Paddy Duffy Collection

A Thought Is Not A lot

2022-09-252025-07-11Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Tower Street in east Belfast is (unofficially) renamed “Ulster Tower Street” to complement the mural at the corner with Beechfield Street. The work was created in 2016 and is now (2022) showing its age. The image of the Ulster Tower at Thiepval, in the centre of the main panel, is fading, though the list of battles in which the 36th (Ulster) Division participated remain legible.

There is also some fading and peeling paint on both the main wall and side-wall. The smaller board on the side-wall features a poem from local children: “The Great War took a lot of Pray/It’s hard to say w[h]ere all these brave men lay/A lot of souls still waiting to be found/Buried deep below the ground.//In the fields w[h]ere the bright red poppies grow/Stood men so brave of fight and foe/Some men so young they just didn’t know/A journey with friends they all wanted to go.// When they got there what a different tail [tale] they did tell/Many letters home describing it as hell/Young men put to front to fight/We can only imagine the awful sight.//Fighting beside their mate to keep Britain great/And we still remember them till this date/Nearly one hundred years on/A lot of these great men have gone/Forget them we will not as a thought is not a lot.”

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50th Anniversary

2022-09-252024-07-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Three months after it was initially whitewashed (mid June, 2022), the repaint of so-called “Freedom Corner” was completed, with a new mural on each of the 11 panels that make it up. Here is a gallery of fifteen images from the wall. The main gables reproduce photographs of the UDA (and more specifically the East Belfast brigade) during the 1970s. The side walls celebrate the formation of the UDA/LPA/UFF/UYM in 1971-1974 and the role of women in supporting prisoners.

By Blaze FX (Fb | ig) on the Newtownards Road. Here is a small gallery of in-progress images: Waiting For The Wall.

Newtownards Road, east Belfast

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The Dead We Honour Here

2022-09-252024-07-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“The dead we honour here made the noble sacrifice for a cause that should never be forgotten.” A new board has been added to the memorial to the Ulster Volunteers on the Newtownards Road at St Leonard’s Crescent (the old Newcastle Street) over the bricked-up windows of the Belvoir Bar (see previously Not For Sale). The annual parade of the Belvoir Somme Association took place at the end of September (youtube)

The portrait of Carson was previously on the corner of Welland Street. The UVF Band mural is to the right of the memorial: see The Great War and They Said We’d Never Last.

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Ulster’s VC Heroes david nelson ernest wright alexander william mcfadzean edmund de win richard annesley west hugh colvin james somers jams duffy robert morrow edward barry stewart bingham thomas hughes robert hill hanna robert quigg john spencer dunville eric norman frankland bell james crichton geoffrey st. george shillington cather james anson otho brooke john alexander sinton dedicated to the women of east belfast that served in wwi and wwii

Victoria Crosses Of The 36th (Ulster) Division

2022-09-232024-07-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Dee Craig updated the Victoria Crosses mural in Cregagh, honoring G[eoffrey St. George Shillington] Cather, W[illiam Frederick] MacFadzean, R[obert] Quigg, and E[ric] N[orman] F[rankland] Bell. Five more were included in a board on the Shankill and another in Willowfield Street. (For the previous Cregagh version, see M03390)

Cappagh Gardens, Cregagh, Castlereagh

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Always Keep A Diamond In Your Mind

2022-09-232024-07-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“The past is behind, learn from it. The present is here, live it. The future is ahead, prepare for it.” 2016 mural and board-cut diamond (which is lit from behind at night) in Lord Street, replacing the old LPA mural which lasted from 1997 to 2015.

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In The Land Of The Giants

2022-09-232024-07-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here are three shots of the new Blaze Fx (web | Fb) “Belfast Giants” mural in east Belfast’s Lord Street. The Giants have been Belfast’s ice-hockey team for the last fifteen years, beginning in 2000. The detail above shows mascot Finn MacCool and the image of the full mural, below, includes the team motto, the (a)politically-motivated “In the land of the giants, everyone is equal.” The mural takes the place of a UDA mural (see, Feriens Tego) and is one of three large murals and various small murals to be replaced or painted out. (This News Letter article puts the total at nine.)

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Dee Street 2nd Batt

2022-09-232025-12-12Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Perhaps because of the Covid pandemic, this mural of UDA volunteers on parade reflected in the sunglasses of one of their comrades took months to complete – it was started in late 2020 and was still unfinished in the summer of 2021.

The photograph reproduced is from the 1974 Ulster Workers’ Strike; it appeared on the cover of Don Anderson’s Fourteen May Days (CAIN).

The mural replaced the previous “UFF Formed 1973” mural – see Northern Island.

Avoniel Road, Belfast.

Boxing Through The Generations

2022-09-232024-07-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This mural features seven boxers: John Lowey, Billy Birch (’47-’54), Herbie Young, James Gorman, Ray Close (who fought Chris Eubanks to a draw for a World belt in 1993), Luke Wilton (’08-present), and Stephan Keenan.

One of the plaques show the photographs upon which the portraits in the mural were based (except Keenan’s), and the other describes the process by which the Ulster-Scots mural was replaced as part of a project by Charter NI (along with the city council and the housing executive). It reads: “Communities Moving Forward Re-Imaging Programme Phase One. The concept of renewal, change and respect lies at the heart of the ‘Communities moving forward’ programme, which recognises the importance of creativity in all its manifestations and in all our lives, reflecting the heritage of our communities in a positive manner. Boxing through the generations showcases the positive images of this proud small community.” (Also: NIHE press release)

Templemore Street, at the eastern edge of the residential part of Albertbridge Road.

Night Taxi

2022-09-182025-10-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Free-hand sprayer Dan Kitchener’s (web | tw) latest mural in Belfast (in Enfield Street in the Woodvale) places a black taxi – a mainstay of transportation in West Belfast – in the streets of Tokyo. To our knowledge, this is the first piece of street art in PUL West Belfast other than on the “peace” line; it will be interesting to see how well it survives compared to both sectarian murals and street art in the city centre.

“The title of the piece is ‘You can go Anywhere’ to show that with hard work and determination, you can explore the world. The mural is Sponsored by local Butchers shop Hugh Linton Butchers and R City youth group which are an award-winning organization helping Communities Integrate Through Youth. With the help of Jonathan Hodge local community volunteer. The taxi’s number plate HWL 1970 is a nudge towards the establishment founder Hugh Linton” (Belfast Walking Tours Fb).

Dan released a video of the mural in progress. Previously by Dan for Culture Night: The Dream | Blurry Eyed.

Funded by Communities In Transition with support from Greater Shankill Partnership and youth group R-City (tw) whose ‘footprint’ logo appears in the top left of the first image, above.

In Defence Of The Woodvale

2022-09-182024-07-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The end wall of Columbia Street in the Woodvale was knocked down, taking with it a former Duke Elliott/UDA mural, which was then replaced with boards (rather than murals) commemorating the history of the UDA and Elliott. Elliott lived one street over, in Leopold Street (WP). He was killed in 1972, at age 28, in a dispute with other UDA members.

Ohio St