Local storyteller Hugh Dillon in Castle Street, Ballycastle, by JMK (Jonny McKerr). The original photograph, of Dillon in Leyland Road, Ballycastle, in 1956 and is available at Dúchas.
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Glentaisie Drive – site of this mural by Friz (web) – is named for Glentaisie, the glen – one of the nine Glens Of Antrim, at the foot of which lies Ballycastle – and Glentaisie is named for Taise Taobhgheal (Taise the bright-cheeked), daughter of King Donn of Rathlin island, renowned for her beauty, and who lived in the glen with her husband Congal, who had to kill the Norwegian king Nabghdon to prevent her being carried off (Archaeology Ireland). Or so they say. She also inspired the name “Fair Head” for the local cliffs. Or so they say.
In later years (1565), Sorley Boy MacDonnell was taken prisoner by the O’Neill’s after a battle in Glentaisie (WP).
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Here are two pieces by Mark Christie (ig) for the 2021 revitalisation project in Coleraine town centre (Coast & Glens).
On the left, Kitty Of Coleraine, of the famous song (One Irish Rover), as imagined in a postcard by John Carey.
On the right, Major Quality and Miss Sweetly from the lid of a Quality Street tin. The confectionery collection was itself named after J.M. Barrie’s 1901 play and Coleraine native “Hugh Thompson” [Hugh Thomson] (WP | NVTv) provided the illustrations for a 1913 edition (many can be seen at RBKC); these probably inspired the “soldier and lady” characters for the tins (the leads in the play are called Captain Valentine Brown and Miss Phoebe Throssel), though they were drawn by Harold Oakes (WP); the tins and ads from 1936 can be seen at Metro. The image reproduced here is from the 1950s.
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An imaginary newspaper called the “Ledley Hall Telegraph” includes stories on the 303 (Polish) RAF Squadron (which was stationed in Northern Ireland from 1943 to 1944), “Votes for women” (“the Representation Of The People Act saw the first women receiving the vote in 1918”), and the 16th and 36th Divisions (the mural says they “fought side by side at the Somme” – but the 36th was withdrawn on July 2nd after the Battle Of Albert and the 16th arrived in September and fought in the battles of Guillemont and Ginchy; both were withdrawn to Messines and both would take part in the Battle Of Messines in June 1917).
The “newspaper” is bookended by two painted crosses (for Row On Row), one for Guardsman Connor Lilley, a member of the Gertrude Star flute band, who was serving with the 1st battalion Royal Irish Guards when he was killed in an accident in Canada (Fb), and the other for WWI female munitions workers who, because of their work with TNT, risked yellowing skin both from direct exposure and from liver damage (“toxic jaundice”) (WP).
Also included is “The Kindness Hut”: “Be the reason someone smiles today”, “Kindness is free – please share”, “In a world where you can be anything, be kind”, “Take only what you need! If everyone shares there’s enough to go around”.
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T03135 T03136 T03137 T03138 T03139 T03140 Ledley Hall Good Relations Project Ledley Hall established 1942
This post is an update to last year’s Gaırdín Na hÉıreann which showed various painted electrical boxes in Ballymurphy. To these have been added some boxes in Slıabh Dubh and New Barnsley.
The second Slıabh Dubh image (immediately below) is of Spiderman, to fit with the wall of superheroes that can be seen in the background (seen previously in Red Eye).
(After three from the top of Ballymurphy which were included in last year’s post,) there are five from the New Barnsley side of Springfield Road, including two featuring Newhill Youth/Football Club (Fb) ahead of its 50th anniversary, which will be celebrated in City Hall this Saturday, September 2nd (Fb).
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Here are six images showing the full expanse of the new mural at the entrance to Bawnmore. From left to right we see: a mill, a swan, a train (there used to be a station in Bawnmore), a guitarist, a farmer gathering hay, a hurler, Molly Seaton (who was captain of the Irish women’s soccer squad in a 1927 match played in Bond’s Field, in the Waterside – Derry Journal), Greencastle Rovers (Fb), Bawnmore Community, Wolfe Tone CLG (Fb), elephants from Belfast Zoo (a baby elephant called Shiela stayed in the Whitewell home of its keeper during the WWII Blitz – BelTel), El Barto (Bart Simpson), St Mary’s Star Of The Sea primary school (web), a hand-heart containing the rainbow colours, and superheroes Spiderman, Iron Man, and Wonder Woman. (NIHE)
The new mural is by Visual Waste (ig) and replaces Glen Molloy’s Game Of Thrones/CS Lewis mural from 2018. With funding from the Housing Executive and Clanmil Housing Association.
