Belfast west – Page 28 – Paddy Duffy Collection

Don Patricio

2022-11-062024-08-06Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

As a player, the Dublin-born Patrick O’Connell started with Belfast Celtic before moving on to various English and Scottish clubs, including a period at Manchester United at the time of WWI. He then went on to manage a string of Spanish clubs. As manager (“Don Patricio”) of Barcelona during the Spanish civil war, he accompanied the club on their tour of Mexico and the United States. The money from the tour saved the club from bankruptcy but 12 of the 16 players went into exile in Mexico and France. (WP) Barcelona returns to the US this month (2015-07) for games against the LA Galaxy, Manchester United, and Chelsea. (FCBarcelona)

The newspaper in the mural above crams all of this news onto one page: “Civil war erupts in Spain – Barcelona bombed”, “Football suspended – President [of FC Barcelona] Josep Sunyol assassinated” [by Franco’s troops] (WP); “Irishman O’Connell takes players on tour – FC Barcelona saved from extinction”; “Funds lodged in Switzerland”. In the bottom left-hand corner of the newspaper is Robert Capa’s famous photograph of ‘The Falling Soldier’, purporting to show a Republican soldier at the very moment he is struck by a bullet and dies. The image is now thought to have been staged (WP).

The image on which the mural is based can be seen in this Irish Times article on O’Connell.

The player on the right is Lionel Messi. The Argentinian forward is shown in front of the Spanish League cup, which Barcelona won in the year the mural was painted (2014-2015) with a goal from “La Pulga” (“the flea”) – Messi is 5’7″ but four-time world player of the year.

The stands of three football stadiums are shown in the background: Belfast Celtic’s Celtic Park (“Paradise”), Manchester United’s Old Trafford, and Barcelona’s Camp Nou. The Old Trafford stands bear the emblems of the teams Patrick O’Connell played for and managed: Liffey Wanderers (whose shirt is also featured, on the left), Sheffield Wednesday, Hull City (The Tigers), Manchester United, Dumbarton, Real Racing Club de Santander, Real Oviedo, and Real Betis Balompié (also shirt on the right).

Whiterock Road, Belfast

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Remembering The Hunger Strikers

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The six weeks from July 8th to August 20th 1981 saw the death of six hunger strikers – McDonnell, Hurson, Lynch, Doherty, McElwee, and Devine – adding to the four who began in March and died in May. All ten, along with Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg from 1974 and 1976, are remembered in this recent board in Rockmore Road.

To the left is a 1916 centenary board “Ag fíorú na poblachta”/“Realising the republic” – also seen in South Link and in Rockmount Street.

On the far left is a board from Republican Network For Unity (RNU)’s Cogús committee in support of “Attempted criminalisation of republican prisoners is alive and well”, “Republican prisoner welfare and support”: “End controlled movement, forced strip searches. now.”

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Mothers, Sisters, Daughters

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Érıu/Éıre of the Tuatha Dé Danann, queen of Ireland, (as depicted by Richard J King) is at the centre of various representations of republican women. Along the top are Ann Devlin, Betsy Gray, Mary Ann McCracken, Countess Markievicz, Nora Connolly?, and Winifred Carney. Suffragettes, the modern IRA, and Cumman Na mBan are depicted, as are Máıre Drumm at the Falls Curfew, Tom McElwee’s sisters carrying his coffin, and Molly Childers and Mary Spring Rice running guns on the Asgard. There is also an unusual ‘four provinces’ in the corners.

The wide shot (below) shows the James Connolly mural below and the 1916 centenary board above – also seen in South Link: Ag fíorú na poblachta/“Realising the republic”.

Rockmount Street, west Belfast.

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Volunteers From The Greater New Barnsley Area

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“Sheas sıad le chéıle” [They stood together] – the New Barnsley memorial garden commemorates (on the large plaque) “Volunteers From The Greater New Barnsley Area” and (on the smaller one) commemorating support from the community.

The wrought-iron gates depict a phoenix and “Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann”.

The garden was originally a single plaque in 2005.

Moyard Park, New Barnsley

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Free The Craigavon 2

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The “Craigavon 2” are Brendan McConville and John-Paul Wootton; they were convicted of the 2009 murder of PSNI constable Stephen Carroll. The “set up by MI5” and/or “appeals sabotaged” on the RNU board shown above is a reference to the claim that MI5 agent Dennis McFadden had infiltrated the campaign for justice for Brendan McConville (Irish News).

Springfield Road, west Belfast

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Shankill Originals

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The second version of the “Original Belfast” mural “celebrates the contribution of people across the Greater Shankill who work with children and young people” including Sam Drake from the lower Shankill community centre (GSWF). For the previous version, see The Original Belfast.

