printed board/placard – Page 19 – Paddy Duffy Collection

Dead, Dissected, And Buried

2024-08-132024-08-26Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

These are the UDA boards on Avenue Road, near Lurgan Park, which proved controversial when they were erected (in 2016), mainly because the second piece (below) “celebrat[es] 30 years of South Belfast/Lurgan 1 company D battalion” UDA and shows Troubles-era shows-of-strength (News Letter) and because it turned out the wall was owned by the Housing Executive (NIWorld).

The piece above describes the creation of the UDU in 1893, as a response to the second Home Rule bill, which was passed by the Commons but rejected in the Lords, and which Edward Saunderson celebrated by saying, “Home Rule is dead. It was dissected in the House of Commons, buried in the House of Lords, and even the Irish people would not trouble to give it a wake”. The UDU is as used an origin-story for the UDA, though often in vague terms, such as the verbiage here which reads “[the UDU] would become the birth stone of the Ulster Defence Association, as we looked to the patriotism of our forefathers to defend our communities”. (For more, see UDU-UFF-UDA. For Saunderson, see Union Is Strength.)

This year (2024), UVF lettering a stone’s throw away, on the other side of the entrance to the park, likewise drew criticism (BelTel | ArmaghI), but it has now been removed.

Avenue Road, Lurgan.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
T05406 T05405 T05407 T05408 John McMichael Andy Tyrie

Lurgan Town Was Rocked By Sorrow

2024-08-132024-11-06Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Lurgan town was rocked with sorrow/On that bleak November day/Hushed tones and tears were mingled/When great numbers stopped to pray.” These lines come from ‘The Lurgan Ambush’, a poem by Ita Green [set to music at Irish Folk Songs], paying tribute to IRA volunteers Sean Burns, Eugene Toman, and Gervaise McKerr, who died together on the night of November 11th, 1982, when the car in which the three were travelling was hit by 109 bullets from officers at an RUC check-point.

The ECHR ‘asmissibility’ report gives a full account of the incident and the subsequent investigations into it, including the Stalker enquiry into ‘shoot-to-kill’.

We Exist! We Resist! We Rise!

2024-08-122024-08-14Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Solidarity”, “تكافل” (in Arabic) between (Irish) republican prisoners and Palestinians in Israeli jails. Al Jazeera reports that roughly, 9,500 Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank are currently being held, and about 3,600 without charge, under “administrative detention”. Springfield Park, west Belfast.

Below: “Support republican political prisoners” in “Maghaberry – Portlaoise – Hydebank”. IRPWA (web) board in Ardoyne Avenue, north Belfast. See also: the same message on Divis Street, west Belfast.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
T05291 [T05292] T05387

Honour And Respect His Last Request

2024-08-062025-05-13Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Honour and respect his last request. Bring him home. Roger Casement, executed 3rd August 1916 9.00AM Pentonville Prison, London. Roger Casement Commemoration & Re-Interment Association.”

Casement’s preferred resting-place was Murlough Bay, as explained in the original entry for the painting on the other side of the gates showing Casement in front of Murlough Bay, included again below but here with a wreath of yellow flowers.

This new (printed) board is on the left-hand side of the gates of the park named in Casement’s honour. Here is the background photo of the GPO at the top of the board; the photograph at the bottom is from NLI (available on Flickr).

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
T05277 [T05360] T05361

A Corner With A Difference!

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

A poem of appreciation for the Bogside Artists and The People’s Gallery, with images of the 12 murals that can currently be seen:

“Known as Aggro Corner,/at the foot of Rossville Street/It was there at the “Battle of the Bogside”/Where people used to meet//All those years of our troubles/You can capture in a day/At the gateway to the Bogside/The people’s gallery on display.//They brought the Bogside back to life/From its darkest days of trouble and strife/Their painted murals on each gable wall/Have become world famous and the fairest of all.//Reflecting memories of our past/Each one a treasure that will last/They give back to the people/What we thought was gone/Thanks to the Bogside Artists/Our memories will live on.”

“An appreciation to the Bogside Artists who have painted our story! Most humble and dedicated, as they continue to strive, without seeking personal glory!”

“Remember the late William Kelly brother of Tom Kelly who passed away January 10th 2017. Trusting in God’s unfailing love RIP William. © Michael Feeney”

Rossville Street at the eastern end of Kells Walk.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
T05166

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
T05263 T05264 T05265 T05266 T05267 T05268 T05270

Our Fenian Dead

2024-08-042024-11-15Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

In this extension to the Shantallow memorial garden for the IRA’s Derry Brigade the seven signatories of the 1916 Proclamation, all of whom were executed following the Rising, are placed alongside nine Derry Brigade volunteers who died between 1972 and 1986.

Numbering the panels from left to right from 1 to 16, the seven are: (1) Pádraıg Pearse, (5) Thomas McDonagh, (7) Thomas Clarke, (9) Joseph Plunkett, (11) Éamonn Ceannt, (13) James Connolly, (15) Sean Mac Dıarmada. And the nine are (2) Junior McDaid d. 1972, (3) Gerard Craig d. 1974, (4) David Russell d. 1974, (6) Michael Meenan d. 1974, (8) Jim Gallagher d. 1976, (10) Dennis Heaney d. 1978, (12) Bronco Bradley d. 1982, (14) Neil McMonagle d. 1983, (16) Tony Gough d. 1986.

Operation Motorman

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

Operation Motorman, the British Army’s retaking of ‘Free Derry’, took place on July 31st, 1972. This is a repainting; for the previous version, see T02079, and for the 2001 original, see M01426.

(Part of The People’s Gallery by the Bogside Artists.)

The plaque is to Patrick Shiels (see M03583).

For the ICA-INLA board, see T04237.

Saoırse Go Deo

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

The 1918 ‘Representation Of The People’ act gave 8.4 million women in the United Kingdom the right to vote (WP). (For the two women on the left holding the ‘Votes For Women’ sign, see Women’s Hall And Cost-Price Restaurant.) In that same year, Countess Constance Markievicz was the first woman elected to Westminster and became Sınn Féın Minister For Labour in the first Dáıl Éıreann that was established as an alternative. Ten years earlier, she had co-founded Na Fıanna Éıreann with Bulmer Hobson. The names of Derry fianna are listed on the right. “Fuaır sıad bás ar son saoırse na hÉıreann.” (This board replaces the former Fianna mural that celebrated the centenary in 2009.)

To the left (above) is a “Join RSYM” stencil with the names of the ten deceased 1981 hunger strikers; to the right is a picture of the memorial across the street to the dead of the 3rd battalion of the Doıre Brigade Óglaıgh na hÉıreann.

“But while Ireland is not free I remain a rebel, unconverted and unconvertible. There is no word strong enough for it. I am pledged as a rebel to the one thing – a free and independent republic.”

“Ach a fhad is nach bhfuıl Éıre saor, seasfaıdh mé an fód mar cheannaırceach, gan géılleadh, gan athrú. Níl focal dá bhfuıl atá chumhachtach go leor. Tá gealltanas tugtha agam mar cheannaırceach, cuspóır amháın a chur ı gcrích – poblacht shaor agus neamhspleach.”