Belfast city centre – Page 29 – Paddy Duffy Collection

Persistence Of Belfast Memory

2012-01-242026-08-10Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Time becomes distorted under the influence of Guinness and Salvador Dali and his Persistence of Memory in the entry that leads from Donegall Street to the Duke Of York. (The supports/tripods are from “Sleep”; the horse is from “The Temptation of St. Anthony”) Dali’s original is only 9.5 x 13 inches. This is the centre part of a larger mural; there are also three images of Dali in the windows above the archway. (The Spaniard bar in Skipper Street, one block south of the Duke Of York, also featured Dali on its sign.)

Also in the entry is BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, in both young and old appearances. Peel is famous in Northern Ireland for his love of the song “Teenage Kicks” by Derry group The Undertones (WP). Peel died in 2004 (WP) and a line from the song – “Teenage dreams so hard to beat” – was used in a tribute mural under the M3 on-ramp in east Belfast.

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Copyright © 2012 Paddy Duffy
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Classics Of The Silver Screen

2012-01-232026-08-02Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is a 3-D/plane-breaking board/collage from the courtyard of the Duke Of York, featuring King Kong on the Empire State building (1933), Atlas (Metropolis 1927), a zombie (also from Metropolis?), riot police controlled by a puppet-master, Hokusai’s Great Wave Of Kanagawa 1830, WWI biplanes, a steamer/cruise-ship with searchlight and something that looks like the Giant’s causeway?? The car with L plates is from Death Proof.

Artists Ciaran Gallagher and Kathryn Bannister have a gallery of pictures of the piece being constructed and installed. The piece, they say, is inspired by “classics of the silver screen” and was part of Culture Night 2011.

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Copyright © 2012 Paddy Duffy
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Madden’s Bar

2010-01-022026-05-02Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Fiddler Art Lundy is depicted in the mural on the side of Madden’s bar in Berry St, just below Castle Court. Note the ‘decommissioned’ ashtray!

The original photograph of Lundy is by Frankie Quinn (web).

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Copyright © 2010 Paddy Duffy
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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

Ring Of Peace

1998-07-012025-12-05Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Ring Of Peace” is a massive, three storey piece in Waring Street, undertaken in 1998 to mark the Good Friday Agreement, by Francisco Letelier (with Jennifer Trouton, Colin McGookin, Marie Thérèse Davis) – here is a shot of the artist working on the piece. The mural shows four double-handed arms clasping each other in a circle against a back-drop of cosmic and nature scenes. In the lower portion, two human figures reach out to each other.

Letelier is a Chilean living in Los Angeles, USA; he flew from LA to paint the mural (LATimes). Here is his blog, and a set of Letelier images on Flickr.

Waring Street, Belfast city centre