community – Page 6 – Paddy Duffy Collection

The Chronicles Of Narnia

2025-05-112025-06-06Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe is by far the most famous of C.S. Lewis’s ‘Chronicles Of Narnia’. It was the first of the seven to be written – in 1950 – but as it is set in 1940, The Magician’s Nephew is often read first, as it is set in 1900 and concerns the creation of Narnia. The others are The Horse And His Boy, Prince Caspian, The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, The Last Battle. Lewis was born in Dundela and raised in Strandtown, in east Belfast (CSLewisInstitute).

Tildarg Street, east Belfast. There are also a long-standing Narnia murals in Pansy Street and in Convention Court.

work-in-progress from April 18th:

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T06837 T06461

Dead On

2025-04-242025-06-18Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Messages on love hearts on the side of The Bon-Bon sweet shop (web) in Newcastle: “Keep ‘er lit”, “What’s the craic?”, “Catch yourself on”, “Buck eejit”, “Wise up”, “‘Ats us nai”, “Aye, dead on”, “Boys-a-dear”, “Sweet shap”, “Ack, hiya love”. “‘Bout ye?”, “Rite, big lad”, “Here’s me ma”.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T06558

The Holywood Arches

2025-04-132025-05-10Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The area around the junction of the Newtownards Road and the Holywood Road in east Belfast is known as the “Holywood Arches”. The name comes from the fact that – up until 1950 – the old Belfast & County Down railway line from Comber (and beyond that from Newtownards or Newcastle) crossed over both streets on top of two large arches, wide enough to allow traffic in both directions and tall enough to accommodate double-decker buses (see e.g. this image on Pinterest).

This mural is on the shutters of the nearby Arches Café (web); the vintage photograph reproduced can be seen in this pdf from Eastside Partnership.

See also: Step Back In Time about a train crash in 1945 at Ballymacarrett station (on the Bangor line) that killed 22.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T06440

Shore Life

2025-04-042025-04-19Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a survey of some street art in Donaghadee, Co Down (along with Donaghadee Harbour).

The owls, puffins, and bee painted on the electrical boxes on the Parade are by Sharon Regan (ig) who also did a series of windows in Bangor.

Grace Neill’s (web) which claims to be the oldest licensed bar in Ireland, dating back to 1611.

“S McC” and the artist(s) of the other pieces in High Street are unknown, as is the artist of the octopus on the front of The Captain’s Table (Fb).

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T06393 T06394 T06395 T06396 T06397 T06398 T06399 T06400 T06401 T06402 T6403
T06053

Ag Croí An Phobaıl

2025-03-142025-03-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Gort Na Móna CLG (Fb) has been “at the heart of the [Turf Lodge] community”, inculcating “muıntearas, mısneach, féınluach, bród [friendship, bravery, self-esteem, pride]” in its young people “ó/since 1974”.

The text and emblem appear here against a montage of photographs over-washed in the club colours of maroon, saffron, and blue.

[A small typographic note: different fonts are used for the Irish on the left and the Irish in the middle; the font in the middle (correctly) lacks tittles/dots on the letter “ı”.]

Springfield Road, at the upper entrance to the estate and across the road from the electrical boxes seen in Lóıste Na Móna.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T06324 [T06325]

The Faeries

2025-02-282025-04-19Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Up the airy mountain/Down the rushy glen/We daren’t go a-hunting,/For fear of little men.//Wee folk, good folk,/Trooping all together,/Green jacket, red cap,/White owl’s feather! – Wm Allingham”

Customs-officer, magazine editor, and poet William Allingham was born in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, in 1824, and his ashes – brought back from London – are interred in St Anne’s church in the town (WP). “The Faeries” (poetry.com) was first published in his 1850 collection Poems (UCC) and remains a staple of children’s and mythological collections.

The art shown here is on The Mall/An Mál in Ballyshannon/Béal Átha Seanaıdh.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T06267 T06268 T06269

The Rainbow Fish

2025-02-092025-04-12Extramural Activity1 Comment

This colourful fish replaces graffiti reading “Don’t Listen 2 SF Traiters” (in the Peter Moloney collection) in Fountain Street, Strabane.

The cause or sponsoring group is unknown – please comment/get in touch if you have any information.

Remember Your Neighbourhood

2025-01-262025-02-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“A scramble for the window seat, steam curls as the whistle blows. Clickety clack train on track.”

The York Road railway station was a few minutes’ walk below Ritchie Street – site of this wall-paintings and decorations (and Pearly’s Place, the adjacent community garden) – until it closed in 1992. The original line was to Ballymena and then Coleraine and London-/Derry, with service to Carrick and Larne added later. It was badly damaged in WWII and its final demise came with the opening of Belfast Central in 1976 (WP). It was replaced with Yorkgate in 1992 which no longer serves as a terminus (WP), but the line still runs along behind the end of the streets along York Road and the Grove area of the Shore Road.

On the long wall to the right is written “Remember your neighbourhood in the late afternoon sun. The district was a different place then. All you owned was a box full of toys and a smile on your face.”

Ritchie Street, north Belfast

Our Community Transformation

2025-01-262025-02-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Ivan Davis was a DUP and then UUP politician who was a Lisburn borough councillor (and mayor 1991-1993) and member of the Assembly for Lagan Valley from 1998 to 2003, before being ousted in favour of the anti-Agreement Jeffrey Donaldson (BBC). He died in 2020 (BelTel). The stone in his memory is in the garden at the top of Old Warren: “In memory of Ivan Davis O.B.E. Freeman of the city of Lisburn, a dedicated honourable public servant who worked tirelessly for the entire community of Lisburn.”

The boards on the wall were seen previously in 2023’s Conflict To Peace – which includes a colour photograph of the old UDA mural – and 2024’s Faith, Blood, Service, Sacrifice.

Avonmore Park, Old Warren, Lisburn