“Ní saoırse go saoırse na mban [There is no freedom without women’s freedom] – Lasaır Dhearg [web]”.
Graffiti in Glenveagh Drive, Lenadoon, west Belfast. Previously the site of Stormont Can’t Deliver, also from Lasaır Dhearg.
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T07783
Oliver Sheppard’s statue of Cú Chulaınn dying – see the Cú Chulaınn Visual History page – memorialises nine IRA volunteers from the Lenadoon area, whose names are listed on the scrolls to each side and whose portraits appear in the apex: Tony Henderson, John Finucane, Brendan O’Callaghan, Joe McDonnell, Laura Crawford, Maıréad Farrell, Patricia Black, Bridie Quinn. Below the statue are the shields of the four provinces and the words “Léana An Dúın – unbowed, unbroken” and “saoırse” [freedom].
The mural dates back to 1996 (see T00160) and was repainted in 2009 (see M05134) and c. 2014 (see M11028, which includes a close-up of the plaque added in 2009.) In this version, nothing has changed in the composition of the mural and the photographic portraits and the Easter Rising centenary board have been retained.
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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St James’s Community Farm/Feırm Phobaıl Naomh Séamus (web | Fb) started in 2015 with a dozen hens; it is now home to 38 animals, produces vegetables and eggs, and collects cans for recycling.
Belfast Media recently profiled the farm (in print) and is producing a series of short videos about the farm: one | two | three (on youtube).
Rodney Parade, St James’s, west Belfast, replacing the Garden Of Hope mural, and next to St James’s Youth.
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Positive messages for young people in Sta James’s: “Music is our drug, R speaker is R dealer”, “Mates do hugs, not drugs”.
Rodney Parade, St James’s, west Belfast
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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“Free Marwan and all Palestinian political prisoners”. Marwan Barghouti, a leader of the group Fatah, has been in Israeli prison since 2002. He was seen last month in a video showing Israeli’s national security minister taunting the 66-year-old Barghouti in his cell (BBC | Al Jazeera | NPR).
Barghouti and 1,000 other prisoners went on hunger-strike in 2017 in order to win family visits for prisoners; see “Free Marwan Barghouti” in Belfast and in Derry and Barghouti’s quote “Our Chains Will Be Broken Before We Are” in a north Belfast stencil.
The photograph reproduced in this mural, of Barghouti giving the “V” for victory symbol while in handcuffs, can be seen at New Arab.
Divis Street, west Belfast, on the International Wall, where Barghouti’s son Aarab spoke at the launch (youtube).
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Work on the “New Life” (New Life City church – Fb) concrete relief on the Cupar Way “peace” line (war wall) at the North Howard Street gates has been completed – with brightly coloured paints and a pair of plaques below the cross that read “The first 3D cement peace fresco on a Belfast dividing wall. Created by local artist Debbie Hutchings ‘Irish Angel’. The for the amazing help of ECC Builders. Created on behalf of New Life City Church. Dedicated by Pastor Johnny McKee with young people & others from New Life City Church from both sides of the wall. Thursday 14th August 2025. ‘He is our peace who has destroyed the dividing wall between us’ Eph. 2.14.”
There are in-progress images below from August 3rd and July 6th. For images from May 11th and May 1st, see The Wind Blows As It Chooses.
August 3rd:
July 6th:
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T07538 T07537 [T07536] T07535
T07284 T07281 T07282 T07283
T07204 [T07201] T07202
Kneecap were back in town opening for the Fontaines DC at Belfast Vital at the Boucher Road playing fields on Friday (BBC) (and an after-party at the Beehive) before zipping down to the Electric Picnic festival in Laois. At both concerts they were outspoken in their support for Palestinians in Gaza, as well as criticising the DUP, Alliance (Belfast Live), McDonald’s and Kemi Badenoch (Irish Examiner). In each of the past three years, the band has added to the wall at the corner of Hawthorn Street and Cavendish Street (see in order: Incendiary Device, England Get Out Of Ireland, and Kneecap’s Fine Art) and it is now full with the addition of “Free Palestine – Israel is committing a genocide against the Palestinian people” below the chimneys.
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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In 2008 thick metal walls were added to both sides of the Finaghy railway bridge in order to prevent the possibility of a car falling onto the tracks (BelTel | BBC | Belfast Media), as had happened in Yorkshire, England, in 2001, causing ten deaths (WP). The result was a “brutalist eyesore” (Belfast Live) that was often covered in tags (there is a good picture at the top of this Belfast Media article from 2024).
The bridge been given a floral facelift by Visual Waste (web) but not everyone has the same interpretation of the new art: one local resident complained that the background was “Sınn Féın green” and that the “graffiti” would lower property values (Belfast Live).
Finaghy Road North. Also included below are painted electrical boxes by Danni Simpson (web) from 2023 at the nearby junction of the Finaghy roads and the Upper Lisburn Road.
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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These are just four out of the scores of placards that lined the Falls Road on August 24th for the National Hunger-Strike Commemoration march to Milltown Cemetery, where Sınn Féın president Mary Lou McDonald gave the address (available at Belfast Media | video of the march is available on youtube).
Many of the placards show front pages from Republican News and An Phoblacht/Republican News, perhaps thanks to the Irish Republican Digital Archive (web), which has lately added scans of the newspapers from 1970 to 1984.
Seventy-six images are available on the gallery page for 2025 West Belfast CNR.
See previously: the board announcing the commemoration.
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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The Bobby Sands mural in Sevastopol Street, on the side of the Sınn Féın offices, is perhaps Belfast’s most famous mural and in general second only to Free Derry Corner in Derry. The main wall of the mural has just been touched up, in time for the march that took place in Belfast on August 24th as part of the national hunger-strike commemoration.
The first mural of Sands was painted on the wall in 1989 and the most recent re-painting prior to this one was in 2015 – see the wall’s Visual History page.
August 23rd:
August 20th:
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T07420 T07421 T07422 [T07423]
T07406 [T07407] T07408 [T07409]
T07375 T07376
Paddy Duffy Collection 