Belfast north – Page 17 – Paddy Duffy Collection

An Gorta Mór

1997-07-012025-10-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

An Gorta Mór is the Great Famine, or the Great Hunger among those who point out that there was plenty of food in Ireland in the late 1840s, just not made available to peasants. Of a population around eight million, a million people died and a million more emigrated.

“They buried us without shroud or coffin” is a line from an unrelated Seamus Heaney poem Requiem For The Croppies.

The mural comprises three images from Illustrated London News: (left) Bridget O’Donnel And Children (ILN) and (right) Funeral At Skibbereen (ILN).

Ardoyne Avenue, north Belfast

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Copyright © 1997 Paddy Duffy
T00299

Robert Emmet Commemoration

1997-07-012025-10-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A Robert Emmet mural was painted by Robbie Kane in 1953 (for the 150th anniversary of the 1803 rebellion and his execution) in Crumlin Street. This was one of a very few CNR murals painted prior to the Troubles, and nationalist symbols were formerly outlawed in the Flags And Emblems Act of 1954. (See Visual History 02.) As can be seen below, the original was accompanied by a Christian cross and the words “Hail Christ our king”. This version reproduces only the two medallions, showing a Celtic harp (left) and a dramatic portrait of Emmet waving his hat, from the mid-1800s (WP/LoC).

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Copyright © 1997 Paddy Duffy
T00298

Private William McFadzean VC

1997-01-012025-10-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

William McFadzean was awarded the VC medal for throwing himself on a fallen box of grenades on the first day of the Battle Of The Somme. The battles listed to either side are: “Ypres, Fricourt, Cambrai, Thiepval, Messines, Beaucourt, Rossieres, Beaumonthamel, Langemarck,” and, “Somme, Albert, Flanders, St Quentin, Bailleul, Grandcourt, Courtrai, Passchendaele, Schwaben Redoubt”.

The gates are decorated with modern assault rifles.

Mount Vernon Park, north Belfast

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Copyright © 1998/1997 Paddy Duffy
T00262 T00259

Timeless Time

1996-09-012025-10-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

In Aboriginal cultures, “Dreamings” are the stories – in words or in paintings – of the creation and persistence of the Aboriginal peoples and lands, and their inter-relation. They belong to the person or tribe who told the story; it’s not know how this image came to be painted in Belfast’s New Lodge, or whether it is an authentic dreaming.

It shows two slender figures in black – one female, one male – looking upward at a jagged red circle/sun, all three of them contained in an inverted egg-like shape, itself surrounded (above) by a field of stars (including a small Plough) and (below) a variety of snake-like shapes and other designs.

Ludlow Square, New Lodge, north Belfast

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Copyright © 1996 Paddy Duffy
T00209 [T00293]

The Mass Rock

1996-09-012025-09-30Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Penal days in Ireland” – this mural commemorates the repression of Catholicism and use of mass rocks as secret locations in the days of Cromwellian conquest and the penal laws, c. 1650-1800. The 1652 Act Of Settlement (WP) banished Catholic priests from the island and services had to be held at short notice and in remote locations, with sentries posted to keep watch against soldiers from the New Model Army. Laws against the practice of Catholicism in Ireland were not lifted until the 1782 Roman Catholic Relief Act (PCUG).

Labhaır An Teanga Ghaeılge Lıom

1996-09-012025-09-30Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Catholic (and Presbyterian) education was prohibited by the penal laws (WP) and particularly the Education Act of 1695 (WP) – this is probably what’s on the notice on the left-hand tree. Schooling by Catholics (in Irish) nonetheless took place, in covert houses and outhouses, as well as in fields and hedge-rows. The Act was repealed in 1782, provided the teacher took an oath of allegiance to the Crown.

The Coming Of Lugh

1996-09-012025-09-29Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The main figure is from Jim Fitzpatrick’s The Coming Of Lugh and the two horsemen on the left are from Lugh The Il-Danna.

For more Jim Fitzpatrick drawings reproduced in murals, see the Visual History page.

The mural was perhaps painted for the Ardoyne Fleadh, and perhaps by Sean Doran, who worked on the Blind Piper in 1994 and produced posters for the Fleadh in 1996, 1997, and 1998.

Ardoyne Avenue, north Belfast

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Copyright © 1996 Paddy Duffy
T00184

D Company, Ballysillan

1996-08-012025-10-11Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The writing on the stone reads, “In memory of Lt Col John Bingham, murdered 14th Sept 86” and “In memory of Major Thomas Stewart, murdered 29th Oct 96”. The volunteers in hoods are divided between active service and graveside memorial: two stand behind their downward-pointing rifles, two assume crouching positions with rifles pointed.

D company (Ballysillan), 1st battalion, UVF

Ballysillan Road, north Belfast

Prepared For Peace, Ready For War

1995-01-012025-09-19Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

These UVF hooded gunmen are at the entrance to the Mount Vernon estate in north Belfast. The message “prepared for peace, ready for war” expresses a wary skepticism about the ceasefire. The IRA’s ceasefire began in August 1994, and the UVF’s in October.

An tOcras Mór

1995-01-012025-09-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This New Lodge mural shows people on the coast, near abandoned buildings, trying to grow crops during the period of the Great Hunger (1845-1852).

“An tOcras Mór” (a literal translation of “the great hunger/famine”) is usually (in Irish) “An Gorta Mór” or “An Drochshaol”.

The left-most and right-most figures are from Searching For Potatoes In A Stubble Field in the Illustrated London News. ILN images are a staple of Belfast muraling on the Great Hunger: see the Visual History page on the Great Hunger. (Here is a list, with links, of all of the illustrations of Ireland in ILN from the period 1845-1852.)

The two central figures, and the composition of the three women together, come from Millet’s The Gleaners. (Thanks to Jeryn Mayer for this pointer.)

Painted by “Farset Artists” – Jonny McKerr (later the street–artist JMK), Paul McCullough, Eamon Monaghan, and Dee Fitzsimons.