Belfast west – Page 42 – Paddy Duffy Collection

The Final Salute

1999-01-012025-11-06Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is a display to republican dead, with a black flag, Easter lilies, and (on the main board) a funeral volley being fired over a coffin draped in a Tricolour, with a printed poster of the ten deceased 1981 hunger-strikers. The board was later moved to Clowney Street.

Among the posters below we see “Release Josephine Hayden”. Hayden was General Secretary of Republican Sınn Féın when she was sentenced to six years in jail in 1996 for weapons’ possession. She would be released in 2000. (Irish Times)

Beechmount Avenue, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
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James Buchanan

1999-01-012025-11-14Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“”My Ulster blood is my most priceless heritage …” – James Buchanan 15th US president 1857-1861″. This is the first of the murals in the “From pioneers to presidents” series to be painted in Belfast, depicting James Buchanan. Three murals had already been painted in Londonderry, to Theodore Roosevelt, James Buchanan (which contains more information about Buchanan and his heritage), and George Washington.

The words along the bottom read, “250,000 Ulster Scots emigrated to America in the 1700s and were the driving force behind the American Revolution.”

The small plaque to the right reads, “Shankill Ulster-Scots Cultural Society. The Buchanan Mural. This mural was dedicated to the memory of those early Ulster-Scots emigrants by Ms Jane Benton Fort, US Consul General, on Thursday November 4th, 1999. Sae monie hairts gaed far frae hame – bot ilka yin oor ain fowk [So many hearts went far from home – but every one [is/remains] our own folk]. This project was funded by Belfast City Council and Making Belfast Work.”

See the Visual History page on Ulster-Scots Murals.

Ainsworth Street, Woodvale, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy (no date given)
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Lamh Dearg Abu

1999-01-012025-11-03Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

On the left, volunteers from the Red Hand Commando with bare faces stand with lowered flags beside a plinth “in memory of Ulster’s fallen”.

On the right, “In memory of Ulster’s fallen.” “Lamh dearg abu” [= “Lámh dhearg abú”] [= “Red Hand to victory”], “Ulster to victory”, “It is not for glory or riches we fight but for our people” (from the Declaration Of Arbroath). With the insignia of the Red Hand Commando and a pair of bald-headed eagles.

Glenwood Street, upper Shankill, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy (no date given)
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Leana An Dúın Unbowed Unbroken

1999-01-012025-10-17Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The dying Cú Chulaınn (as portrayed in bronze by Oliver Sheppard, in a statue installed in the GPO in 1935) is used as a symbol for the locals from Lenadoon area of west Belfast who fought for freedom (“saoırse”): Tony Henderson, John Finucane, Brendan O’Callaghan, Joe McDonnell, Laura Crawford, Maıréad Farrell, Patricia Black, Bridie O’Neill (subsequently changed to Bridie Quinn).

There were originally portraits of all nine people in the apex when the mural was launched in 1996, but only three remain.

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Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy (no date given)
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Carrickhill Saoırse

1998-08-012025-11-03Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A dove carries the keys that would unlock the chains that are already being rent asunder by their manacled captive in “Ceıs Fada” [Long Kesh]. Part of the “green ribbon” campaign to release republican POWs under the terms of any peace agreement.

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Copyright © 1998 Paddy Duffy
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Remember Our Gibraltar Martyrs

1998-08-012025-11-03Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Gibraltar Three are IRA volunteers Maıréad Farrell, Seán Savage, and Dan McCann, who were executed by British crown forces in Gibraltar on March 6th, 1988.

Along the top is written a variation on the second half of Terence MacSwiney’s famous phrase: “[It is not those who can inflict the most but] “Those that endure the most will conquer in the end”

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Copyright © 1998 Paddy Duffy
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Cuba – Ireland

1998-08-012025-11-03Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Jim Fitzpatrick’s Che (Visual History) is the linchpin of this mural in Shiels Street, Beechmount, expressing solidarity between Irish republicanism and the Cuban revolutionaries. Fidel Castro appears on the right (and in the poster on the left), and Bobby Sands is seen on the right reading a collection of Che’s speeches and writings published in English in 1969 as Venceremos! (pdf).

Shiels Street, Beechmount, west Belfast

Common Sense UDP

1998-08-012025-10-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Ulster Democratic Party (UDP) was the political wing of the UDA, and supported a policy of an independent Northern Ireland (as described in the policy document ‘Common Sense‘). It won a few council seats in the late 1980s and early 1990s (and dissolved in 2001) (BBC-NI).

The top-right panel is similar to this Victor Patterson photograph of the farmers’ protest at Stormont during the Ulster Workers’ Council strike that brought down the Sunningdale Agreement in 1974.

Bellevue Street, west Belfast

Red Hand Commando A Company

1998-07-012025-10-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Red Hand Commando A Company Shankill”. The plaque unfortunately cannot be read.

There was previously a board above the flag-pole holder, showing the same emblem but with “Scottish Brigade” instead of “Red Hand Commando”, against a St Andrew’s Saltire (D00029).

Glenwood Street, west Belfast

No Bigots On Our Road!

1998-06-012025-11-02Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Springfield residents say … No bigots on our road! 27 June re-route sectarian marches.” The lambeg drummer is from the “Kill All Taigs LVF flute band”. The march went ahead, with a large RUC presence and a silent protest from locals (RN | Jarman).