Paddy Duffy Collection

Ballybeen Remembers Its Fallen

2023-01-112026-10-02Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Ballybeen remembers it’s [sic] fallen – to the memory and sacrifice of the brave young men from East Belfast who gave their lives with countless others at the Somme and other battles during the Great War 1914-18.” The Union flag and the Thiepval memorials serve as a backdrop for images of individual soldier and photographs of soldiers and nurses at work.

“Battle Of the Somme, 1st July 1916, 36th (Ulster) Division. ‘Their name liveth for evermore’ 8th battalion Royal Irish Rifles (East Belfast Volunteers. Albert, Messines, Cambrai, Thiepval, Passchendaele, Ooteghem, Bailleul, Picardy, St Quentin, Ypres, Somme, Courtrai, Kemel Ridge, Aarras, Rossieres, Langemarck.”

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Orange And Green

2023-01-112024-08-30Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A three-piece stone in the same Tullycarnet garden as the war memorial and peace mural. “Orange and green it doesn’t matter, United now, Don’t shatter our dream, Scatter the seeds of peace over our land, So we can travel, Hand in hand across the bridge of hope.” by Sean McLaughlin, a twelve-year-old who was killed in the Omagh bombing of 1998 (WP). The garden was unveiled June 2010 (IFI).

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Tullycarnet Memorial

2023-01-112024-08-30Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is a three-stone memorial to army soldiers from both World Wars in Tullycarnet, featuring a line from the gospel of John (“Greater love has no-one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” 15:13) and a song by Randall Wallace for the 2002 movie We Were Soldiers called ‘The Mansions of the Lord’: To fallen soldiers let us sing, where no rockets fly nor bullets wing, our broken brothers let us bring, to the mansions of the Lord. No more weeping, no more fight, no prayers pleading through the night, just divine embrace, eternal light, in the mansions of the Lord. Where no mothers cry and no children weep, we will stand and guard though the angels sleep, Oh through the ages safely keep, the mansions of the Lord.”

By Ross Wilson with support from the International Fund For Ireland (IFI)

Behind the memorial is a mural reading “Time for peace – invest in kids …… not war!”

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Son Of The Land

2023-01-112024-08-30Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

UFF, UDA, and UYM mural in Tullycarnet: Tullycarnet 5th Battalion, East Belfast Brigade. The mural dates back to 2006 at least. Also included (below) is a large Tullycarnet flute band tarp on the railings.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Ballybeen Remembers

2023-01-112024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Ballybeen remembers Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022” on the back of the “Ballybeen estate” sign at the Davarr Avenue entrance to the estate. Elizabeth died in September 2022, shortly after her platinum/70th jubilee.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Dundonald High

2023-01-112026-10-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Teenagers at Dundonald High “dream, believe, achieve” success on a par with their “Ballybeen sporting hero[e]s”, such as IBO super bantamweight boxer John Lowey and footballers Noel Brotherson (Blackburn Rovers), Glenn “Spike” Ferguson (Glenavon and Linfield), and Chris Walker (Glentoran).

Morven Park, Ballybeen, Dundonald

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James Magennis

2023-01-112026-01-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Victoria Cross recipient James Magennis was the only person from Northern Ireland awarded the VC for action during WWII (WP). Although the mural is in loyalist Tullycarnet, Magennis was a Catholic, born in west Belfast, though he later lived in Castlereagh. He was given a reception in 1945 at Belfast city hall.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Remembered As Of Yesterday

2023-01-112026-08-31Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Tullycarnet flute band (Fb) murals on the hill were repainted for Remembrance Sunday in November 2021 but vandalised shortly thereafter (Belfast Live) with graffiti naming an alleged paedophile which was then whited out. One year on and the mural has not been repaired.

(For the previous murals, see Fighting For The Crown and Absent Friends)

Melfort Drive/Lochinver Drive, Dundonald. The tarp is on the main King’s Road.

Belfast Busker

2023-01-082026-08-31Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Enniskillen singer John Garrity (ig | Fb) is a familiar face in Belfast city centre, often seen busking in Castle Place and Cornmarket. He drew criticism in September 2021 for singing the ballad ‘Grace’ – about the hours-long bride of James Plunkett, executed after the 1916 Rising – while an Orange Order parade passed by. Garrity claims he was already singing the song when the parade happened to come by (Belfast Live). (Here is a rendition from another occasion – youtube.) He then gained a persistent heckler (Irish News). Now he is the subject of a mural by Glen Molloy (ig) in Donegall Street, Belfast, on the wall of the long-ago burned-out North Street Arcade, where Matt Sewell’s Carnival Of The Animals was.

Wildflower Alley

2023-01-082024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Handy Helpers from Queen’s University help maintain the Wildflower Alley (Fb) between College Park Avenue and University Avenue. To “recognise the joint effort” (LinkedIn) a mural has been painted (by emic (ig)) along the Stanmillis Embankment, featuring flowers grown in the Alley.

Funding from Belfast City Council. Officially launched 2022-09-22 (Belfast Live)

Update: the side wall has been painted with a human head, wearing headphones, behind a sunflower.