Fág Ár Sraıdeanna

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

Tiger’s Bay UVF

UVF volunteers in balaclavas take aim other across a free-floating Northern Ireland with an Uzi and an assault rifle. The emblem supported by flags on the right is unusual for its inclusion of a ?large daisy? and pink ribbon.

The location of this wall is unknown, which suggests the site of the Community Centre – please get in touch if you know where it was.

Tiger’s Bay, north Belfast

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Copyright © 1988 Paddy Duffy
T00226 T00125

Then And Now

“They fought then for the cause of Ulster, we will fight now.” The 75th anniversary of the Ulster Volunteers is celebrated in this mural in Dover Place, west Belfast. On the left of the Northern Island is an Ulster Volunteer in period (1912) garb standing on a patch of ground, on the right, a modern (1987) paramilitary in hood and fatigues standing on a city footpath. The Ulster Volunteers as such did not fight for Ulster – they instead joined the British Army and fought “for King and Empire” in WWI, after which Home Rule was applied only to 26 counties of Ireland and Northern Ireland was created and remained within the UK.

See also: UVF 75th Anniversary

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Copyright © 1988 Paddy Duffy
T00126 [T00115]

This Is Loyalist West Belfast

These are three of the murals painted in Percy Place, west Belfast, painted by Alan Skillen in 1984. For a gallery of all eleven piece, see the street’s Visual History page.

The murals combined traditional PUL themes and iconography, such as King Billy and the monarchy, with the emblems and hooded gunmen of paramilitary groups.

The piece above is unusual in that it takes a familiar UDA device of four emblems in the quadrants of an Ulster Banner shield (see e.g. Sans Peur) but replaces three of them with the emblems of the UVF, PAF, and YCV. A crude outline of Northern Ireland has also been applied.

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Copyright © 1988 Paddy Duffy
T00141 T00153