“Free our prisoners o[f] w[ar]”, specifically prisoners from the South Belfast UFF/UDA. This pair of smaller murals is in the garden next to St Alban’s, and the gable mural is across the road.
Blythe Street, south Belfast
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Copyright © 2000 Paddy Duffy (no date given)
T01177 T01186 T01185
The IRA’s Joe McDonnell was the fifth of the 1981 hunger-strikers to die, on July 8th, after 61 days. McDonnell’s portrait is superimposed upon a sketch of a photograph of the funeral volley fired while his coffin was en route to Milltown cemetery (An Phoblacht).
Suffolk Road, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T00350
This is a display to republican dead, with a black flag, Easter lilies, and (on the main board) a funeral volley being fired over a coffin draped in a Tricolour, with a printed poster of the ten deceased 1981 hunger-strikers. The board was later moved to Clowney Street.
Among the posters below we see “Release Josephine Hayden”. Hayden was General Secretary of Republican Sınn Féın when she was sentenced to six years in jail in 1996 for weapons’ possession. She would be released in 2000. (Irish Times)
Beechmount Avenue, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T00421c
Along the top are the emblems of the Royal Inniskilling (27th) Fusiliers (featuring Crom castle), Royal Irish Rifles (featuring the Maid Of Erin harp), Royal Irish Fusiliers (featuring the barossa eagle).
Wrapped around the left column are “Ballykinler, Finner, Clandeboye” – three of the training camps of the 36th. Wrapped around the right column is “Lest we forget”.
The central text reads: “Ravenhill – Village – Donegall Pass – Ormeau Rd – Sandy Row – Lisburn Rd. 10th infantry battalion Royal Irish Rifles, 36th (Ulster) Division, South Belfast Volunteers”
The Union Flag appears in the lower left, next to an unidentified medal, while the flag of Ulster (rather than Northern Ireland, which did not yet exist) appears in the lower right, next to a Victory medal. (In a previous version of this painting, the Union Flag was a VC and the medal was a Distinguished Conduct Medal.) Between them is the emblem of the 36th Division.
The main image shows three graveside mourners standing in a field of barbed wire and in front of ?mis-shapen tombstones?, all against a background of sunrise over a mountain on which have been superimposed (left) a map of the Somme and (right) a large UVF emblem.
Painted by Ron McMurry on boards. Donegall Pass, south Belfast
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Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T00251
A funeral volley is fired in honour three IRA volunteers, Joseph Downey, Brendan Davison, and Tony Nolan. All three were from the Markets area.
Downey’s death is variously attributed to either side in a gun-battle between the British Army and IRA, but the most detailed account (by PaperTrail) says Downey was shot by a loyalist (UVF) gang on the night of Bloody Friday.
Davison was shot by the UVF at his Friendly Way home in 1988 (RTÉ video).
Nolan was accidentally shot in 1971 when a gun being loaded by a colleague went off (Lost Lives 208).
Friendly Way, Markets, south Belfast
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Copyright © 1998 Paddy Duffy
T00291
“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
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Copyright © 1998 Paddy Duffy
T00289
“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
T00258 [T00257]
“Sandy Row South Belfast” UDA/UFF volunteers in balaclavas and camo gear fire a funeral volley “in proud memory of our fallen comrades. We forget them not – at the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.”
Boyne Court, Sandy Row, south Belfast
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Copyright © 1997 Paddy Duffy
T00252
The UVF’s William Millar (here given as “Miller”) was ambushed, along with Bobby Morton, by the RUC on the 16th of March 1983 – Millar died and Morton was injured (Long Kesh Inside Out). His death is put in parallel with the WWI service of William McFadzean, who won the VC for throwing himself on a fallen box of grenades on the first day of the Battle Of The Somme. The McFadzean family home (Rubicon) is only half a mile away from this mural.
Cappagh Gardens, Cregagh, Castlereagh
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Copyright © 1996 Paddy Duffy
T00243r
Trevor “Kingso” King served time for his part in the Battle At Springmartin in 1972, in which seven people, including a British soldier, died. In 1994, having been shot by the INLA and paralysed from the neck down, King took the decision to remove his own life-support (WP).
The emblem of the PAF is out of shot to the left; the UVF emblem in the centre is flanked by the Ulster Banner and UVF flag. “1st Belfast battalion, ‘B’ company.”
Disraeli Street, Woodvale, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1996 Paddy Duffy
T00235
Paddy Duffy Collection 