painted wall – Page 120 – Paddy Duffy Collection

The Final Salute

1981-10-012025-07-19Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The first names of the ten deceased 1981 hunger-strikers — Bobby, Francis, Patsy, Raymond, Joe, Martin, Kiersn, Tom, Micky, Kevin — appear on a ribbon held by a tricoloured phoenix against a sunburst, flanked by Starry Plough and Tricolour and volunteers firing a final salute.

The ribbon was initially shorter, with the names of the first six to die – see the Peter Moloney Collection.

Painted by Con in Rockdale Street, west Belfast.

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Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
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Break Thatcher’s Back

1981-10-012025-07-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A Long Kesh/H-Block blanketman is on his knees, protesting for (political) “status now”, surrounded by barbed wire and two flags on halberds: the Irish Tricolour and the Starry Plough.

The quote on the left (in the wide-shot, below) is from Sean O’Casey, not “Bobby Sands MP”: “You cannot put a rope around the neck of an idea; you cannot put an idea up against the barrack-square wall and riddle it with bullets; you cannot confine it in the strongest prison cell that your slaves could ever build.”

(The quote is reportedly from O’Casey’s prose lament for Thomas Ashe, either the initial pamphlet in November 1917 (?entitled “The Story Of Thomas Ashe”?) or the expanded version of 1918 (entitled “The Sacrifice Of Thomas Ashe” (auction site)), though no copy of this can be found on-line, only two poems ‘Thomas Ashe’ and ‘Lament For Thomas Ashe’ (eastwallforall).

Rockmore Road, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
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Blessed Are Those Who Hunger For Justice

1981-10-012025-07-18Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A hunger-striker lies in bed praying with rosary beads and bathed in beams of light coming from the hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

(Painted by Con, who describes the mural as an attempt to break through with nationalists (as distinct from republicans); though one source says “by a Ballymurphy man, named something like Tim Skillen/Skelly”.)

Rockmount Street, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
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The Shape Of Things To Come

1981-10-012025-07-17Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is the second version of this mural, both from 1981. In the original – which can be seen in the Homer Sykes collection – the main panel was a large white rectangle with three volunteers with assault rifles and an RPG (and the signature in the bottom left, reading “Done by Beechmount youth against H Block”).

This version removes the gunmen and uses more of the main panel, describing “the shape of things to come” in a series of images showing of people rallying to the Irish tricolour, attacking a British soldier who falls among rubble. In the gable, the sunburst and Tricolour, with automatic rifle, remain. The words to the left read “I lie at night and try to think why / our lads in jail are prepared to die. // The British government sit back and laugh / but the people know that they are daft. // Four of our comrades have passed away / is there call for more to die[?] // O, British government use your sights / and give our lads their 5 just rights.”

Oakman St, Beechmount, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
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The Lark And The Freedom Fighter

1981-10-012025-07-17Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“The right honourable Bobby Sands Esq MP – Murdered by his fellow members of H.M. Govt”, “I have the spirit of freedom that cannot be quenched by even the most horrendous treatment. Of course I can be murdered, but while I remain alive, I remain what I am, a political prisoner of war, and no one can change that.” (From The Lark And The Freedom Fighter.) Barbed wire stretches over an Irish tricolour next to an image of Sands.

Shaws Road, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
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The Training Ground

1981-10-012025-07-18Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Jeff Perks’s 1979 linotype “The Training Ground” was reproduced on Beechmount Avenue in 1981. It depicts the history of the British Army in Ireland. Rolston (“Politics, Painting and Popular Culture: the Political Wall Murals of Northern Ireland”, Media, Culture and Society 9.1, 1987) claims (p. 19) that the image would have been familiar to nationalists from the cover of “Ireland: Voices For Withdrawal” (shown below). The baton-wielding policeman on the right was also reproduced in a famous 1996 Derry mural (“68-96 Nothing Has Changed” M01279).

Missing on the far left are four Cromwellian soldiers (see M00123); on the right, the arrested are loaded onto The Conveyor Belt.

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Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
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Struggle For Freedom

1981-10-012025-07-17Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This two-part mural in Forest Street features (left) Sunburst and Starry Plough flags on pikes, on either side of two volunteers who are watching the sun rise/set and (right) “Struggle for freedom” below an outline of the island against the green-white-and-gold stripes of the tricolour.

Forest St, west Belfast. For images from 1985, see the Peter Moloney Collection.

Smash The British Devil’s Rule

1981-07-012025-07-16Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Imagery of the devil was an occasional theme in 1980s muraling, perhaps because of the popularity of the English soccer club, Manchester United, who were known as the “red devils” and who re-introduced (Fabrik Brands) the red devil on its badge in 1973 (Sporting News). The team was popular with both CNR and PUL communities. The red devil was used by the UVF in Rathcoole in the late 70s (see D00375 and DS1 plate 38) and perhaps influenced this mural in CNR Springfield Road.

As far as we know, this is the only image of this mural (available on-line, at least).

Iris Drive, west Belfast

Maggie Thatcher Think Again

1981-07-012025-07-17Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“The people arose in ’69, they will do it again at any time”, “Maggie Thatcher think again, don’t let our brave men die in vain.” “Done by Beechmount youth against H Block & Armagh.”

The two tones of black suggest that the mural was painted using household paints contributed by local residents.

The Clowney Street phoenix is the oldest continually-existing mural in Belfast. This photo of it is from July, 1981, at the height of the (1981) hunger strike.