graffiti/writing – Page 2 – Paddy Duffy Collection

Line Work

2024-09-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

As part of Tunnel Vision paint-jam that added street art along the sides of the underpass at York Street station, a poem by Niamh McNally (ig) – Line Work – was added to the ceiling.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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In that golden hour, when timed-/Light is softened through glass/Piles of railway sleepers rest above/Sailortown’s underpass. A beacon blinks/As ghost seamen spot the shine of docklands./Indigo shadows shape form and shade pages/That are pressed in heritage of place./The last train breaks – halting about us./Our echoes dance then reverberate,/Deep within the underpass, deep within/The heart of north Belfast./Magic whispers to mystics in this piece./Artist voices converse from marginalia./Brushed, spraying, and dipping York Street …

A Bigger Picture

2024-09-012025-01-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“‘Creativity, like society, thrives when the individual elements fit within a bigger picture’ – Ernest Hemingway”

There’s no record of this statement being written or uttered by Hemingway. Instead, it appears to come from Will Gompertz’s 2015 book Think Like An Artist (wikiquote gives “Creativity, like society, thrives when the individual elements fit within, and add to, a bigger picture.”).

Hope Street, Belfast city centre, on the side of the Ginger Bisto on Great Victoria Street.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Stop The Boats

2024-08-182024-10-06Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

There has been a small but significant addition has been added below the repainted territorial marking “Loyalist Tiger’s Bay” – “Stop the boats”, the pledge given by Rishi Sunak in January 2023 after almost forty-six thousand people entered the UK in small boats in 2022 (BBC). This resulted in a media campaign in March of 2023 (gov.uk). The slogan was also seen on signs during the anti-immigration riots this (2024) summer (Mirror | Telegraph | NPR | Reuters) and heard chanted by rioters (SMH).

“Stop the boats” was for a time paired with “start the flights”. Since 2022, the Conservative government under Boris Johnson had planned to “start the flights” of some asylum seekers to Rwanda, but this required a protracted legal and legislative campaign involving a bill declaring the “Safety Of Rwanda” (January 2024) after a Supreme Court block on the programme (Human Rights Watch | BBC Explainer).

Sunak called a snap general election in late May, 2024; Labour took power and the Rwanda programme was scrapped (CBS). Sunak called a snap general election in late May, 2024; Labour took power and the Rwanda programme was scrapped (CBS). The language of stopping the boats, however, remains on the Labour website.

In the background of the wide shot, below, the main gable wall, it appears, is being painted to honour King Charles III in the same style as inside the estate – see I Will Plant Them.

For the meaning of the pre-existing “Genesis 38:28”, see Pro-Testant Reformation. It might be applied to the context of immigration in that it concerns the order of succession among twins.

Limestone Road, north Belfast

Update 2024-09-12: the words have been ?partially? whitewashed

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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The “Crisis” Is Capitalism

2024-08-042024-11-09Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a gallery of boards and flyers from on and around the green-spaces adjacent to Free Derry Corner.

“The “crisis” is capitalism – this is a war on the working class. Don’t fall for their lies. Fight back, join RSYM [Fb]”

“Evict greedy landlords, not struggling families. Rates of housing benefit for private renters in Derry and Strabane … landlords should not be charging working class families more than these rates. Don’t let them rob you! Drop The Rents North West [Fb]” (on top of Cosaın Ár Neodracht)

“Remember our hunger strike martyrs – IRSP [web]”, “Stand up! Fight back! Join Éıstıgí [web]”, “Sovereignty, not Stormont www.32csm.org“, “Remember the ten” [hunger strikers]

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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The River Whose Name The city Stole

2024-05-312026-02-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Where sugar, butter, sides of salted pork, barrels/of herring & other pickled fish are lugged/over the river whose name the city stole.”

This is another “Cathedral Quarter/Smithfield & Union” “walking poem” by Graffic Belfast (ig), in Warehouse Lane. (See also: Hello, Hello, Hello.) The river in question is the Farset – see The Farset Voice. The verse seems to be original.

Warehouse Lane, above the four paintings of the United Irishmen.

See the Visual History page for the Belfast Entries.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Cupar Way 2024

2024-05-282026-04-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a selection of art from the Cupar Way section of the west Belfast “peace” line. Some of the artists came into town for Hit The North 2024 (Lidia Cao, Lours, Elno). We also see work by DEUX, SNAK, NOYS, BAISE?, NOTA, Keyto, and Kilian (Road Rage Ruth).

Hitting The Wall

2024-05-112024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Belfast marathon (web) took place on May 5th (the same day as Hit The North) and as the runners completed their twentieth mile at the Waterworks on the Antrim Road they might have seen the mile marker shown above, which hopefully inspired them to power through ‘the wall’ they typically hit around 18-20 miles/3.5 hours of running (Marathon Handbook).

Also along the route, in North Queen St, and with a suitable theme, is the Sınn Féın placard shown below: “Let’s not run from the conversation” about a united. Ireland.