Gaeilge – Page 13 – Paddy Duffy Collection

Saoırse

1995-01-012026-01-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The frame of this mural in St James’s was originally painted by Andrea Redmond (Fb) in 1994 for a mural (included below) showing local pensioners remonstrating with a British Army soldier, under the title “The Spirit Of Freedom”, reproducing a photo that appeared in a French-language magazine (see below).

The central circle was repainted (again Redmond) for the 1995 “green ribbon” campaign: the dove holds the keys that will set free the republican prisoners, symbolised by the barbed wire and the lark in the apex. There was also a side-wall, showing two rows of green ribbons, each with the name of a POW (see immediately below).

“Sponsored by AP/RN” has been moved from the side-wall to the main wall.

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00106

The 1994 ‘Spirit Of Freedom’ mural:

In small letters on the part of the circle at the back of the soldier is written “This mural is dedicated to the memory of J[…] D[…] and M[…] Fitzsimons”.

On the side wall is a verse from the poem The Crime Of Castlereagh by “Volunteer Bobby Sands MP”: “All things must come to pass as one/So hope should never die/There is no height or bloody might/That a freeman can’t defy./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.”

Fág Ár Sraıdeanna

1995-01-012025-09-16Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is a mural on Whiterock Road, west Belfast, bidding “Slán Abhaıle” to a British soldier who is himself standing on Whiterock Road in front of the 1916 mural (Who Fears To Speak Of Easter Week?).

In the medallions to the left and right are four demands from during the (first) ceasefire: “End collusion, Release POWs, Disband RIR RUC, End Unionist veto”.

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00105

Alosa/Fuıseog

1994-01-012025-09-17Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Lark” in Catalan is “alosa” and in Irish “fuıseog”. This appears to be the earliest Catalan mural in the extant collections and it appears from the sponsorship in the lower corner – “Catalan comite [committee] in support of Ireland” – to be an expression of Catalonian solidarity with Ireland, rather than the other way around.

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Copyright © 1994 Paddy Duffy (undated image)
T00112

Your Ship Awaits

1994-01-012025-09-17Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This mural calling for British troops to leave uses the same slogan as in other murals — “Slán abhaıle” — but different imagery, of soldiers boarding the Belfast-Heysham (Lancashire, England) ferry.

This is possibly a cover of An Phoblacht but no source has yet come to light. The image below appeared in the edition of August 11th.

At the front of Rossnareen, Shaw’s Road, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1994 Paddy Duffy (undated image)
T00111

Slán Abhaıle

1994-01-012025-09-17Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

British soldiers trooping back towards London, being painted on the back of Free Derry Corner, on Lecky Road, Derry. The piece is by Robert Ballagh, taking a famous photograph of British forces in the Falklands marching (“yomping”) towards Port Stanley and placing it in a circle (to suggest a closing eye, perhaps) below tricoloured party balloons.

The image was also produced as a mural in the Short Strand (east Belfast) and on a board above the Sınn Féın offices/Sıopa Na hEalaíne in west Belfast and as a mural on Free Derry Corner and on a board in Shantallow, Derry and on a board in Letterkenny.

Ardoyne Avenue, north Belfast

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Copyright © 1994 Paddy Duffy (undated image)
T00107 [T00205]

Freedom’s Sons

1990-07-012025-08-31Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The writing – D coy, 2nd batt, Belfast Brigade [IRA] – has been added where the volunteer’s legs used to be – see the Peter Moloney Collection for the original. A small plaque has been added at the top. Otherwise, the mural remains as before, with a hooded volunteer raising an assault rifle in front of a sunburst and Tricolour, with a row of barbed wire and the four provinces named in Irish.

Falls Road, west Belfast, now the site of the Garden Of Remembrance

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Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00088

Éırí Na Gealaí

1990-07-012025-08-30Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Bobby Sands’s prison diary (web) ends, on March 17th, 1981, with the words “Tıocfaıdh lá éıgın nuaır a bheıdh an fonn saoırse seo le taıspeáınt ag daoıne go léır na hÉıreann – ansın tchífıdh muıd éırí na gealaí.” [A day will come when this desire for freedom will be exhibited by all the people of Ireland – then we will see the rising of the moon].

The phrase “the rising of the moon” comes from the poem/song of the same name composed by fifteen-year-old John Casey in 1865 about the 1798 Rebellion. “Full bitter was their fate” but the desire for freedom was not extinguished with them: “… e’en still are beating/Hearts in manhood’s burning noon/Who would follow in their footsteps/At the rising of the moon.”

