This is a Creggan tribute to Derry film-maker Vinny Cunningham who died in February (BBC | Derry Journal). Cunningham made documentaries about the city (including “No Go” (youtube)) but the art on this long wall makes reference to his support for, and documentaries about, the Undertones (“Teenage Kicks” – youtube) and Derry City FC (“Passion Play” – youtube)
This is a continuation of Féıle’s ‘Graffiti On The Walls’ initiative
“Féıle [web] x Peaball [web]” with children from Holy Child Primary School, with funding from the Executive Office’s Communities In Transition project.
St Columba or Colmcılle or Columbcille established 50 or more abbeys and churches throughout Ireland in the sixth century AD, including one in Derry c. 540, but is most famous for the abbey established on the Scottish island of Iona and for spreading Christianity in Scotland.
This new art shows Columba in a leather-covered wicker currach sailing – with two of his twelve companions – to Scotland c. 563. The piece reproduces a commemorative stamp released in 1997 as one of four in a set of UK stamps designed by Clare Melinsky (web) called “Missions Of Faith”, two showing St Columba and two St Augustine (Collect GB Stamps).
The dove in the illustration is completely white – typically a Barbary pigeon or a rock dove bred for albinism – while a “colm cılle” is a wood pigeon.
Above: “Naoṁ Colmcılle – grá, sıoċáın [síoċáın], aontacht.” On the side-wall: “Naoṁ Colmcılle – Saint Columba Naoṁṗatrún Ḋoıre – Patron saint of Derry Rugad [Rugaḋ] ı nGartán ı nDún Na nGall – Born in Gartan, Donegal 521 D’eag [D’éag] ın Albaın – Died in Scotland 597. Grace will lead me home.”
Derry native Nell McCafferty is commemorated by a mural in the Maiden City, launched on International Women’s Day (March 8th), 2025, and the annual Femme Sesh event was also dedicated to McCafferty (ig | Derry Journal).
McCafferty died last year (2024) after a long career as a journalist and activist (BBC). “Goodnight, sisters” was her parting phrase at the end of her segments on The Women’s Programme, which aired on RTÉ between 1983 and 1986 (Journal).
Here is RTÉ footage of Nell and Marian Finucane on the Late Late in 1991 and in 1980.
The mural was painted by Peaball (web) on a gable in Lisfannon Park and is visible from Lecky Road. The portrait of McCafferty appeared on the cover of (the Penguin Ireland edition of) her autobiography Nell.
The emblem in the top left of this board is the original emblem of the Irish Football Association. The Association was formed in 1880 by seven Belfast clubs but after partition a rival Football Association Of Ireland was formed and the original body eventually represented only Northern Ireland. (WP)
All of the players named and pictured post-date 1950, when the IFA stopped selecting southern players for the IFA’s team. They are … Tommy Jackson, Billy Caskey, Phil Gray, Tom Finney, Norman Whiteside, Danny Griffin, George McCartney, Alf McMichael, Tommy Cassidy, Robbie Garrett, Brodie Spencer, Jordan Owens, Billy Ferguson, George O’Boyle.
“AONISC” (bottom left) is the Amalgamation Of Northern Ireland Supporters’ Clubs (web). There are about 60 clubs in the amalgamation, but seven local clubs are named here: Albert Foundry, Woodvale Loyal, Tavern GAWA, Bootle Street, Wheatfield, 1st Shankill, Ligoniel.
In Battenberg Street on the side of the Stadium Bar and off-sales.
“Shankill Protestant Boys [Fb] “The People’s Band” 45th anniversary, 1980-2025.” The band held a parade on August 1st to commemorate the anniversary, with nearly forty other bands attending (Fb).
Wreaths are laid at the Bayardo Bar memorial on the Shankill Road on the fiftieth anniversary of the attack, which involved the shooting of two people at the door and the bomb being left at the entrance, which caused the deaths of a further three people: “In memory of five innocent Protestants slaughtered here by a republican murder gang on 13th August 1975. William John Gracey aged 63, Samuel Gunning aged 55, Joanne McDowell aged 29, Hugh Alexander Harris aged 21, Linda Boyle aged 17. Erected by the Bayardo Somme Association. “A forgotten atrocity”.” Fifty other people were injured in the attack.
Here is an opinion piece in the BelTel claiming that “republican communities … have been far more active not only in memorialising violent events impacting upon them, but also campaigning for the truth about those actions … the lack of balance in how the past is being investigated here has created a one-track, green-tinted narrative”.
See also: the memorial in 2023. Included here are close-ups of two recent plaques, one “In memory of Neily Reid Scotland, true friend of the Bayardo Somme Association, died 4th February 2022. Lest we forget.” and the other “In memory of Billy Boyce, loyal friend of the Bayardo Somme, died 19-12-2018. Lest we forget.”
This entry updates Cuımhníonn Doıre from August 2024, in which the central part of the mural, showing Maıréad Farrell (above), was incomplete. In addition to a completed portrait of Farrell there are two quotations from Bobby Sands and one from Fidel Castro (along with a list of the twelve dead hunger-strikers of the Troubles era):
“‘Everyone, Republican or otherwise, has their own particular part to play. No part is too great or too small, no one is too old or too young to do something’ – Bobby Sands” [Diary, March 14th, 1981]
“‘Our revenge will be the laughter of our children’ – Bobby Sands”
“‘Let tyrants tremble before men who are capable of dying for their ideals after 60 days on hunger strike’ – Fidel Castro” [The line comes from Castro’s opening address on September 15th, 1981, to the Inter-Parliamentary Conference (pdf)]
Also included below are an adjacent IRA Derry Brigade roll of honour and a plaque to Maggie McAnaney.
McAnaney died when a gun went off at an IRA checkpoint near Burnfoot, Co. Donegal, a month before the Civil War began (Derry Journal). This is an unusual use of the phrase “active service”, as McAnaney was travelling to a picnic at the time, rather than on exercises or preparing munitions; the phrase would later come to be associated primarily with a premature bomb explosion.
“In proud and loving memory of Margaret “Maggie” McAnaney, Cumann na mBan, died on active service at Burnfoot on 31st May 1922, aged 18 years. The McAnaney family home was situated on Bishop Street. Fuaır sıad bás ar son saoırse na hÉıreann.”
Here are IRSP (web) and RNU (Fb) signs side-by-side in Bishop Street, Derry, both employing the idea of ’empowerment’. Above: “Empower your community – Join the IRSP, the party of Connolly and Costello”; below: “RNU for the community – support, empower & prosper”.
The United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Ireland was created in 1801, a reaction to the 1798 Rebellion, led by (amongst others) Wolfe Tone and Henry Joy McCracken, who were founding members of the Society Of United Irishmen in 1791 in Belfast.
In this mural, Tone and McCracken on the left gaze across the “centuries of resistance” from 1798 to 1916 Rising revolutionaries Countess Markievicz and James Connolly, and beyond to Troubles-era figures Maıréad Farrell, Bobby Sands, and Máıre Drumm.
Around the same time as this mural was painted, a Féıle exhibition called ‘Vibrant Colours, Violent Past’ included A Panorama Of Republicanism which contains dozens of figures but again chooses 1798/Tone, 1916/Connolly, and the Troubles/Martin McGuinness as the pivotal moments and figures.
“Comóradh Éırí Amach Na Cásca Bhéal Feırste/Belfast Easter Commemoration. This is the traditional place where on Easter Sunday Belfast republicans gather to honour Ireland’s patriot dead on their way to Milltown Cemetery.” “Honour Ireland’s patriot dead – wear an Easter lily.” “Unbowed, unbroken.”
Paddy Duffy Collection 