Belfast – Page 2 – Paddy Duffy Collection

A Call To Young Irishmen

2026-08-022026-08-08Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

These are close-ups of the boards along the bottom of the D Company IRA board next to the Falls memorial garden. The two information boards at the extremes give brief biographies of the fourteen deceased IRA volunteers whose portraits flank the large map: Charlie Hughes, Jimmy Quigley, Daniel McAreavey, Patrick ‘Maguire’ Pendleton, Joseph McKinney, John Donaghy, Mundo O’Rawe, Michael Marley, Teddy Campbell, Martin Skillen, Bap Kelly, Billy Carson, Pat McBride, Paddy Loughran.

On either side of the large central plaque are two pairs of small boards. On the left are the Proclamation and the old information board (“Out Of The Ashes Of ’69”); on the right are an image of lilies and a reproduction of an “April 1933” “Call To Young Irishmen”, giving six reasons why they should enlist in the Irish Republican Army/Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann. The call came in response to sustained economic hardship in the country and Fıanna Fáıl’s wins in the general elections of 1932 and 1933. (Here is a pdf of the poster. And here is the IRA manifesto of 1933 (pdf).)

These boards were added c. 2020. Compare to 2013.

Falls Road, west Belfast

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From Steeples To Stables

2026-08-022026-08-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is Karl Fenz’s (web) tribute to The Rapparees (ig), who will end the Fleadh (on August 9th) with a gig in Lavery’s (ig). The art is in the entry to Commercial Court, home of the Duke Of York and the Dark Horse bars. There is also a painting of the Rapparees in the Dark Horse courtyard – see The Musicians.

Also painted for the Fleadh: Stay For The Craic | Fleadh Cheoıl Na hÉıreann (in the Dark Horse courtyard) | Fleadh Fiddler.

Commercial Court, Belfast city centre, replacing the John Peel and Dali art.

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His Free Will No Thing Can Kill

2026-07-302026-08-11Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

New portraits of the twelve dead Troubles-era hunger strikers (including Frank Stagg and Michael Gaughan) have been mounted next to the Falls Road Memorial Garden, with a quote from Bobby Sands’s ‘H-Block Trilogy’ on the cross-bar: “There is no source or foreign force/Can break one man who knows,/That his free will no thing can kill/And from that freedom grows.”

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Ireland’s Finest

2026-07-302026-09-15Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Óglach Billy McKee, Óglach Alex Murphy, Óglach Breandan [Brendan/Breandán] Hughes (The Dark)” are featured in a new D Company board on the anti-Agreement wall below the Falls Garden Of Remembrance.

In the bottom corners is the emblem of Glór Na hÓglaıgh (Fb), a new (March 2026) “revolutionary republican socialist political party”, associated with Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann and feuding with the RNU.

This board takes the place of a similar RNU board, seen in Unrepentant Republicans.

As in the previous board, Alex Murphy is included (on the left); Murphy was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the killing of the two Signals corporals (Wood and Howes) in 1988 (UPI). He was released in 1998 under the provisions of the Agreement and died in 2019 (Pensive Quill). (The D Company board on the International Wall (Visual History) features Kieran Nugent rather than Murphy.)

Falls Road, west Belfast

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StayLo On The Tall Wall

2026-07-302026-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here are a few pieces of graffiti-art on the Cupar Way “peace” line/war wall, by StayLo (ig) and NOL (ig), with wild-style in between by Eklor1 (ig).

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Fleadh Fiddler

2026-07-282026-08-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Fleadh Cheoıl Na hÉıreann brings eight days of events and competitions (pdf) to venues all across Belfast, beginning on August 2nd. Given the expected 100,000 visitors per day that are expected, the city has been transforming itself (Irish Times | BBC), with camp-sites being prepared, marquees being erected, and a number of artworks being painted, including this one by Danni Simpson (web) of a fiddler among flowers, at Writers’ Square in Donegall Street. There is also new art in the Dark Horse courtyard and on Royal Avenue.

July 26th:

July 23rd:

We’ve Got Crisps At Home

2026-07-262026-08-02Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here are some newly-painted junction boxes along Stranmillis Road, by NoodleStuudio (ig) (above and immediately below) and ChippyDraws (ig).

Both artists contributed to this year’s (2026) Hit The North: in Library Street and Kent Street.

A Ride On The Coal Cart

2026-07-262026-07-30Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This photo of children taking a ride on a coal cart joins more than a dozen others depicting life during the 20th century in Carrick Hill – see Old Carrick Hill and The Tea Bar. Here is a Belfast Forum thread of people reminiscing about the various items that used to be delivered by horse-drawn cart.

For the anti-drugs art on the left of the wide shot below, see You Have The Power.

(lower) Regent Street, Carrick Hill, west Belfast. A new archive featuring recordings of local people opened earlier this month in the Carrick Hill Community Centre (Belfast City Council).