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Ulster’s Defenders

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Ulster’s defenders, past and present, from Cuchulainn “Ancient defender of Ulster from Gael attacks”, via the 1893 UDU and WWI soldiers memorialised in the towers at Messines and Thiepval, to the modern UDA/UFF: “In memory of the officers and volunteers of A. Coy. UDA/UFF West Belfast Brigade who unselfishly dedicated their lives in defence of their country.”

There was also a Cuchulainn mural on Newtownards Rd in 1992 (updated in 2005), as well as ‘past defenders’ in the form of B Specials and UDR (1992 | 2005). There is a Visual History page on Cú Chulaınn.

Among the volunteers listed on the stone, 19 year old Alan Simpson was shot in his home in nearby Highfield Drive.

Joe Cahill Perpetual Cup

2022-11-032024-08-04Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Mol an óıge agus tıocfaıdh sÍ”. [Praise youth and it will flourish/Youth responds to praise] Above is the Joe Cahill mural in Beechview Park, next to the GAA pitch. The mural was unveiled on September 2nd, 2013. (Images of the unveiling from An Phoblacht.) Joe Cahill (WP) holds the cup aloft. The group in the bottom left corner (see the second image, below) are Pat O’Hare, Frank Cahill, Tom Cahill, (the three Cahills were featured in the previous mural) Ned Maguire, Jr., Ned Maguire, Sr., Alec Crowe, Paddy Meenan, Tommy Crowe, Dal Delaney, and Hugh Elliot. In the crook of Cahill’s arm are Rita McParland, Sean Wallace, Paddy Corrigan, John Pettigrew, and John Stone. None of these adults is still alive; all were from the local area.

The chalet bungalows in the background on the left are gone, but you can see images of them on the Belfast Forum.

The plaque on the left names others in addition: Billy Kelly, Alice Cush, Kate Campbell, John Mulligan, Mary Mulligan, David Mulhern, Margaret Mulhern, John Clarke, Margaret Farrelly, Marie Williams, Kevin Sullivan, Michael Rock, John McColgan, Bridget Maguire, Martin Maguire, Sally Corrigan, Sonny O’Reilly, Maggie McArdle, Jimmy McArdle, Kathleen Wallace, Maragret McGuinness, John Flanagan, Maisie McGuckian, Charlie McGuckian, Anthony Muldoon, Jim Logue, Ellen Weir, Liam Mackie, Oliver McParland, Sadie McMahon, Tommy Crowe, Maddie Holden, Sarah Doyle, Jimmy Doyle, Kathleen Pettigrew, Mary Cushnihan, Bell Cosgrove, Gerry Campbell.

Rab McCullough

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The career of Belfast blues/rock guitarist Rab McCullough spanned more than five decades, beginning with the formation of Baraka back in the 1970s, and included opening for Jimi Hendrix and a 20-year residency in the Empire. McCullough died in May (of 2021) after suffering a heart attack while swimming in Andersonstown leisure centre (BBC | BelTel | Belfast Media | Love Belfast). McCullough’s family is maintaining his Facebook page.

The mural was painted in Owenvarragh Park/Páırc Abhaınn Bhearach near his former home by Glen Molloy (ig). (Belfast Media)

Unbowed, Unbroken

2022-11-032025-03-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A succession of Irish rebels is shown in this new mural in Andersonstown, west Belfast. It begins (top left) with the rebellion of 1798 and then to the Easter Rising of 1916 at the GPO in Dublin. In the lower left, a pious Padraıg Pearse awaits his execution with rosary beads in hand. There are then shown female figures from Cumann Na mBán and the IRA (see previously: United Irishwomen, Do You Care? and Mothering Sunday In Beechmount), and then Maıréad Farrell in Armagh Women’s Prison (for the original, see Prison Walls). In the bottom right corner there is a blanketman. The busts of Bobby Sands and Joe McDonnell float above the GPO and the last verse of Sands’s The Rhythm Of Time form the epigraph: “It lights the dark of this prison cell, it thunders forth its might, it is the undauntable thought, my friend, the thought that says, “I’m right”.

On the side wall, “Ag fíorú na poblachta” means “Realising the republic”. It celebrates the centenary (“Céad Blıaın 1916 – 2016”) of the Easter Rising and shows a copy of the proclamation of the republic and an Easter lily. The next wall over (see below) shows portraits of the seven signatories to the Proclamation: Joseph Plunkett, Sean Mac Dıarmada, Thomas Clarke, James Connolly, Patrick Pearse, Eamonn Ceannt, and Thomas McDonagh.