Paddy Duffy Collection

Welcome To Craigyhill

2023-03-192024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Bullets versus bonfires in Craigyhill, Larne: the hooded gunman shown above is next to the boards shown in The Loyalist Executioner in Glenfarne Place, Craigyhill (Larne). Both it and the second image (from the top of Cairngorm Drive) have been added since July, 2022. The image of a pair of assault rifles, is in Fanad Drive. The final image is of the board that (in 2019?) replaced the controversial Craigyhill Provost Team board that showed a hooded gunman with a pistol.

For the claim to be the “world’s tallest bonfire”, see Commonwealth Handling Equipment.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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X10544 [X10545] [X10546] courtesy of Extramural Activity

Atlantic Treasures

2023-03-172024-11-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Spanish galleass La Girona, one of the 130 ships that made up the armada that was unsuccessful against the English in 1588, docked at Killybegs, County Donegal, for repairs to her rudder (WP). When she departed, she got only as far as Lacada Point near Ballintoy, County Antrim, before sinking in a gale with the loss of roughly 1,300 lives and a substantial treasure that was recovered (in part) by Sorley Boy McDonell (portrayed in a Ballycastle mural) and (in part) by modern divers in 1968 (BBC).

Donegal Road, Killybegs, with a bonus image of the docks from the fish shop in Conlin Road.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Stoneyford Somme Association

2023-03-142026-01-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Boards have been added to the WWI memorial plaque in Stoneyford. On the right, the 36th Division go over the top in Beadle’s ‘Attack Of The Ulster Division’ (see Over The Top); the board on left more specifically commemorates the 2nd battalion of the South Antrim Ulster Volunteers, flanked by the leaders of the anti-Home Rule movement – Carson, Craig, Crawford, and Bonar Law.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Sources:
Image from North Antrim Horse of Viscount Masserene and other leaders of the Ulster Volunteers at Antrim Castle

Image from Balmoral Perspective of the gun-running at Donaghadee

Image from the South Antrim Unionist Heritage facebook page

Andrew Mason

2023-03-122025-02-05Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

19-year-old Andrew “Macey” Mason was wearing his Hillhall band uniform and a UDA badge while en route to visit his girlfriend on April 19th, 1987, when he was set upon by two men near Carnlough on the Antrim coast. The gruesome details of the beatings and stabbings that followed are given in Lost Lives (#2827).

This is the second (see previously 2010 – M05938) memorial board to Mason in Hillhall. The memorial plaque (below) is a new version of the older plaque to John McMichael, Raymond Smallwood[s], Jim Guiney, and Mason.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02320 T02321 T02319 Hillhall Gardens “Sons of Ulster do not be anxious for we will never forget you as long as the sun shines and the wind blows and the rain falls and the rivers of Ulster flow to the sea. Always remembered by volunteers from Hillhall C Company.”

John McMichael

2023-03-122025-12-04Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The South Belfast UDA/UFF commander John McMichael (1948-1987) was killed by an IRA car bomb. In addition to organising a team of assassins in the 70s and 80s, he founded a Political Research Group and wrote two documents proposing an independent Northern Ireland, 1979’s Beyond the Religious Divide and 1987’s Common Sense (available at CAIN), promoting the philosophy of ‘Ulster nationalism’. The quote on the board comes from the end of the Introduction to Common Sense:

“There is no section of this divided Ulster community which is totally innocent or indeed totally guilty, totally right or totally wrong. We all share the responsibility for creating the situation, either by deed or by acquiescence. Therefore we must share the responsibility for finding a settlement and then share the responsibility of maintaining good government.”

Above: “Old Warren A Coy/B Coy”. Right: “One man, one love, one country. Commonsense. In loving memory. Quis separabit.” around a portrait of McMichael. Left: “Common sense” with an Ulster Banner Northern Ireland.

Drumbeg Drive, Lisburn

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Countryside And Seaside

2023-03-122024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Priory Park tunnel goes links Priory park with Seapark Bay in Holywood by going under the A2. On the one side are images from the countryside (with a few lines from Frost’s ‘Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening‘) and on the other are images from the seashore. “The creation of these works has been supported by NIHE and the Holywood Residents Assoc.” “urbanartsni.com” is a dead link.

We Built This

2023-03-122024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a gallery of completed pieces produced for International Women’s Day 2023 in College Court. The new street art is part of a larger revitalisation project (Belfast City Council).

The works shown are (from Castle Street to College Street) by Claire Prouvost, Holly Pereira, Katriona, Kerri Hanna, Danni Simpson, Alana McDowell, ESTR; Laura Nelson, Novice Jess, Friz, (guest artist Hicks who was in town to repair and extend his piece in College Street Mews (see Cool) – it was damaged by a dumpster fire) and, on the other side of the street, HM Constance.

For in-progress shots, see Women’s Work.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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T02287 [T02286] T02288 T02289 T02290 T02291 T02539 Department For Communities, Future City Centre Programme, A Bolder Vision for Belfast