of the local Óglaıgh na hÉıreann: Patrick Hughes, Edward Grant, Michael Hughes, Brendan Watters, Colum Marks.” Michael Hughes/Mıcheál Ó hAodha is commemorated at the western entrance to the estate and the plaque also mentions the death of his father, Patsy, and the death by premature explosion of his friend Eddie Grant in 1973. Brendan Watters likewise died by premature explosion (UPI). There is a memorial stone in Downpatrick at the spot where Colum Marks was killed.

Included last below is a Saoradh (web) board: “End British political policing”.

Second Avenue, Derrybeg, Newry, next to the new commemoration of the Burning Of Long Kesh.

If England Drive Us Forth

2025-06-292025-07-14Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Rudyard Kipling’s 1912 poem ‘Ulster’ (Kipling Society) predicts destruction for Protestants under Home Rule and calls for violent resistance, even if it means sacrificing one’s own life: “Believe, we dare not boast/Believe, we do not fear/We stand to pay the cost/In all that men hold dear”.

As is well known, the Ulster Volunteers were founded and smuggled in weapons, but before they could be used, the Great War began and the Volunteers signed up for Kitchener’s Army – the flag on the left includes the battles in which the Central Antrim Regiment of the Royal Irish Rifles (as part of the 36th Division) participated, fighting “For King and Empire”.

The graveside mourner on the right, the 1st East Antrim Battalion UVF, and all of the smaller panels on the right, belong to the Troubles era. There is no information about Jim Curran in 1975; the image of Curran’s funeral appears to be AI-generated.

In The Larches, Carrickfergus, replacing the mural and boards seen in Comply With Your Country’s Demands.