barbed wire – Page 2 – Paddy Duffy Collection

Clós Ard An Lao

2023-05-092025-04-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a gallery of the murals and plaques in Clós Ard An Lao/Ardilea Close in the Machaıre Botháın/Marrowbone area of north Belfast. A full repertoire of republican events is commemorated – the United Irishmen, Great Hunger, the Rising, the Troubles, the (modern) hunger strikes. What is most striking is the significant presence of religious icons, such as the Sacred Heart in the glass cases in front of the two main murals (above and last below).

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Free All Political Prisoners

2023-02-142024-11-11Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

There are six small boards along Rossville Street, Derry.

On the end wall (out of sight in the wide shots): “Democide is the murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide and mass murder. Democide is not necessarily the elimination of entire cultural groups but rather groups within the country that the government feels needs to be eradicated for political reasons and due to claimed future threats. No amnesty for British state forces.”

From left to right: “End British political policing” from Saoradh (web); two IRPWA (web) boards “Free all political prisoners” with the image of Bobby Sands and lines from Francie Brolly’s “H-Block Song” and the prison wall disintegrating into doves; IRPWA (web) board commemorating the 1981 hunger strike; IRSP “Yes for unity” board; IRSM 40th anniversary hunger-strike board.

On either side are the John Hume mural and the O’Hara-Devine mural and the “Peace” mural (with cross) from the The People’s Gallery (Visual History) by the Bogside Artists.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Australian Aid

2022-12-152024-08-11Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Above and immediately below: banners of two Australian Republican support-groups, holding banners reading “Australian Aid for Ireland QLD [Queensland] Branch – The Spirit of Freedom” and “The Casement Support Group – Saoirse Melbourne”.

Third is Caırde Sınn Féın.

Fourth, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (amwu.org.au) sponsored the mural above in Conway Street. Then-secretary Craig Johnston is on the left in the back. The flag to the right is the flag of the Eureka Stockade. It joins others sponsored by Australian groups: A Bunch Of Live Wires (sponsored by the Electrical Trades Union) | Caırde Sınn Féın | Australian Aid For Ireland & Saoırse Melbourne. “Casement Memorial – In proud memory of the 10 Republican prisoners who died on hunger strike in “H” blocks of Long Kesh in 1981. ‘It is not those who can inflict the most but those who can endure the most who will conquer’ – Terence McSwiney. Unveiled by Martin McGuinness, Sınn Féın MP MLA Minister for Education Wednesday 6/12/2006 Donated by AMWU, Craig Johnston Secretary.”

Finally, the Australian Electrical Trades Union (ETU) in Victoria. “Says Joe, ‘Those that they forgot to kill went on to organise.’” from ‘(The Ballad Of) Joe Hill’.

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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100 Years Of Partition

2022-12-152024-08-11Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a gallery of the smaller piece on the building below Divis tower (except for the Welcome mural – see Gateway To West Belfast). From right to left (top to bottom in this post) we see a 32 County Sovereignty Movement mural, with the island of Ireland in green, white, and orange, and (representing prisoners) barbed wire and a candle; “Black lives matter” from People Before Profit; 32CSM tarp opposing “British political policing”; IRPWA board declaring the PSNI/MI5/British Army unwelcome; a 32CSM tarp against joy-riding; a Lasair Dhearg poster marking 100 years of … “pogroms, sectarianism, job discrimination, police brutality, imprisonment, collusion, housing discrimination, Orange supremacy, torture, internment, special powers, state sponsored death squads, language discrimination, gerrymandering, women’s rights denied, colonialism.”

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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Free The Innocent

2022-11-162024-08-08Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The (colour) RNU phoenix and the Craigavon 2 “Free The Innocent” tarp have been joined by a Cogús fist grasping a strand of barbed wire – Cogús (Fb) is (was?) the prisoners’ welfare arm of the RNU.

Northumberland Street, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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Remembering The Hunger Strikers

2022-11-062024-08-05Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The six weeks from July 8th to August 20th 1981 saw the death of six hunger strikers – McDonnell, Hurson, Lynch, Doherty, McElwee, and Devine – adding to the four who began in March and died in May. All ten, along with Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg from 1974 and 1976, are remembered in this recent board in Rockmore Road.

To the left is a 1916 centenary board “Ag fíorú na poblachta”/“Realising the republic” – also seen in South Link and in Rockmount Street.

On the far left is a board from Republican Network For Unity (RNU)’s Cogús committee in support of “Attempted criminalisation of republican prisoners is alive and well”, “Republican prisoner welfare and support”: “End controlled movement, forced strip searches. now.”

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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The International Wall 2008

2008-01-012025-11-26Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a complete set of images of the International Wall (Visual History) some time in the first half of 2008 (the Nugent mural and the WBTA mural had been changed by July). From left to right:

“The first blanketman” Kieran ‘Header’ Nugent
Solidarity with Palestine “the largest concentration camp in the world!!! 33 million innocent people tortured, denied their freedom!
Maghaberry POWs “Not forgotten – segregation for Irish POWs”
Frederick Douglass
Guernica
The Manchester Martyrs
American’s Greatest Failure, with a “British support hook”
Taxi Trax, with a central image of the GPO, and with an internet address for the first time
Martin Meehan “A leader is gone, the legend forever lives on” + Askatasuna “not Spain, not France – self-determination for the Basque country”
Stop Plan Bush “Stop the crazy son of a Bush”
Liam MacCarthy “Ireland’s forgotten son”

Hunger Strikers Memorial

2007-01-012025-11-21Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The hunger strikers memorial in Rossville Street, Derry, was launched in 2000. Compared to the entries from 2001 and 2004, this version has a new centre-piece – the metal lark has been replaced by a combination lark and hand cast in stone.

The central “H” carries the names of the ten deceased 1981 strikers, while the stones to either side carry the names of other republicans to have died on hunger strike: Thomas Ashe 1917, Michael Fitzgerald 1920, Joseph Murphy 1920, Terence McSwiney 1920, Joseph Whitty 1923, Denis Barry 1923, Andrew Sullivan 1923, Tony D’Aroy 1940, Jack McNeela 1940, Sean McCaughey 1946, Michael Gaughan 1974, Frank Stagg 1976.

In the background of the image below are (left) Free Derry Corner and (centre-right) The Petrol Bomber.

Rossville Street, Derry

Remember The Ten

1998-01-012025-11-01Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Remember the ten H-Block martyrs. 1981-1998. Unbowed – unbroken.” With a pair of fists in barbed wire, a funeral volley fired over a coffin covered with Tricolour and beret, and a line-drawing of Bobby Sands. Signed “Republican Youth”

Berwick Road/Paráıd An Ardghleanna, Ardoyne,Ard Eoın, north Belfast/tuaısceart Bhéal Feırste

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