cultural – Page 4 – Paddy Duffy Collection

Seasaımıd Le Lıam Óg

2025-08-232025-09-05Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“We stand with Lıam Óg”, that is Lıam Óg Ó hAnnaıdh (on the left of the image above), a.k.a. Mo Chara, a member of the rap group Kneecap who appeared in court (in London) on Wednesday August 20th on “terrorism” charges and was bailed for a further month while the judge rules on a technical issue about whether the trial can go forward (BBC). (See previously The Magic Within and Seasaımıd Le Kneecap.)

The night before (the 19th) this board featuring images of the band-members and the band in its early days was unveiled on the Whiterock Road. (Video of the launch can be found on the Glór Na Móna instagram account.)

In the background is a Palestinian flag and “Saoırse don Phalaıstín” [Freedom for Palestine] is written along the bottom.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Great And Durable

2025-08-172025-10-17Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Sergeant Lindsay Mooney Memorial Flute Band was formed in 1973 after the St. Patrick’s day death of Lindsay Mooney, a UDA member killed by the premature explosion of a bomb near Lifford, County Donegal (Sutton). The band was not in operation between 1993 and 2013 (NI World) but re-formed some time around 2021. This new piece replaces the faded board seen in 2023’s In A Foreign Land.

“‘Nothing great and durable can be created without the presence of an elite’ – SLMMFB” with a list of battalions from the Londonderry And North Antrim brigade of the UDA: Londonderry, Coleraine, Ballymoney, Ballymena, Bushmills, and “South Londonderry & East Tyrone”.

The quotation (“Nothing great and durable …”) seems to be a UDA creation; it has been used in other UDA murals in east Belfast (T00245) and Larne (J1611/J2039).

The faded mural on the wall in front is called I’m A Local Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Local Inspiration

2025-08-172025-08-17Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The emblem in the top left of this board is the original emblem of the Irish Football Association. The Association was formed in 1880 by seven Belfast clubs but after partition a rival Football Association Of Ireland was formed and the original body eventually represented only Northern Ireland. (WP)

All of the players named and pictured post-date 1950, when the IFA stopped selecting southern players for the IFA’s team. They are … Tommy Jackson, Billy Caskey, Phil Gray, Tom Finney, Norman Whiteside, Danny Griffin, George McCartney, Alf McMichael, Tommy Cassidy, Robbie Garrett, Brodie Spencer, Jordan Owens, Billy Ferguson, George O’Boyle.

“AONISC” (bottom left) is the Amalgamation Of Northern Ireland Supporters’ Clubs (web). There are about 60 clubs in the amalgamation, but seven local clubs are named here: Albert Foundry, Woodvale Loyal, Tavern GAWA, Bootle Street, Wheatfield, 1st Shankill, Ligoniel.

In Battenberg Street on the side of the Stadium Bar and off-sales.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Dove Of The Church

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

St Columba or Colmcılle or Columbcille established 50 or more abbeys and churches throughout Ireland in the sixth century AD, including one in Derry c. 540, but is most famous for the abbey established on the Scottish island of Iona and for spreading Christianity in Scotland.

This new art shows Columba in a leather-covered wicker currach sailing – with two of his twelve companions – to Scotland c. 563. The piece reproduces a commemorative stamp released in 1997 as one of four in a set of UK stamps designed by Clare Melinsky (web) called “Missions Of Faith”, two showing St Columba and two St Augustine (Collect GB Stamps).

The dove in the illustration is completely white – typically a Barbary pigeon or a rock dove bred for albinism – while a “colm cılle” is a wood pigeon.

Above: “Naoṁ Colmcılle – grá, sıoċáın [síoċáın], aontacht.”
On the side-wall: “Naoṁ Colmcılle – Saint Columba
Naoṁṗatrún Ḋoıre – Patron saint of Derry
Rugad [Rugaḋ] ı nGartán ı nDún Na nGall – Born in Gartan, Donegal 521
D’eag [D’éag] ın Albaın – Died in Scotland 597.
Grace will lead me home.”

By Peaball (web) in Columbcille Court, Derry

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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The People’s Band

2025-08-152025-08-18Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Shankill Protestant Boys [Fb] “The People’s Band” 45th anniversary, 1980-2025.” The band held a parade on August 1st to commemorate the anniversary, with nearly forty other bands attending (Fb).

For “USSF”, see the Peter Moloney Collection. The band’s club is in Bell Close – see SPB Way.

Shankill Road, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Maıreann An Grá Go Deo

2025-08-142025-08-15Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This mural celebrates the Irish-language institutions in west Belfast. From left to right, the buildings by the loch are: Gaeltacht Bhóthar Seoıghe, Bunscoıl Phobal Feırste, Raıdıó Fáılte, An Chultúrlann, Teach Ard Na bhFeá, Coláıste Feırste, and Áras Na bhFál. In a sense they are all ripples from the initial drop that was the Shaw’s Road Gaeltacht, established in 1969 and which led quickly to the bunscoıl in 1971 (WP). The NVTv documentary about the Shaw’s Road gaeltacht borrows its title from the slogan motivating the early efforts, “Ná habaır é, déan é” [Don’t say it, do it] – the bunscoıl was not officially recognised until 1985.

Among the pioneers (“ceannródaıthe”) of those early ventures were the Mac Seáın family, who grew up in a house adjacent to the wall on which the new mural is painted: “Tógadh Séamus Mac Seáın, Seán Mac Seáın, agus Caıtlín Mıstéıl (née Mhıc Sheáın) sa teach seo. Bhí an trıúr seo ı measc na gceannródaıthe a bhunaıgh Gaeltacht Bhóthar Seoıghe.”

The mural was commissioned by Spórtlann Na hÉıreann’s Irish-language heritage project “Gael Staır” (Meon Eıle | Belfast Media), with support from Mary’s Gift (Belfast Media), and painted by Aodán Ó Manacháın (Fb). It was unveiled Sunday 10th.

Rodney Drive, St James’s, west Belfast

In-progress image from July 27th:

Paste No Paste-Ups

2025-08-042025-09-25Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Above and immediately below are two new paste-ups by Leo Boyd which attempt – by example and by reverse-psychology – to turn the hoarding around the War Memorial building in Waring Street into a paste-up gallery (similar to the new “legal wall” for graffiti and street-art in Little Patrick Street – see First!).

The third image is of a Boyd paste-up already on the wall, mixing the police land-rover (see Off The Edge for an index) with the cat looming over city hall (see Belfast Kitty Hall). The final stencil is by French artist MDLF (ig).

Ballyclare Remembers

2025-07-232025-08-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Modern UVF volunteers in balaclavas stand with heads bowed on either side of the Ulster Tower in Thiepval, standing among orange lilies and red poppies.

On the left the 10th Scottish Rifles (AWM) commence a raid, below the emblem of the Ulster Volunteer Force, and on the right, the Royal Fusiliers appear to march off to war in a press photograph (Flickr), below the emblem of the 36th (Ulster) Division.

In Grange Drive, Ballyclare, on the same as wall, and using part of the frame from, a previous UDA board: Young Guns.

VE Day 80

2025-07-232025-08-11Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The memorial wall in Erskine Park, Ballyclare, marked the 80th anniversary of VE Day – May 8th, 2025 – with a pair of printed boards wrapping around the corner of the low wall.

For views of the gable and the low wall with armed-forces emblems and plaques to Girvan and Erskine, see The Men From Ballyclare.