CNR

Laochra Gael

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The two laochra featured in the first panel (above) are Danny McNaughton and John Darragh, while GAA hall-of-famer Terence “Sambo” McNaughton is featured in the final panel (BBC | GAA). Also included are Finn MacCool (on Giant’s Causeway), Setanta/Cú Chulaınn, and Queen Meadhbh – the latter two are in the style of Jim Fitzpatrick – the first is based on Fitzpatrick’s Hurling Match and the second takes Leyendecker’s painting of Maeve (WP) and renders it in Fitzpatrick’s style, complete with club-coloured drapes.  

Coast Road, Cushendall at the grounds of Ruaırí Óg CLG (web).

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Mol an óıge agus tıocfaıdh sí. Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam. Ní neart go cur le chéıle.

Everything Is Going To Be All Right

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This is Ciaran Gallagher’s (ig) take on McBride’s pub in Cushendun. Around the outside are a verse from Moira O’Neill’s ‘To W.C.S.’ in More Songs Of The Glens Of Antrim (pdf at Google Books): “I dreamt of gentle Ireland beneath the northern light/The waves that broke on Ireland were callin’ me at night/Till back across the salt sea, back against the sun/I took the way the birds know, and woke in Cushendun.”

For the exterior of the pub, surrounded by famous individuals, see Kathryn Bannister’s painting from the Dark Horse pub, Belfast.

Below the painting (and shown below) is Derek Mahon’s poem ‘Everything Is Going To Be All Right’: “How should I not be glad to contemplate/The clouds clearing beyond the dormer window/And a high tide reflected on the ceiling?/There will be dying, there will be dying/But there is no need to go into that./The poems flow from the hand unbidden/And the hidden source is the watchful heart/The sun rises in spite of everything/And the far cities are beautiful and bright/I lie here in a riot of sunlight/Watching the day break and the clouds flying/Everything is going to be all right.”

Main Street, Cushendun

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The Pigeon Has Landed

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On June 12th 1944, ‘Paddy The Pigeon’ flew from Normandy (where the landings begun on the 6th were ongoing – D-Day Story) back to the English coast. In recognition of his exploits, a plaque was mounted in the harbour of his home town of Carnlough on the Antrim coast in 2009.

Update: The plaque was destroyed in June 2024 – you can it in pieces on the ground in this BBC article.

“During World War II, pigeons were used by the forces as message carriers. Paddy was one of thirty pigeons delivered by RAF Hurn to operational units of the First US Army on June 8th, 1944. They were to be used in connection with a secret task, code named “U2″. Paddy was released in Normandy at around 8.15am on June 12th, carrying coded information on the Allied advance. He returned to his loft in Hampshire in just 4 hours and 50 minutes. This was the fastest time recorded by a message-carrying pigeon during the Normandy landings. For his services Paddy was awarded the Dickin Medal on September 1st, 1944. He had previously served at RAF Ballykelly on Air Sea rescue missions. Andrew Hughes JP, of Carnlough, was the proud owner of Paddy. He handed over several of his pigeons to be trained, along with others for service with the Forces. Paddy lived for eleven years, and to date is the only Irish recipient of the Dickin Medal, which is the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross. – Larne & District Historical Society MMIX.”

Also in the harbour is a plaque (shown below) to the sailors who died on the Peridot in November, 1905.

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Bound Together

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This Ruaırí Óg mural is on the side of the Lurig Inn (Fb), Coast Road, Cushendall, and features Ruaırí Óg superfan “Main Man” John McKillop (in the yellow bib).

The text in the centre reads “Main Man John McKillop Sept 2015”, which is when Ruaırí Óg senior hurlers defeated Ballycastle McQuillan for the Antrim title. “Image courtesy of Seamus Loughran” is the lower right-hand corner. For the photograph itself, see the Irish News.

See also Ruaırí Óg CLG and Laochra Gael.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Stand Off, Trade Off

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This mural protests Orange marches along “traditional routes” in Drumcree (Portadown) and Lower Ormeau (Belfast). It’s been roughly 25 years since the tension over these marches was at its height, but the scars have yet to heal. The DUP made a motion in the House Of Commons to lift the ban on the Drumcree parade this year (News Letter | Irish Times | BBC).

This long-standing mural was perhaps touched up in 2021. Compare to the 2010 post.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Jim McCabe

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A new mural was unveiled yesterday in memory of Jim McCabe, the husband of Norah McCabe who was hit by a plastic bullet in 1981 and died a day later. Jim went on to become a “lifetime campaigner for truth + justice” and a “founder member of Relatives For Justice [web] and United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets [web]”. (For a profile of Jim’s campaigning work, see Belfast Media.) Jim died in January of this (2023) year.

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Neither King Nor NATO

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“Est 1913 Irish Citizen Army / Irish National Liberation Army Est. 1974”. The Irish Citizen Army was founded in Dublin in 1913 to protect striking workers from police violence. After taking part in the Easter Rising of 1916, however, the ICA did not participate in the War Of Independence and the Civil War. In 1974, some founding members considered reviving the “ICA” name to reflect the organisation’s “allegiance to the working class” while Costello (pictured on the right) suggested “National Liberation Army”, which was then amended to include “Irish” (History Ireland | WP | WP). MNI includes an “ICA-INLA” Starry Plough on the stairs into the New Lodge from 1989 (C00105).

The banner raised over the Liberty Hall headquarters of the ICA read “We serve neither king nor kaiser but Ireland” – the famous photograph is included in the post of the same name – but this has been updated. The Belfast version of the board, on Northumberland Street (above) and outside Costello House on the Falls Road (below), reads “nor Nato”.

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