Cliftonville striker Joe Gormley has been honoured with a new mural in his native Ardoyne. He is Cliftonville’s all-time leading goal-scorer, with more than 300 goals. He has recently signed for the forthcoming (2026-2027) season, which he says will be his last (BBC).
Velsheda Court, Ardoyne. There was previously a board to Joe The Goal in Berwick Road.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T09199 [T09200] [T09198] T09197c
Life and landmarks in Rathfriland, eight miles outside Newry, are presented in this “Community mural, 2010, lead artist Ann McCall, created with young people from the Beacon Centre”.
The four buildings on the left are labelled: Magennis clan of Iveagh 1136-1641 [i.e. until the Confederate Wars], Linen Market 1754, Patrick Brontë [father of the three Brontë authors] homeland 1777, Farmers’ Market. On the right is the Beacon Centre.
The mural was covered over by a printed tarp for a number of (seven?) years, but this has come down and the mural behind it is again visible. The mural in much better condition can be seen on Geograph.
Church Square, Rathfriland, site of the market house or tholsel – here is an image from c. 1915.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T09155 T09157 T09156
The Townsend Enterprise Park, at the Falls end of Townsend Street, was formerly the site of the Soho Foundry, established by brothers James and Robert Shipboy MacAdam, making (among other things, including scutching machines) large turbines for export across the world – “the largest steam-engine ever made in Ireland” (at 62″ in diameter) went to the Nile in Egypt in 1848 (Grace’s | Grace’s). This new mural on the wall of the Enterprise Park recalls the area’s industrial past.
By Imogen Donegan (ig) with support from Daisy Chain (web).
See also My Da Was A Pigeon Man.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T09154 T09153 [T09152] T09151
“Mícheál Mac Daıbhéad ~ Michael Davitt, 1846 ~ 1906 … a true republican, a revolutionary and a visionary. This mural was erected to celebrate and to thank all those members of Davitt’s GAC, past and present, who have fought, struggled and diligently contributed to the foundation, development and maintainment of this club in serving our local community of the greater Falls, down through the years.”
Mícheál Mac Daıbhéad/Michael Davitt is famous for leading the Irish Republican Brotherhood and as “father of the Land League”, and a west Belfast CLG and social club is named in his honor. The board in the courtyard of the social club includes twenty photographs of the lower Falls area from the years of the Troubles.
“To all my friends I leave kind thoughts, to my enemies the fullest possible forgiveness, and to Ireland the undying prayer for the absolute freedom and independence which it was my life’s ambition to try and obtain for her.” These words come from Davitt’s will; he died at age 60 (Mayo Live). The mural referred to in the information board (in the final image) was painted for the centenary of the club, in 2012.
This board replaces a c. 2014 mural.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T09125 T09126 T09127 T09128 T09129 T09130
Society of United Irishmen was formed at the Crown Tavern in 1791, with founder members including Thomas Russell, William Drennan, Samuel Neilson (also host to Olaudah Equiano), Henry Joy McCracken, and Wolfe Tone. The building – now called Crown House – is visible upon entering Crown Entry from High Street. These painted windows are on the side of the building, as one proceeds towards Ann Street.
The first pair are by JMK, the second pair by Wee Nuls (ig), painted in 2020, at which time FGB also painted pair that have now faded.
Crown Entry, Belfast. See also the Visual History page on The Belfast Entries.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T09071 T09070 T09072 T09073
“I ❤️ Belfast”, “Love conquers all”, “Stop war”. These are works by London pair Nathan Bowen (ig | web store) and ThisIsLostBoy (ig), in Bruce Street and High Street.
See previously in Castle Street: Pledge For Positivity which contains links to more Bowen pieces.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T09020 T09021 T09064
At its peak, the Harland & Wolff shipyard employed 35,000 people (IndustriAll) and the flat-capped worker became a symbol of east Belfast, along – much later – with Samson and Goliath, the two gantry cranes at the shipyard that were raised in 1974 and 1969 (WP) and which have become the symbol of Belfast.
The title of this entry is the first line of Martin Mooney’s poem ‘Launching The Whaler Juan Peron‘.
The silhouetted workers and cranes are on a mobile office in Fraser Pass, Newtownards Road, Belfast, at the end of the Pitt Stop next to the Belfast Bikes racks.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08796
St James’s Swifts (web) are a west Belfast club playing intermediate level soccer with Donegal Celtic Park on the Suffolk Road as a home ground.
The three pieces shown here are in St James’s Crescent, at the Park Centre on Donegall Road, and St James’s Road. The mural in progress (shown last) is in St Katherine’s Road
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08444 T08443
T08621 T08622
T08792 [T08793]
T07262
“Welcome to Craigyhill, home of the world’s biggest bonfire.”
The board in the image below was mounted circa 2019 (replacing the controversial Craigyhill Provost Team board that showed a hooded gunman with a pistol). The community was already claiming that its annual bonfire was “Northern Ireland’s biggest”.
But the claim was expanded to the entire world with 2022’s bonfire, which was measured at 202.3 feet (see March 2023’s Welcome To Craigyhill). The builders took a break with the (July) 2023 bonfire but the 2024 pyre (not “2023”, as in the image above) was measured at 205 feet, 2.69 inches (Belfast Live).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08763 T08765 [T08764]
This is a representation of the 1941 Belfast Blitz, providing a graphic companion to the large board in Enfield Street, which contains information and images, and a list of 79 people from the Woodvale who died in the blitz. (There is also a plaque on the side of the Woodvale Community Centre.) There were three separate nights of bombing: April 7th/8th, April 15th/16th, and May 4th/5th and half of the buildings in Belfast were destroyed or damaged (WP); it is not clear what particular buildings are being depicted here.
On the left, spotlights and anti-aircraft guns attempt to take down the planes dropping bombs. (For information about the anti-aircraft guns in Belfast, see York Road Civil Defence Hall.)
Painted by DanK (web) in Glenvale Street, Woodvale, west Belfast, during the same trip in which he painted a D-Day mural in Carrickfergus.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08721
T08722
T08816 [T08815]
T08720 [T08723] [T08817]
T08724
T08719 T08814
Paddy Duffy Collection 