Belfast

Bobby Sands

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This is the second Bobby Sands mural on the wall of the offices of Sınn Féın and An Phoblacht/Republican News on the Falls Road. For the first, see The Spirit Of Freedom. Gone from that first mural is the lark in barbed wire, replaced by a skyline of Maze/Long Kesh watch-towers, but the smiling Sands and the quotation from him remain: “Everyone, republican or otherwise, has his [here: “his/her”] own [particular] part to play”.

This wall has its own Visual History page.

Sevastopol Street, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00087 [T00207]

Prepared For Peace, Ready For War

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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.

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00138

Stevie McCrea

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“In loving memory of Stevie McCrea”. Red Hand Commando volunteer Stevie McCrea was sentenced to 16 years for the murder of James Kerr in 1972 (Behind The Mask) and was subsequently “murdered by the enemies of Ulster” on February 18th, 1989 in an IPLO attack on the Orange Cross (WP). (The door of the club can be seen next to the mural in M00560.)

On the side-wall, Binyon’s ‘For The Fallen‘ is modified for the singular “he”: “For he shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary him nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember him.”

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00237 T00152

Simply The Best

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Tina Turner’s cover (youtube) of Bonnie Tyler’s song “The Best” reached #5 in the UK charts in 1989 and the phrase “simply the best” from the chorus would appear in a number of UDA murals over the years, beginning with this 1995 mural depicting hooded gunmen from the UDA/UFF’s second battalion C company.

Dover Place, west Belfast. This mural would be repainted in the Adair era to include a list of mass killings of Catholics.

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00139c

Compromise Or Conflict

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“Compromise” in “Compromise or conflict” hints at the potential of the peace process but loyalist muraling continues to present hooded gunmen (in this case from “1st battalion, west Belfast UVF”) engaged in physical-force activity. In the same vein, see Prepared For Peace, Ready For War.

The first appearance of Eddie The Trooper – a definite increase in the intensity of violent imagery – will be in 1996.

Later with a side-wall (to the right of image) that read simply “A. company / 1st battalion”

Dover Place, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00133c

An tOcras Mór

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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.

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00181

Érıu

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“Ardoyne Fleadh Cheoıl – meon an phobaıl a thógáıl tríd an chultúr” = “building community spirit through culture”.

“Eıre [Éire] (Éıru [Érıu]), a queen of the Tuatha Dé Danann, slain at the battle of Taıltean [Taılteann] (Telltown [Teltown], Co. Meath) 1698 BC.” Érıu is placed in a neolithic setting and is releasing a dove which flies off in a trail of stars. (In the repainted version, the date given is 698.)

Brompton Park, Ardoyne, Belfast

Here is the previous Ard Eoın Fleadh Cheoıl mural in this location.

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy (no date given)
T00157 [T00162]