The Swifts

St James’s Swifts (web) are a west Belfast club playing intermediate level soccer with Donegal Celtic Park on the Suffolk Road as a home ground.

The three pieces shown here are in St James’s Crescent, at the Park Centre on Donegall Road, and St James’s Road. The mural in progress (shown last) is in St Katherine’s Road

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Saturday Morning Stop Shop

Here are three banners/posters spotted along the Falls Road during the Easter Rising parade on April 5th:

Above: “Sainsbury’s supports Israel! Don’t shop there. Easter Sat 4th [April, 2026].” For background see the post and reel on the BDS Belfast Fb page.

Below: “U.S. military not welcome in Ireland! Not in Shannon, not in Aldergrove.” For background, see Al-Jazeera | ShannonWatch. April 13th: a person was arrested for taking a hatchet to a C-120 Hercules (Democracy Now).

Last below: “PSNI target Catholics at much higher rate for stop-and-search. Source: PSNI stop-and-search data. Do not join the RUC/PSNI. Same aim, different name. IRSP [web] – the party of Connolly & Costello.” The data in question might be from the 2020-2021 period (PSNI | TheDetail) as the current (2025) data do not appear to report on sectional identification.

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Lıle Na Cásca

“100 years. Lıle na Cásca. Wear your Easter lily with pride. Tabhaır ómós do laochra na hÉıreann. [Pay respect to Ireland’s warriors]”

Shown here are Sınn Féın (web) and Lasaır Dhearg (web) invocations to commemorate the 1916 Easter Rising. The lily as a symbol of the 1916 Easter Rising was introduced by Cumann Na mBan in 1926 as a fund-raising device. For a history and vintage posters from across the century, see An Phoblacht.

Falls Road, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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We Demand The Truth

This is a new information board below the Ballymurphy Massacre board at the Glenalina Road corner with the Whiterock Road.

The first panel (on the left) reads, “On Monday 9th of August 1971 Internment Without Trial was introduced by the British Government. The policy was directed and implemented by the British Army with the stated aim to “shock and stun the civilian population”. Between 9th and 11th of August 1971 eleven people were killed in the Ballymurphy area of west Belfast. All eleven were murdered by the British Army’s Parachute Regiment. All eleven were unarmed civilians. One of the dead was a parish priest and another the mother of eight children. Fifty-seven children were left without a parent. There was No proper criminal investigation. The Royal military police were assigned as sole investigators. Not one member of the British Army was held to account. It is believed that had justice been administered and those held to account charged, the events of Bloody Sunday would not have happened.”

The remaining panels give a day-by-day account of the eleven deaths, of Father Hugh Mullan, Frank Quinn, Noel Philips, Joan Connolly, Danny Teggart, Joseph Murphy, Eddie Doherty, Joseph Laverty, Joseph Corr, Paddy McCarthy, John McKerr.

Glenalina Road, Ballymurphy, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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So Glad You’re Here

Here is a gallery of images from the nineteen new pieces of art around the perimeter of Grand Central station at Durham Street and Grosvenor Road, called “When Walls Speak Welcome”. Commissioned by @translinkni @daisychaininc and @emicartist

Durham Street:
1 Pointing Child – emic (web)
2 Thinking Angel – Wee Nuls (web)
3 Bees – Friz (web)
4 Mech Head – NOYS (ig)
5 Helmet Sprayer – KVLR (web)
6 Three Flowers – FGB (web)
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7 Raven – Conor McClure (ig)
8 Head With Swallows – emic (web)
9 Hands And Birds – Zippy (web)
10 Schoolgirl Holding Tree – ?Razer?

Durham Street/Grosvenor Road junction:
11 Nature – Kerrie Hanna (web)
12 Let’s Go – Lost Lines (ig)
13 Flamingo – Imogen Donegan (ig)
14 Blossoms – Alexandra (ig)
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Grosvenor Road:
15 Floating Guy – Jam2 (ig)
16 Cockerel – Ana Fish (web)
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17 Tandem Bicyclists – David McMillan (web)
18 “Nocturne Flow” – Karl Fenz (web) and Rob Hilken (web)
19 So Glad You’re Here – HMC (web) and Danni Simpson (web)

Entrance to Grand Central Station

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Comóradh Na Cásca

The main (Sınn Féın) Easter Rising commemoration in Belfast takes place today (Easter Sunday). A full list of commemorations over the holiday, including those hosted by anti-Agreement groups, can be found at Republican News. See also, for the IRSP/RSYM commemoration, To The People Of Ireland.

“Dé Domhnaıgh, 5ú Aıbreán, Comóradh Na Cásca Bhéal Feırste. Caınteoır: Deirdre Hargey MLA. Cruınnıgh ag Ascaıll [Ard] Na bhFeá 1.00 i.n., ag fágáıl ar bhuılle 1.30i.n. Cuımhnıgh ar Thírghráthóırí Marbha Na hÉıreann. Caıth Lıle Na Casca. Cumman Uaıgheann Na Laochra Gael.”

[Sunday, 5th April, Belfast Easter Commemoration. Speaker: Deirdre Hargey MLA. Assemble at Beech[mount] Avenue 1:00 p.m., departing at 1:30 p.m. precisely. Remember Ireland’s Dead Patriots. Wear an Easter Lily. Gaelic Heroes’ Grave Association (= National Graves Association).]

At the Felons’ Club, Falls Road, Andersonstown, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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The World’s Biggest Bonfire

“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

“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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Belfast Blitz 1941

This is a representation of the 1941 Belfast Blitz, providing a graphic companion to the large board in Enfield Street, which contains information and images, and a list of 79 people from the Woodvale who died in the blitz. (There is also a plaque on the side of the Woodvale Community Centre.) There were three separate nights of bombing: April 7th/8th, April 15th/16th, and May 4th/5th and half of the buildings in Belfast were destroyed or damaged (WP); it is not clear what particular buildings are being depicted here.

On the left, spotlights and anti-aircraft guns attempt to take down the planes dropping bombs. (For information about the anti-aircraft guns in Belfast, see York Road Civil Defence Hall.)

Painted by DanK (web) in Glenvale Street, Woodvale, west Belfast, during the same trip in which he painted a D-Day mural in Carrickfergus.

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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