painted wall – Page 106 – Paddy Duffy Collection

Persistence Of Belfast Memory

2012-01-242026-08-10Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Time becomes distorted under the influence of Guinness and Salvador Dali and his Persistence of Memory in the entry that leads from Donegall Street to the Duke Of York. (The supports/tripods are from “Sleep”; the horse is from “The Temptation of St. Anthony”) Dali’s original is only 9.5 x 13 inches. This is the centre part of a larger mural; there are also three images of Dali in the windows above the archway. (The Spaniard bar in Skipper Street, one block south of the Duke Of York, also featured Dali on its sign.)

Also in the entry is BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, in both young and old appearances. Peel is famous in Northern Ireland for his love of the song “Teenage Kicks” by Derry group The Undertones (WP). Peel died in 2004 (WP) and a line from the song – “Teenage dreams so hard to beat” – was used in a tribute mural under the M3 on-ramp in east Belfast.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2012 Paddy Duffy
T00766 T00767 T00768 T00769 [T00776]

Fáılte Go Dtí Ard Eoın

2012-01-192026-08-02Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Fáılte Go Dtí Ard Eoın. Ardoyne – a confident, colourful, creative community, and the people who made it so” particularly the local schools, whose insignia are shown on the left: “Thnx 2 all r teachers past and present.”

The previous mural in this spot (M01783) is invoked by the banner across the top: “Everyone has the right to live free from sectarian harassment” and the inclusion of Holy Cross Girls among the schools.

Whitney Houston and Bobby Sands are invoked on the right “We believe the children are the future – value the laughter of our children“.

Estoril Park, Ardoyne, north Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2012 Paddy Duffy
T00760 [T00761]

The New Lodge Six

2012-01-182026-08-02Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Community Inquiry Report: There was a clear breach of Article 2 of the European Convention On Human Rights, the right to life. The jury was deeply moved by the integrity and honesty of the evidence they heard. We have been deeply shocked by the state’s total failure to investigate killings and woundings. The evidence is unequivocal regarding the innocence of the deceased and wounded. There is no evidence whatsoever that they were armed or acted in a manner that could be perceived as a threat to the security services.”

Two of the New Lodge Six (James Sloan, James McCann) were killed by the UDA outside a bar and four (Tony ‘TC’ Campbell, Ambrose Hardy, Brendan Maguire, John Loughran) were among the crowd that gathered, killed by British Army snipers from their positions on top of the flats, using night-vision sights, February 3rd-4th, 1973. Sınn Féın politician Gerry Kelly spoke at the launch.

Donore Court, New Lodge, north Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2012 Paddy Duffy
T00759

The Final Salute

2012-01-162026-08-01Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“30th anniversary of the hunger strike. 5th May 1981. IRA final salute. IRA Vol. Bobby Sands, MP Fermanagh South Tyrone.” Gerry Adams watches on as a funeral volley is fired over Sands’s coffin.

Also new is the plaque naming the wall as “Dorothy Maguire Corner”, after the 19-y-o shot in 1971, a member of Cumann Na mBan.

Painted on the Whiterock Road, west Belfast by Lucas Quigley.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2012 Paddy Duffy
T00758

Ní Thıg Leat Éıre A Chloígh

2012-01-152026-08-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Ní thıg leat Éıre a chloígh, ní thıg leat fonn saoırse mhuıntır na hÉıreann a mhúc[h]adh.” [“You cannot subdue Ireland; you cannot extinguish the desire for the freedom of the Irish people.”]

The mural presents images of Ballymurphy including the mural of McCrudden-O’Rawe–Jordan and memorial garden on Divismore Way (left) and Springhill (right), under the title “Ballymurphy unbowed, unbroken”.

The male figures in the foreground are unnamed but the four in jackets are presumably Stone, McWilliams, McCracken, and Dougal after their mural in Springhill Drive was blanked; the female activists on the left of Sheppard’s Cú Chulaınn are Mary Austin, Kathleen Clarke, Annie McWilliams. “This mural was unveiled by Gerry Adams MP 2nd May 2010” but Adams’s name has been scratched out from the (painted) low wall.

Glenalina Road, Ballymurphy, west Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2012 Paddy Duffy
T00756

Talk Of Us As Though We Were Beside You

2012-01-142026-08-01Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Grieve not nor speak of us with tears but laugh and talk of us as though we were beside you”. Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann, Belfast brigade, 2nd battalion, B company volunteers Kevin Delaney, Patrick Campbell, Michael Clarke, Anne Parker, and Michael Sloan are shown on patrol in Ballymurphy Parade, the street just to the left of this mural. Campbell was 16 when killed by friendly fire; the oldest at time of death was Delaney, at 26.

Also named on the plaque are “republican activists” Esther Valelly, Theresa Campbell, and Maggie Campbell.

Glenalina Road, Ballymurphy, west Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2012 Paddy Duffy
T00757 [T00765]

Imagine

2012-01-132026-08-01Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a gallery of new murals on the International Wall in Divis Street and Northumberland Street – compare to 2010. The ‘Imagine’ piece is between the security gates.

Fáılte Go Dtí West Belfast

2012-01-122026-08-01Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Welcome to west Belfast”. West Belfast is portrayed as a place of music, sport, and dancing, whose landmark buildings and streets are under the watchful eye (and sword) of the goddess Érıu.

The image of the little boy with the “I [heart] Belfast” stickers and a bag of sweets, standing in the waste ground of Divis flats, is a photograph from the early days of Féıle An Phobaıl/West Belfast Festival.

On the Divis Street side, characters in the style of cartoonist Cormac (see e.g. Notes) are “Promoting west Belfast tourism” for “Fáılte Feırste Thıar”, “www.visitwestbelfast.com“. The attractions touted are: “Bop at the August “fleadh”. “Craıc agus ceol” (for Robert Ballagh’s dove coming out of the concrete block, see Féile An Phobail 2008), “The only thing you have here is “choice”. Tar ısteach agus (lıg do scíth)”. “Baın sult as. Tá mé ag éısteacht le Raıdıó Fáilte 107.1 FM”, “For more ideas on things to do, visit Oıfıg Fáılte at An Chultúrlann. There’s really nice food there too! at Caıfe Feırste”, “If it’s history you want go on a cemetery tour “City or Milltown””, “Enjoy a walk on ‘Slıabh Dubh’ (The black … … mountain)”, “Make sure you visit the “Irish republican history museum” at Conway Mill” (with ‘Long Kesh University Of Freedom’ sweater; “Sinn Féin touts” is not a sweater but graffiti.)

The Mass Graves Of Ireland

2012-01-112026-08-01Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

In 1997, the office of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a statement acknowledging that the administration of the time of the Hunger failed to intervene (Guardian | Independent).

The mural above asserts that government’s inaction was not merely a matter of negligence but of will: “With over 1,500,000 deaths “sorry” is not enough. It is time the British government and its war machine to leave Ireland and her people in peace. During the genocide of 1845 to 1852 the British government seized from Ireland’s producers tens of millions of head of livestock, tens of millions of tons of flour, grain, meat, poultry and dairy products, enough food to sustain 18 million people. 200,000 British troops (100,000 at any given time) and 12,000 RIC removed Ireland’s food at gun point. This mural is dedicated to the men, women and children who died of starvation during the Great Hunger. To call this period in Irish history a famine dishonors the pain and untold suffering our ancestors endured. British warships took the food of our land for profit while our people starved. It was genocide. With this truth told may they rest in peace.”

“A Róısín, na bíodh brón ort, fár [fé’r] éırıgh duıt.” Each white cross on the map represents a mass grave. The map is originally from irishholocaust.org.