Pat Finucane

“Targeted by British Establishment; Executed by Loyalist killer gang.” Solicitor and “human rights activist” Pat Finucane was shot in 1989 at his home in north Belfast by loyalist paramilitaries aided by MI5. Collusion in the killing was admitted in 2011 by then-Prime Minister David Cameron. Ten years after Finucane’s death, Rosemary Nelson was also assassinated. “If you don’t defend human rights lawyers, who will defend human rights? – Rosemary Nelson”. 

According to the nearby plaque, the board was “unveiled by his family Sunday 11th February 2007”.

The board in Beechmount Drive was originally black.

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Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
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Live Free!

“Never will they label our struggle as criminal – Bobby Sands.” [March 6th Diary]

Joe Cahill joined Na Fıanna in 1937 and was involved in the republican movement from then until his death in 2004, including being in Tom Williams’s company in 1942 and later a founder member and Chief of Staff of the Provisional IRA. In the centre of the image he is at the end of the table at the August 13, 1971, press conference to comment on the introduction of internment (CAIN). He is honoured in the mural above alongside his brothers Tom and Frank Cahill. (Pat O’Hare is painted between Tom and Frank.)

In the top left are small boards with portraits of Ned Maguire Snr, Ned Maguire Jnr, Sam Holden, Dal Delaney, Rita McParland, Paddy Meenan, Paddy Corrigan, Sean Wallace, John Petticrew, Alex Crowe.

For a close-up of the plaque, see the Peter Moloney Collection.

Beechview Park, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
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Bryson – Mulvenna

“In memory of [IRA] volunteers Jim Bryson and Patrick Mulvenna. Died on active service 1973.” The pair were killed by undercover British Army soldiers firing from above the Ballymurphy shops (Broken Elbow). Mulvenna died immediately (August 30th), Bryson three days later.

This is a repainted version of a 2001 mural, the first of the works in the Ballymurphy Mural Project. This appears to be in-progress: a black border and a central plaque were added later.

Ballymurphy Road, Belfast

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Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
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Cumann Na mBan

Volunteers in Cumann Na mBan (or youth wing Cumann Na gCaılíní) from Ballymurphy and Springhill are remembered in a mural in Ballymurphy Road, Belfast. Anti-clockwise, they are Maura Meehan, Anne Marie Pettigrew, Dorothy Maguire, Eileen Mackin, Catherine (Cathy) McGartland, Anne Parker. All but Mackin are included in the Greater Ballymurphy plaque.

This is the third mural painted as part of the Ballymurphy Mural Project.

The figure on the right comes from a poster for International Women’s Day, 1982, (CAIN). It includes the words, “This is not a man’s war but a people’s war, and very, very much suffering has been borne by the women, be they mothers, wives, political activists or Volunteers, and the men ought to remember that without the sacrifice of women there would be no struggle at all.”

Ballymurphy Road, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
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The Rioter (The Saturday Matinee)

This mural is popularly known as ‘Saturday Matinee’ because young people in Derry would spend Saturdays (and many other days) rioting against the British Army, which had been deployed in August 1969 after the Battle Of The Bogside. The official title is The Rioter and it is the eighth mural from the Bogside Artists in The People’s Gallery. The original photograph on which the mural is based is by Clive Limpkin.

Glenfada Park, Bogside, Derry

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Copyright © 2007 Paddy Duffy
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Operation Motorman

22,000 British soldiers were involved in retaking the “no-go” areas of Derry and Belfast in Operation Motorman, in July 1972. This is the seventh mural from the Bogside Artists in what would become The People’s Gallery.

The plaque on the left is “dedicated to the memory of Patrick Shiels Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann 1878-1957. Erected by the republican movement 11th April 2007 to mark his 50th anniversary. I measc laochra na nGael go raıbh sé”. Paddy Shiels took part in the Easter Rising and was later Derry OC. See BMH testimony #676 by Liam Brady.

Rossville St, Derry

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Copyright © 2007 Paddy Duffy
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The Runner

‘The Runner’ is the final mural painted by the Bogside Artists in the series that would in 2007 be collectively given the name The People’s Gallery (the John Hume mural would be added in 2008). The mural shows youths running from CS gas in Creggan. There are portraits of Manus Deery (see his Bogside plaques) and (obscured) Charles Love in the bottom left; the plaque to Love in the centre is retained.

Fahan Street, Bogside, Derry

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Copyright © 2007 Paddy Duffy
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The Death Of Innocence

The mural to the first child killed in the Troubles, Annette McGavigan, entitled The Death Of Innocence, was repainted by the Bogside Artists in 2006. On account of the success of the peace process and IRA decommissioning of weapons, the rifle on the left is broken.

See also the Visual History page on The People’s Gallery.

Lecky Road, Derry

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Copyright © 2007 Paddy Duffy
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