Belfast – Page 111 – Paddy Duffy Collection

Society Of United Irishmen

1998-01-012025-10-31Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is a trio of murals along the New Lodge Road to William Steel Dickson, William Drennan, and Mary Ann and Henry Joy McCracken. What the three have in common is that they were all Presbyterians and Irish republicans, and members of the Society Of United Irishmen.

William Steel Dickson was adjutant-general of the County Down Irishmen (see the blue plaque in Portaferry M08948) and was arrested a few days before the insurrection (WP). Like the McCrackens, he is buried in Clifton Street Cemetery.

William Drennan, 1754-1820, was a doctor, poet, a founder of the Society of United Irishmen, and the first person to refer to Ireland as “the Emerald Isle”, in his poem When Erin First Rose. The words in the mural are the epitaph on his stone in Clifton Street Cemetery: “Pure, just, benign. Thus filial love would trace the virtues, hollowing [sic] this narrow space. The Emerald Isle may grant a wider claim and link the patriot with his country’s name.”

Mary Ann McCracken (“What a wonderful clamour is now raised at the name of union, when in reality there has always been such a union between England and this country, as there is between husband and wife by which the former has the power to oppress the latter.”) and her older brother Henry Joy McCracken (“These are the times that try men’s souls … the rich always betray the poor.”) are the best-known of the figures. Henry led the Antrim uprising of the United Irishmen in 1798 and was executed for it; Mary Ann was an abolitionist and social reformer.

Ludlow Square/New Lodge Road, north Belfast

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Copyright © 1998 Paddy Duffy
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The Ultimate Sacrifice

1998-01-012025-10-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“This plaque is dedicated to the memory of Lt. Col. Trevor King, died 9th July 1994, Major Wm. (Frenchie) Marchant, died 28th April 1987, Davy Hamilton, Died 17th June 1994. These brave men died near this spot [the corner of Spier’s Place and Shankill Road, Belfast] by the enemies of Ulster. No sacrifice is too great for one’s country. They paid the ultimate sacrifice. ‘They shall grow not old/as we that are left grow old/Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn/At the going down of the sun and in the morning/We will remember them.’”

King and Hamilton (along with Colin Craig, an RUC informer and not included on the plaque) were shot by the INLA and died of their wounds three weeks and one day later. Frenchie Marchant was shot by the IRA outside The Eagle chip shop. The plaque is surrounded by a garland of three nation’s flowers: shamrock, rose, and thistle.

Spier’s Place, west Belfast. This is a new, larger, plaque, compared to previously.

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Copyright © 1998 Paddy Duffy
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Ulster First Flute

1998-01-012025-10-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Ulster First Flute – south Belfast – Est. 1997.” According to its Fb page, however, the band formed in 1996.

Linfield Road, south Belfast

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Copyright © 1998 Paddy Duffy
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Free The POWs

1997-12-312025-10-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A collage of image from the previous 30 years, including banging bin-lids on the ground, Maıréad Farrell in Armagh prison, men on the blanket, the cages of Long Kesh, marches in support of the hunger strikers, and reproductions of various posters, against Margaret Thatcher, plastic bullets, internment, and censorship. There’s a quote from Bob Dylan in the middle, “How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see – the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.”

Ludlow Square, New Lodge, north Belfast

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Copyright © 1997 or 1998 Paddy Duffy
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Stop At Nothing

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

“Our rulers will stop at nothing to attain their ends. They will continue to rule and rob until confronted by men who will stop at nothing to overthrow them.” The quote is from James Connolly on Conscription. Local volunteer Joe McDonnell is portrayed between the names of the ten deceased 1981 hunger strikers.

Lenadoon Avenue, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1997 Paddy Duffy
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Nothing Has Changed!

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

“Old Labour 1969 – new Labour 1997 – nothing has changed!” Members of the Orange Order march with a large Union Flag on the backs of the RUC (with an Orange accent on their helmets) who are holding back the protesting local Catholic residents – particularly of the Garvaghy Road in Portadown and the Ormeau Road in Belfast.

The party in power (of the UK government) was the Labour party under Harold Wilson; in the general election of May 1st, 1997, Tony Blair’s Labour party regained power from the Conservatives. The mural hopes to pressure Labour into taking definitive action on the issue of parading – see (e.g.) Approved Parade Route, No Consent, No Parade and Not All Traditions Deserve Respect.

The mural in the distance to the left is the 1994 Fleadh mural.

Ardoyne Avenue/Ascaıll Ard Eoın, north Belfast

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Copyright © 1997 Paddy Duffy
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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

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).

Draoıchláırseoırí An Chınn Bhaıle

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

In Táın Bó Cúaılnge, the “sweet-mouth harpers of Caın Bıle” are also “druids, men of great cunning and great power of augury and magic.” They come to Medb and Aılıll to entertain them, carrying mistletoe by which they sing, but are mistaken as Ulster spies; the harpers turn themselves into deer to escape their pursuers, near the Lıa Mór (Great Stone) (Death Of Lethan).

The source for the image is unknown.

Springhill Avenue, west Belfast

No Plastic Bullets

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

This image of an RUC officer aiming a plastic-bullet gun is the central panel of a mural at the top of Springhill Avenue that would otherwise go unfinished.