“Beıdh bua agaınn go fóıll” [victory will be ours yet] – Keep on marching, don’t give up – Raymond McCreesh 1957-81, age 24. Died after 61 days hunger-strike, H-Block Long Kesh 1981.” The phrase was spoken at the end of a visit with Jim Gibney.
Outside Raymond McCreesh House – his birthplace – at Maryville, Camlough.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Twenty portraits in circular frames have replaced the twenty-one square portraits seen on the ‘Out Of The Ashes Of 1969’ mural in the New Lodge. From left to right, those portrayed are Michael P Neill, Seamus McCusker, Gerard Crossan, Colm Mulgrew, Francis Liggett, Brian Fox, John Kelly, Robert Allsopp, Louis Scullion, Billy Reid, Danny O’Hagan, Michael Kane, Sean McIlvenna, Jim O’Neill, Rosemary Bleakley, Martin McDonagh, James McCann, James Sloan, Dan McCann. Paddy McManus is no longer included, as compared with the earlier portraits.
For the mural without any portraits, at the time of its launch in 2012, see X00857.
See also the New Lodge IRA memorial garden.
New Lodge Road, north Belfast.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Easter Saturday is traditional day for the Joe Cahill tournament, hosted by Cardinal O’Donnell’s (Fb) and involving about 250 children (Belfast Media). Shown above is the new board in Beechview Park, updating the one from last year.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
T04075 [T04076] [T04077] “Mol an óıge agus tıocfaıdh sí” [encourage youth and it will flourish, or less literally, youth responds to praise]
Patrick O’Connor was born on this day in 1924 on the lower Falls but after his father emigrated he spent his early years – until age 5 – with his grandparents in East Street in the Markets. It was as a high-schooler in New York that he adopted the name Pádraıc Fıacc (“fiach dubh” is “raven”) and began writing poetry. He settled in Glengormley upon his second and final return; it is not clear that he ever saw East Street lined with British Army soldiers, as shown in the mural above. He wrote of his early life in ‘First Movement’:
Low clouds, yellow in a mist wind
Sift on far-off Ards
Drift hazily …
I was born on such a morning
Smelling of the bone yards
The smoking chimneys over the slate top roofs
The wayward storm birds
And to the east where morning is, the sea
And to the west where evening is, the sea
Threatening with danger
And it would always darken suddenly
Some of Fıacc’s poems are in the TroublesArchive. He was interviewed by NVTv’s Bernard Conlon (Vimeo); he also appears in a reception in Belfast City Hall (youtube).
Lower Stanfield St, Markets, south Belfast
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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These two boards are at Gort Na Móna CLG. The one above was put developed by young Gorts as they learned about the history of the club as part of a twentieth anniversary celebration of Terry Óg Enright (Fb) who was killed by the LVF in 1998. The second board, below, combines the two previous boards to Terry Óg, seen previously in No Such Thing As Failure and Páırc Mhıc Ionnrachtaıgh.
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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This is the second version of the Ruaırí Óg (web) (and Clann Lır) mural in the middle of Cushendall – the original dates back to 2006, which was the 100th anniversary of the club’s founding (“bunaıthe”) (see M02832). The hurlers and Curfew tower remain; the “Big Ears” (Volunteer) trophy is gone and in its place are three traditional musicians. The Clann Lır has been painted to include the harper seen in Jim Fitzpatrick’s painting of the Lear myth. A Celtic warrior has appeared on the bridge over the Dall.
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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“Pobal ag foghlaım, pobal ag forbaırt, pobal ag fás” [a community learning, developing, growing]
Students from “Naíscoıl & Gaelscoıl An Lonnáın (Fb) bun[aithe] 1999″ [Nursery-school and Irish-language [primary] school of the loney, founded 1999] are shown playing Gaelic games, Irish dancing, and playing traditional instruments (and the guitar). On the left are representations from Irish mythology: the Children Of Lear and Setanta killing Culann’s hound (and taking the name Cú Chulaınn in taking its place), along with hedge-row school (see Hedge Row School).
The origin of the name is unclear; the nearest loney [lane] was the “Pound” loney, so-called because of the animal pen just outside Barrack Street, used to store livestock before moving on to the markets the following day (Rushlight | Uachtar Na bhFál). (The Pound Loney is included in the mural in Durham Street – see Et In Arcadia Ego.)
The other well-known loney in Belfast is the “buttermilk loney” which was either/both what is now Ballysillan Park (that is, connecting Olpark with the horsehoe bend) or the top part of the loney that connected Wheatfield (the top of Ardoyne) to the Ligoniel junction and on towards the old Ligoneil House (there are a mixture of usages in this Belfast Forum thread); this image from the 1930s might show the lane in (what was still at the time) the hills above Oldpark; a new housing-development towards the top of the Ballysillan Park is euphemistically called “Buttermilk Loney”. (It is also said to have been a prior name of Skegoniell Avenue (Belfast History).)
(The Uachtar Na bhFál page also mentions “Turf” loney, “Mountain” loney, and “Killoney”.)
The history of the Irish word “lonnán” is unclear. Uachtar na bhFál says the word is of Scots origin (perhaps as “loanin”). (See this BelTel article on the opening of the Ulster-Scots centre in 2014.) Spelled “lonnen”, it is also a Geordie word (Heslop’s Northumberland Words | wiktionary). The Irish News and Belfast Live, working from the same (uncited) press-release about Páırc An Lonnáın (which is along the Westlink below Raıdıó Fáılte), state that “loney” comes from the English word “loaning”. The Irish word “lonnán” does not appear in Dinneen 1904; Dinneen 1953 defines it (hyper-specifically) as “a grassy recess running up into high basaltic cliffs”.
The image above and immediately below are from May 19th, as the mural was nearing completion; other ‘in-progress’ images are as dated below. Here are images of the completed work.
May 10th:
April 20th:
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
May 19th T02755 [T02756] T02757
May 10th T02718 [T02717]
Apr 25th [T02579] [T02580]
Apr 20th T02558 [T02557]
Marty Lyons
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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The Provisional IRA emerged from a split in the IRA in the wake of sectarian unrest in 1969. The Derry battalion became the Derry Brigade (An Brıogáıd Dhoıre) in 1972 when the number of people wishing to become volunteers swelled in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday. It is estimated that 1,000 Derry Catholics (2% of the population) were imprisoned for IRA activities in the 70s and 80s. (WP)
The image above shows a mural with Cú Chulaınn (Visual History), an oak leaf with crossed rifles, and a lily. Two boards commemorate volunteers from the 1st battalion. The sixteen portraits are of Lafferty, Donaghey, Keenan, McGillan, Starrs, / Carr, McDaid, Moyne, Coyle, Heaney, // Harkin, Duffy, Quigley, English, McSheffrey, / McFadden.
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The plaque to the left reads, “This mural is dedicated to all those who tragically died on the streets of Derry during the hunger strike era. Suaımhneas Dé da nanamacha. 3rd October 2006.” The mural referred to is in fact the ‘crumbling cell’ mural (see M03350); the ‘Spirit Of Freedom’ mural was first painted in 2011 for the 30th anniversary (see X00999) – the 30th anniversary plaque remains, on the right of the mural but for the 40th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike “40” replaced the “30” in the bottom border.
The mural features both the lark and the dove (Visual History).
On the side wall, two new panels remember members of the IRA’s Derry brigade, replacing the single board seen in M07635.
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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