“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.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1994 Paddy Duffy (undated image)
T00112
A smiling Bobby Sands on the side of the Sınn Féın offices on the Falls Road, (also the west Belfast office of An Phoblacht/Republican News), with his famous statement that “Everyone, republican or otherwise, has his [here: “his/her”] own [particular] part to play” (and the lark with its “spirit of freedom“). This version was painted by Mo Chara Kelly in 1989, and an image of Sands has been on the wall continuously since then.
Sevastopol Street, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00089
Both of these murals by Mo Chara Kelly in the old Linden Street remained unfinished. “I was doing one about the Falls Curfew [for the 20th anniversary march – shown above]. … It never got finished because we had to start Women Against Oppression. When you’re available, people just came up to you, “Mo Chara, we need a mural on this. Could you stop that one? We need to do this one. There’s a Nelson Mandela one needs doing, could you do that?” Everything was chopped and changed all the time, and I never got back to it.” (Painting My Community/An Pobal A Phéınteáıl – English-language version available for free)
The second shows a barefoot woman carrying a large Tricolour and a lark overhead. It is based on the Women’s Day (“Frauen Tag”) poster from 1914. “Heraus mit dem Frauenwahlrecht” – “Forward with women’s suffrage”. German women were given the right to vote in 1918. This mural was replaced by Women Against Oppression.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00090 T00096
Chief sitting Bull with his back to the flag of the United States, with a lark (for the Irish struggle) and an eagle (for the Native American) and a border of the colours of humankind.
Painted by Mo Chara Kelly with Jan Attridge on the wall of the (then) Ballymurphy Community Centre just off the Whiterock Road, west Belfast.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00092
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.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1988 Paddy Duffy
T00073 T00066 [T00074] T00075 T00065
This mural celebrates the IRA (“Óglaigh Na hÉıreann” at the top) from 1919 (the army of the independent Dáıl Éıreann) to the “present” day of 1982. In the centre, a lark flies against a Tricolour, with the word “Saoırse” (“freedom”) beneath.
This is a repainted version of the original, which was one of several murals in Beechmount and the Rock streets that were paint-bombed by “marauding Coldstream Guards” (according to AP/RN of 1982-04-29) – for the damaged mural, see the Peter Moloney Collection. The “1919” date would be changed to “1916”.
Islandbawn Street, west Belfast, replacing The Right Hon. Bobby Sands.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1982 Paddy Duffy
T00063 [T00009]
A phoenix rises from a pair of disembodied hands tearing apart an “H” made of brick, illustrating the lines (out of view to the right) “… and then I prayed I yet might see/our fetters rent in twain/and Ireland long a province be/a nation once again”. Also on the right are the names of six hunger strikers: Bobby Sands MP, Francis Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Patsy O’Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson. On the left are the lark in barbed wire, and the shields of the four provinces.
A complete view is available in the Peter Moloney Collection.
Falls Road in Andersonstown, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1982 Paddy Duffy
T00058 [T00011]
Paddy Duffy Collection 