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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This is Ciaran Gallagher’s (ig) take on McBride’s pub in Cushendun. Around the outside are a verse from Moira O’Neill’s ‘To W.C.S.’ in More Songs Of The Glens Of Antrim (pdf at Google Books): “I dreamt of gentle Ireland beneath the northern light/The waves that broke on Ireland were callin’ me at night/Till back across the salt sea, back against the sun/I took the way the birds know, and woke in Cushendun.”
For the exterior of the pub, surrounded by famous individuals, see Kathryn Bannister’s painting from the Dark Horse pub, Belfast.
Below the painting (and shown below) is Derek Mahon’s poem ‘Everything Is Going To Be All Right’: “How should I not be glad to contemplate/The clouds clearing beyond the dormer window/And a high tide reflected on the ceiling?/There will be dying, there will be dying/But there is no need to go into that./The poems flow from the hand unbidden/And the hidden source is the watchful heart/The sun rises in spite of everything/And the far cities are beautiful and bright/I lie here in a riot of sunlight/Watching the day break and the clouds flying/Everything is going to be all right.”
Main Street, Cushendun
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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On June 12th 1944, ‘Paddy The Pigeon’ flew from Normandy (where the landings begun on the 6th were ongoing – D-Day Story) back to the English coast. In recognition of his exploits, a plaque was mounted in the harbour of his home town of Carnlough on the Antrim coast in 2009.
Update: The plaque was destroyed in June 2024 – you can it in pieces on the ground in this BBC article.
“During World War II, pigeons were used by the forces as message carriers. Paddy was one of thirty pigeons delivered by RAF Hurn to operational units of the First US Army on June 8th, 1944. They were to be used in connection with a secret task, code named “U2″. Paddy was released in Normandy at around 8.15am on June 12th, carrying coded information on the Allied advance. He returned to his loft in Hampshire in just 4 hours and 50 minutes. This was the fastest time recorded by a message-carrying pigeon during the Normandy landings. For his services Paddy was awarded the Dickin Medal on September 1st, 1944. He had previously served at RAF Ballykelly on Air Sea rescue missions. Andrew Hughes JP, of Carnlough, was the proud owner of Paddy. He handed over several of his pigeons to be trained, along with others for service with the Forces. Paddy lived for eleven years, and to date is the only Irish recipient of the Dickin Medal, which is the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross. – Larne & District Historical Society MMIX.”
Also in the harbour is a plaque (shown below) to the sailors who died on the Peridot in November, 1905.
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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The Shankill Area Social History (SASH) (Fb) celebrates the people and events of the Shankill Road with a new mural in Downing Street.
From left to right: girls wrapped in Union Flags watching the parade; boys on pallets; the Shankill Mission; Orange Order parade; the Summer festival in Woodvale Park (The Cabin); the former Belfast Savings Bank, now an undertaker’s; the Winter festival and switching-on of the Christmas tree lights, with Mrs. Claus, the Grinch in Santa costume, and last year’s (2022) celebrity guest Charlie Lawson (youtube); local band Casual Riots (ig). (SASH Fb Gallery)
For a mural of famous Shankill faces and places, see Save The Shankill.
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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The Cuilcagh Boardwalk is a 2.8-mile trail that ends in stairs that climb to the top of Cuilcagh Mountain [Binn Chuilceach, chalky mountain] and the views it offers of the surrounding territory – hence the name “Stairway To Heaven”. The distance from boggy plain to chalky pinnacle is 700m – and eight million years of geological history (Cuilcagh Geopark). Then you walk back the same way (Walk NI).
Work by Friz (ig) in Wickham Place, Enniskillen, at the Belmore motel.
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Paddy Duffy Collection 