community – Page 4 – Paddy Duffy Collection

RAF Estate

2025-08-212025-09-29Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The streets of the West Winds estate in Newtownards are named after RAF aircraft: Lysander, Beaufort, Shackleton, Valetta, Sunderland, Catalina, Auster, Canberra, Lancaster, Dakota, Hampton, Stirling, Blenheim, Anson, and Halifax. (See 50 Years And Counting for a picture of the aircraft.)

The first units built in the estate, in 1970, were Canberra Gardens and Blenheim Drive, just off the Comber Road.

“English Electric Canberra – bomber, photo-reconnaissance, trainer, interdictor, radio countermeasures, drone & target tug … the world’s first jet bomber … first jet aircraft to make a nonstop transatlantic flight … world altitude record”

“Bristol Blenheim – light bomber, night bomber, aerial reconnaissance, heavy fighter, maritime patrol & trainer … the fastest light/medium bomber in the world”

Also celebrated is flautist James Galway, whose parents lived in the estate for a time, and Greenwell Star (Fb) – “Bridging communities through football”. Club members were involved in painting over the UVF mural on the side of the club’s changing-rooms in March (Fb), in preparation for the new board being mounted in April.

West Winds Development Association and Newtownards Cultural Society with support from the Housing Executive (Newtownards Chronicle)

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Big Ugg

2025-08-172025-10-09Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Jon Clifford’s Tristar FC, Derry, founded 1974”. Jon “Ugg” Clifford died on September 3rd, 2011, while waiting for a lung transplant (BelTel). In 1974 he had founded a youth soccer club – initially for boys – called “Tristrar” (web) in Creggan. The park where they played – Bull Park – was renamed in his honour, a portrait on boards was mounted in 2013 (which has now been replaced by the larger painting shown here), and a memorial championship was begun in 2014 (Derry Daily).

Update: The mural was officially launched on October 9th, 2025 (BBC).

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For Vinny

2025-08-172025-09-15Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is a Creggan tribute to Derry film-maker Vinny Cunningham who died in February (BBC | Derry Journal). Cunningham made documentaries about the city (including “No Go” (youtube)) but the art on this long wall makes reference to his support for, and documentaries about, the Undertones (“Teenage Kicks” – youtube) and Derry City FC (“Passion Play” – youtube)

This is a continuation of Féıle’s ‘Graffiti On The Walls’ initiative

“Féıle [web] x Peaball [web]” with children from Holy Child Primary School, with funding from the Executive Office’s Communities In Transition project.

Central Drive, Creggan, Derry

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Roden Street Through The Years

2025-07-272025-12-12Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Roden Street was divided in two when the Westlink was built along the path of the Blackstaff to join the M1 at Broadway with the Grosvenor Road. (This portion of the Westlink opened in 1981; a Klaus Fröhlich photograph of a blocked-off Roden Street on the CNR side, looking towards Divis, is included at the end of the post.) The vintage mural in the top left of the first board (above) was in Clifford Street and is now on the Grosvenor Road (CNR) side of the motorway. (The mural can be seen in Visual History 01.)

From the second board, the “RSD” (Roden Street Defenders [private Fb]) red hand was in Iverna Street, and the King Billy was in Rockland Street.

In the fourth board, the red fist in the top right (which famously had five fingers and two thumbs) was in Roosevelt Street, which is the location of these boards. Immediately below it is the A Battalion mural at the south (Donegall Road) end of Roden Street.

Copyright 1981 Klaus Fröhlich. Used by permission

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Sammy The Seal

2025-07-202025-08-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Sightings of seals in the Lagan go back to the late 80s (DCTours) and became so much a part of the city’s culture that they (under the singular familiar ‘Sammy the seal’ standing in for multiple individuals and generations) have been celebrated in a set of three sculptures on Donegall Quay near the Big Fish (geograph | Belfast Live). Joining the sculptures is a new piece of street art by HMC (web), painted for Hit The North 2025 on an exterior wall of the Laganside bus centre.

In-progress images … May 3rd:

May 2nd:

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Stages Of Growth

2025-07-092025-08-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The growth-stages of the flax plant, from seedling to flower are illustrated from right to left on four unused shop-fronts along Linenhall Street, Belfast (next to the British Heart Foundation mural).

The official title of the piece, painted by Visual Waste (web) and sponsored by the Linen Quarter BID (web) is “Seeding Success”. After flowering, the plant produces fruit/capsules which contain seeds (WP image).

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Our Special Absent Friends

2025-06-292025-07-04Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

These are images of the scene in the run-up to the Twelfth in Beechfield Court (near “Ulster” Tower Street in east Belfast), including a small memorial to a local man who died in 2022, Bobby Morrow (Funeral Times).

“The time has come to say goodnight, for every road must end, to the ones who care and they are always there, our special absent friends.”

“In loving memory of our dear friend & neighbour Bobby Morrow 11/07/1960 – 30/10/2022. Our Bobby will always be on his bench/Watching us come & go/We may not hear him sing & shout/But his song will forever grow/”One for the Road””

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Digging

2025-06-112025-06-21Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Poet Seamus Heaney grew up in Bellaghy, about seven miles from Maghera where this street-art in the centre of the town (on Walsh’s Hotel) includes lines from his poem ‘Digging’: “Between my finger and my thumb the squat pen rests. I’ll dig with it.”

The main part of the piece depicts local farmer Jamese McCloy, reproducing a picture taken for Tourism NI’s ‘Embrace a Giant Spirit’ campaign (Derry Now).

Painted by Pigment Space (ig) and YellaG (ig) in 2020.

Coleraine Road, Maghera

In Memory Of Ian Ogle

2025-06-082025-06-21Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is (at least) the third different tarp at the entrance to Cluan Place in memory of Ian Ogle, who was killed on the evening of January 27th, 2019. Five people have been found guilty of the murder and officially received their sentences in March; four others have been convicted of lesser charges (BBC | ITv | Belfast Media | Judiciary NI).

The small board “In memory of Ian Ogle” (immediately below) is also a recent addition.

For the previous tarps and background on Ogle’s death, see 2022 (burned), 2022 (unmolested), and 2020.

The Sea Walls

2025-06-032025-06-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is new street art by Friz (web) and KVLR (web) and Rob Hilken (web) in Bank Square, presenting a contemporary take on the Belfast coat of arms – the original can be seen in this City Council page.

Belfast became a city in 1888 and from that time onward the sea-horse on the right – both officially and in the new piece – wears around its neck a “mural crown”, a crown that looks like the walls of a city.

The wolf in the official coat of arms is “gorged and chained”. In the new art, the only sign of the wolf’s chain is the metal zipper slider on its tracksuit.

(An 1892 book (archive.org) claims that the chained wolf, while itself a familiar image in heraldry and civic arms, is borrowed specifically from the Chichester coat of arms in tribute to Arthur Chichester, prosecutor of the Nine Years’ War against the O’Neills in Ulster and subsequently Lord Deputy Of Ireland and developer of the village of Belfast into a town (DIB | WP), but we can find no other source to this effect nor any image of the Chichester arms that includes supporters.)