children/youth – Page 6 – Paddy Duffy Collection

Patrick Rooney

2023-12-062026-08-29Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Murdered by RUC”. Nine-year-old Patrick Rooney was the first child to be killed during the Troubles, when he was hit by a bullet from a Browning machine-gun mounted on an RUC whippet (Shorland armoured car – see a picture at the Police Ombudsman’s report) on the night of August 14-15, 1969, hours before the British Army arrived in Northern Ireland in reponse to the Battle Of The Bogside (Derry). (Irish Times | BBC)

RTÉ has footage of Rooney’s funeral.

The board was unveiled in November by the RNU (Fb), replacing the Rook O’Prey board. There is a plaque to Rooney and Hugh McCabe, who died the same night, on the remaining flat, Divis tower (M02005).

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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In Crumlin They Paint On Main Street

2023-12-032024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here are the painted shutters of ten different businesses along Main Street in Crumlin, Co. Antrim. The Crumlin Youth mural is on Glenavy Road – it is presumably by Blaze FX (Fb) who also did the interlocking rings for Stylus Engraving.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Cultural Expression

2023-11-052026-08-29Extramural Activity1 Comment

Part of the long community mural at the end of Blythe Street next to Blythefield primary has been repainted with these images children at play.

The tinkerbell wall and the final image is from the earlier mural – for which see Each One Teach One.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Dreams Don’t Work Unless You Do

2023-11-032026-08-31Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is the new Glen Molloy mural in Carrickfergus, showing a boy practicing his baton-twirling and marching. It’s in the same style as the Little Drummer Boy in the Shankill.

The mural is in Agnes Street, at the far end of Marine Highway, heading towards Eden. The in-progress images below show Glen at work and the mural at different stages of development.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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X14379 [X14378] courtesy of Seosamh Mac Coılle

Ballybeen Makes Winners

2023-10-042026-08-31Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Which direction will you go in? To the negative west of the compass of “choice” lie “Alcohol, paramilitaries, drugs”; to the positive east are “Education, employment, life. On the side panel, youngsters are encouraged to study English, math(s), social media and Google.

And further down Brooklands Drive, “Ballybeen makes winners” in sports: soccer, boxing, and motorcycle racing. The boxer is John Lowey, who represented Ireland at the 1988 Olympics; he is also featured in Boxing Through The Generations and Ballybeen Dream which last also includes three local footballers.

800 Years Of Irish Resistance

2023-09-242024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

There is a memorial garden to the history of Irish resistance at the entrance to the Athletic Grounds in Armagh. From left to right, the images presented here show:

“More than 800 years of Irish resistence” – a sword for the Norman invasion under Strongbow, a pike for the 1798 and 1803 rebellions, a bolt-action rifle for the Easter Rising of 1916, and an assault rifle for the Troubles;

Cumann Na mBan, Mairéad Farrell and republican women who made “the supreme sacrifice”;

The Proclamation, Provisional IRA and Na Fianna;

The dying Cú Chulainn and a plaque “in proud and loving memory of all republican volunteers, ex-POWs and the unsung heroes from this area who fought, suffered and died in the cause of Ireland’s freedom, with a quote from James Connolly: ‘If you strike at, imprison or kill us, out of prisons or graves will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you and perhaps raise a force that will destroy you! We defy you England! Do your worst!”;

“Remember Ireland’s hunger strikers – 22 men” – the ten 1981 hunger strikers and Thomas Ashe, Terence MacSwiney, Michael Fitzgerald, Joe Murphy, Joseph Whitty, Andy O’Sullivan, Denny Barry, Tony D’Arcy, Jack McNeela, Seán McCaughey, Michael Gaughan, Frank Stagg;

A stone “in loving memory of men, women and children murdered by British forces in Ireland.”