CNR – Page 66 – Paddy Duffy Collection

The Blind Piper

2010-01-012026-04-30Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

If you’re willing to pay the piper, he will perhaps summon a taxi that will take you and yours out of town. This is the centre segment of a large board adorning the front of the West Belfast Taxi Terminal (next to Castle Court), copying The Limerick Piper by John Patrick Haverty (1794-1854) and this Ardoyne mural, which placed the piper under Cave Hill. In this version, the attending girl is smiling. In all three versions, the piper has no visible means of support. On each side are Jim-Fitzpatrick-style Celtic heroes – Nuada on the left (though perhaps meant to be Fıonn Mac Cumhaıll and the salmon of knowledge) and Sadb on the right, though a fawn blocks the view of her shorter-than-short skirt.

King Street/Francis Street, Belfast

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Copyright © 2010 Paddy Duffy
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The New Lodge Six

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“Time for the truth”. Two of the New Lodge Six (James Sloan, James McCann) were killed by the UDA outside a bar and four (Tony Campbell, Ambrose Hardy, Brendan Maguire, John Loughran) among the crowd that gathered by British Army snipers from their positions on top of the flats, using night-vision sights, February 3rd-4th, 1973.

Donore Court, New Lodge, north Belfast

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Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
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RIC Murder Gang

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One RIC member was killed and another wounded outside the Beehive Bar in a shoot-out with IRA men in September 1920. In reprisal, County Inspector Harrison and his men killed Vol. Ned Trodden, Vol. Sean Gaynor, and Sean McFadden (Rısteard Ó Murchú). The gang, under Detective Inspector Nixon, would go on to kill more Catholics in 1921 and in 1922 commit the McMahon killings and the Arnon Street killings, in each of which 6 people died.

Northumberland Street, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
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The International Wall 2008

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Here is a complete set of images of the International Wall (Visual History) some time in the first half of 2008 (the Nugent mural and the WBTA mural had been changed by July). From left to right:

“The first blanketman” Kieran ‘Header’ Nugent
Solidarity with Palestine “the largest concentration camp in the world!!! 33 million innocent people tortured, denied their freedom!
Maghaberry POWs “Not forgotten – segregation for Irish POWs”
Frederick Douglass
Guernica
The Manchester Martyrs
American’s Greatest Failure, with a “British support hook”
Taxi Trax, with a central image of the GPO, and with an internet address for the first time
Martin Meehan “A leader is gone, the legend forever lives on” + Askatasuna “not Spain, not France – self-determination for the Basque country”
Stop Plan Bush “Stop the crazy son of a Bush”
Liam MacCarthy “Ireland’s forgotten son”

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Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
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Gibraltar 3

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The IRA’s Sean Savage, Maıréad Farrell, and Dan McCann were “Executed by the British SAS 6th March 1988.”

“Oh! Cold March winds that pierce the dark/You cry in aged tones/For souls of folk you’ve brought to God/But still you bear the moans//Oh! Weeping winds, this lonely night/My mother’s heart is sore/Oh! Lord of all, breathe freedom’s breath/That she may weep no more! – Bobby Sands Weeping Winds“

For a close-up of the plaque, see the Peter Moloney Collection.

Hawthorn Street, west Belfast, replacing the painted board seen in 2001.

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Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
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Pat Finucane

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“Targeted by British Establishment; Executed by Loyalist killer gang.” Solicitor and “human rights activist” Pat Finucane was shot in 1989 at his home in north Belfast by loyalist paramilitaries aided by MI5. Collusion in the killing was admitted in 2011 by then-Prime Minister David Cameron. Ten years after Finucane’s death, Rosemary Nelson was also assassinated. “If you don’t defend human rights lawyers, who will defend human rights? – Rosemary Nelson”.

According to the nearby plaque, the board was “unveiled by his family Sunday 11th February 2007”.

The board in Beechmount Drive was originally black.

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Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
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St James’s Support The Hunger Strikers

2008-01-012025-11-25Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

St James’s supports the hunger strikes – in Long Kesh and Armagh and (on the right) in Turkey.

Various images and posters from 1980 and 1981 are reproduced. Along the top, we see (l-r) a soldier is confronted at the top of Springhill (image at Irish Times), “Wanted for murder [and torture of Irish prisoners]” (image at MSU), “Mothers hunger”, “Blessed are those who hunger for justice“, “Where there is oppression there is resistance”, Armagh hunger-striker Mary Doyle.

Along the bottom: “Stop strip searches“, “Save our children from plastic death”, “Support the hunger strike demands”, and portraits of 1981 hunger-strikers Bernard Fox and Pat Sheehan, both from the Falls Road.

For Turkish hunger-strikers, see F-Block Martyrs | Zehra Kulaksiz | Support The Turkish Hunger Strikers

Hugo Street, west Belfast

Live Free!

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“Never will they label our struggle as criminal – Bobby Sands.” [March 6th Diary]

Joe Cahill joined Na Fıanna in 1937 and was involved in the republican movement from then until his death in 2004, including being in Tom Williams’s company in 1942 and later a founder member and Chief of Staff of the Provisional IRA. In the centre of the image he is at the end of the table at the August 13, 1971, press conference to comment on the introduction of internment (CAIN). He is honoured in the mural above alongside his brothers Tom and Frank Cahill. (Pat O’Hare is painted between Tom and Frank.)

In the top left are small boards with portraits of Ned Maguire Snr, Ned Maguire Jnr, Sam Holden, Dal Delaney, Rita McParland, Paddy Meenan, Paddy Corrigan, Sean Wallace, John Petticrew, Alex Crowe.

For a close-up of the plaque, see the Peter Moloney Collection.

Beechview Park, west Belfast

Bryson – Mulvenna

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“In memory of [IRA] volunteers Jim Bryson and Patrick Mulvenna. Died on active service 1973.” The pair were killed by undercover British Army soldiers firing from above the Ballymurphy shops (Broken Elbow). Mulvenna died immediately (August 30th), Bryson three days later.

This is a repainted version of a 2001 mural, the first of the works in the Ballymurphy Mural Project. This appears to be in-progress: a black border and a central plaque were added later.

Ballymurphy Road, Belfast