In this mural, just off Lenadoon Avenue, a larger-than-life prisoner stands in silhouette, with first defiantly raised, over the watch-towers of Long Kesh.

“Chífıdh muıd éırí na gealaí” – “chífıdh” and “tchífıdh” are variant spellings.

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Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00068

Beıdh Ár Lá Lınn

1988-06-012025-08-29Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This mural shows nine hooded republican volunteers employing an assortment of weapons – rifles, RPG launcher, drogue bomb, machine gun – against a rising sun. “We will have our day.” The trio in the bottom right corner are familiar from other murals, such as this one in Strabane.

South Link, Andersonstown, west Belfast

Mé A Rug Cú Chulaınn Cróga

1988-06-012025-08-29Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Words from Padraıg Mac Pıaraıs’s poem Mıse Éıre are included alongside the portraits of the seven signatories to the 1916 Proclamation. It includes the line “Great is my glory, I who bore brave Cú Chulaınn” and Cú Chulaınn is pictured on the right, in the death pose made famous by Oliver Sheppard in a statue installed in the GPO in 1935 – see Cú Chulaınn’s Visual History page.

Mıse Éıre: Sıne mé ná an Chaılleach Bhéarra.
Mór mo ghlóır: Mé a rug Cú Chulaınn cróga.
Mór mo náır: Mo chlann féın a dhíol a máthaır.
[Mór mo phıan: Bıthnaımhde do mo shíorchıapadh.]
[Mór mo bhrón: D’éag an dream ınar chuıreas dóchas.]
Mıse Éıre: Uaıgní mé ná an Chaılleach Bhéarra.

Painted by Mo Chara Kelly in Norglen Gardens, west Belfast

Rí Nuadha ⁊ Loch gCál

1988-04-012026-10-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This pair of murals was painted by Mo Chara Kelly at the top of Springhill in 1987 after his release from prison. Both are inspired by the work of Jim Fitzpatrick. The central figure of the Rí Nuadha [King Nuada] mural above and immediately below comes from a painting of Fitzpatrick‘s called ‘Nuada Journeys To The Underworld’ while the background has a Fitzpatrick style and colour-scheme.

Of the myth of Nuada, Mo Chara said, “I had never heard the story of King Nuada before. Then I read the story. Wow! What a yarn! Nuada Of The Silver Arm is one of my favourite stories. As one of the Tuatha Dé Danann you had to be whole and physically perfect to hold the kingship. Nuada lost an arm in the first battle of Moy Tura and so he lost his kingship. He went into the other world, to middle earth, fought through trials and tribulations until Dıan Cécht made a silver arm for Nuada and he was restored to the kingship for another twenty years. But the moral of the story to me was that, no matter what happens, get up again and fight back. No matter how bad the situation you are in, you get back up and fight again. Do not let people isolate you. Get up and fight again. It was very inspiring!” (Painting My Community/An Pobal A Phéınteáıl – English-language version available for free.)

The Loch gCál/Loughgall mural likewise draws on Fitzpatrick for the landscape behind the Celtic cross and funeral guard in memory of the eight IRA volunteers from the East Tyrone brigade who were killed in an SAS ambush during an attack on an RUC base in May, 1987 (WP).

The names of the eight volunteers are given here in Irish and (partially) in the old script:

“I ndıl cuimh[n]e de [= ar]
Óglach Pádraıg Ó Ceallaıġ [Patrick Kelly],
Óglach Séamus Ó Donn[ġ]aıle [Seamus Donnelly],
Óglach Deaglán Mac Aırt [Declan Arthurs],
Óglach Séamus Laıghneach [Jim Lynagh],
Óglach Gearóıd Ó Ceallacháın [Gerry O’Callaghan],
Óglach Pádraıg Mac Cearnaıgh [Pádraıg McKearney],
Óglach Antóın Ó Garmaıle [Ó Gormghaıle | Tony Gormley],
Óglach Eoghan Ó Ceallaıġ [Eugene Kelly]

an ochtar óglach de óglaigh na hÉireann a dúnmharú ag Loch gCál ar an ochtú lá Bealtaine 1987.”
[the eight volunteers from the Irish Volunteers [IRA] who were murdered at Loughgall on the eighth day of May, 1987]

The town (Loughgall) and the four provinces are also named in Irish. An Easter lily is at the centre of the Celtic cross in the middle of the image, above a lark in barbed wire and a gal gréıne/sunburst.