plaque – Page 9 – Paddy Duffy Collection

UVF Platoon No 4

2008-01-012025-12-03Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“This mural is dedicated to the fallen volunteers of No 4 Pltn A Coy, 1st Belfast Battn, Ulster Volunteer Force who dutifully served this community in the years of conflict. It pays tribute to those who died in active engagement and to the many who passed peacefully from service having fulfilled their duties. Their names and deeds are eternally venerated by their comrades in arms who humbly serve in their honour. They remained staunch to the end against odds uncounted, they fell with their faces to the foe, their name liveth forevermore.“

The plaque reads, “In memory of our fallen comrades No 4 platoon, A coy, 1st battalion, Belfast. Lest we forget”.

Glenwood Street, west Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
T00484

Gibraltar 3

2008-01-012025-11-26Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The IRA’s Sean Savage, Maıréad Farrell, and Dan McCann were “Executed by the British SAS 6th March 1988.”

“Oh! Cold March winds that pierce the dark/You cry in aged tones/For souls of folk you’ve brought to God/But still you bear the moans//Oh! Weeping winds, this lonely night/My mother’s heart is sore/Oh! Lord of all, breathe freedom’s breath/That she may weep no more! – Bobby Sands Weeping Winds“

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

Hawthorn Street, west Belfast, replacing the painted board seen in 2001.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
T00422 [T00423]

Live Free!

2008-01-012025-11-25Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“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

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
T00387

Operation Motorman

2007-01-012025-11-21Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

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

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2007 Paddy Duffy
T00371

Lincoln Court UDA

2000-01-012025-11-14Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“In memory of Ben Redfern, Lindsay Mooney, Cecil McKnight, Gary Lynch, Ray Smallwoods, William Campbell. Lest we forget.” For Redfern and Lynch, see It’s Still Only Thursday; Smallwoods has a WP page; Campbell died in 2002 in a premature pipe-bomb explosion (Guardian).

Lincoln Court, Londonderry

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2000 Paddy Duffy (no date given)
T01195

Mıse Éıre

2000-01-012025-11-06Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The dying Cú Chulaınn and the Blessed Virgin Mary make an odd pairing in this Ligoniel memorial garden to locals who died during the Troubles. Cú Chulaınn is typically used to memorialise paramilitary volunteers (see the Visual History page) but the plaque does not mention volunteers and the statuary suggests prayer rather than a final salute as a fitting form of remembrance.

The plaque in the centre, which was previously at the crux of a Celtic Cross mural, reads “I ndıl chuımhne [in fond memory]. This plaque is dedicated to the memory of all those from Ligoniel who lost their lives as a result of the conflict in our country. A Mhuıre banríon na nGael guıgh orthu [Mary, queen of the Gael, pray for them]”

The other mural in the yard is a greatly re-designed presentation of Éıre, taking up the whole wall, and replacing the Maid Of Erin harp with Érıu, the mythological queen of Ireland/Éıre, as designed by (or at least, in the style of) Richard J King/Rísteard Ó Cíonga. (Also seen in the Short Strand.)

Millview Court, Ligoniel, north Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2000 Paddy Duffy
T00329rc T00787

Out Of The Ashes Of 1798

1999-01-012025-11-05Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“I ndıl chuımhne – this plaque is dedicated to all those from the greater Newington area who lost their lives as a result of the conflict in this country.” Pikemen from the 1798 uprising stand on either side of a phoenix, with portraits above of Wolfe Tone, James Connolly, Henry Joy McCracken, and Mary Ann McCracken.

Newington Avenue, north Belfast

UDA Memorial Garden

1999-01-012025-11-03Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

UDA/UFF volunteers wearing balaclavas kneel, and stand with lowered weapons, “In memory of fallen comrades south Belfast brigade”.

Lemberg Street, south Belfast

Mıse Éıre

1998-01-012025-11-02Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Mıse Éıre” [I Am Ireland]. These two murals were both in the courtyard of Millview Court, off Mountainhill Road in Ligoniel and together present the fighting spirit and the loss entailed by the Irish struggle for freedom.

The plaque at the centre of the Celtic Cross reads “I ndıl chuımhne [in fond memory]. This plaque is dedicated to the memory of all those from Ligoniel who lost their lives as a result of the conflict in our country. A Mhuıre banríon na nGael guıgh orthu [Mary, queen of the Gael, pray for them]”

The second shows a Maid Of Erin harp – symbol of the United Irishmen – on top of a Tricolour attached to a pike, and a banner reading “Bás nó bua” [death or victory].

The Gibraltar Three

1998-01-012025-11-02Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The plaque to the left reads “I ndıl chuımhne – In proud and loving memory of Volunteers Dan McCann, Maıréad Farrell, Sean Savage, Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann who were executed by British Crown forces in Gibraltar 6th March, 1988.” (For a close-up of the plaque, see M04470.) The trio are shown here floating over the rock of Gibraltar, while being honoured by a gunman giving a “final salute” and an ancient Celtic warrior who stand among a circle of standing stones.

Hawthorn Street, west Belfast