Part Of Our Heritage

“Gaelic games – part of our heritage.” Athletes play hurling, football, and camogie and the local GAA club Ardoyne Kickhams (Fb) is celebrated. “Is treıse dúchas ná oılıuınt” means “heritage is stronger than upbringing”. “Fáılte go dtí Ard Eoın” [“Welcome to Ardoyne”] appears in the apex.

Havana way, Ardoyne, north Belfast

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Copyright © 1994 Paddy Duffy (undated image)
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Saoırse

The frame of this mural in St James’s was originally painted by Andrea Redmond (Fb) in 1994 for a mural (included below) showing local pensioners remonstrating with a British Army soldier, under the title “The Spirit Of Freedom”, reproducing a photo that appeared in a French-language magazine (see below).

The central circle was repainted (again Redmond) for the 1995 “green ribbon” campaign: the dove holds the keys that will set free the republican prisoners, symbolised by the barbed wire and the lark in the apex. There was also a side-wall, showing two rows of green ribbons, each with the name of a POW (see immediately below).

“Sponsored by AP/RN” has been moved from the side-wall to the main wall.

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
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The 1994 ‘Spirit Of Freedom’ mural:

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In small letters on the part of the circle at the back of the soldier is written “This mural is dedicated to the memory of J[…] D[…] and M[…] Fitzsimons”.

On the side wall is a verse from the poem The Crime Of Castlereagh by “Volunteer Bobby Sands MP”: “All things must come to pass as one/So hope should never die/There is no height or bloody might/That a freeman can’t defy./There is no source or foreign force/Can break one man who knows,/That his free will no thing can kill/And from that freedom grows.”

Fág Ár Sraıdeanna

This is a mural on Whiterock Road, west Belfast, bidding “Slán Abhaıle” to a British soldier who is himself standing on Whiterock Road in front of the 1916 mural (Who Fears To Speak Of Easter Week?).

In the medallions to the left and right are four demands from during the (first) ceasefire: “End collusion, Release POWs, Disband RIR RUC, End Unionist veto”. 

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
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Battle Of The Bogside

A fist in flames to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the battle of the Bogside, and the beginning of the Troubles, 1969 – 1994. The Battle began on August 12th, 1969, with the declaration of “Free Derry” and exclusion of police. The British Army was deployed on the 14th.

For more information, see the documentaries Battle Of The Bogside and No Go on youtube, and the WP page.

Painted by Arlene Wege in Lecky Road, Bogside, Derry

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
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The Petrol Bomber

The Petrol Bomber was the first mural painted by the Bogside Artists – Kevin Hasson, Tom Kelly, and William Kelly – as part of what would become The People’s Gallery (Visual History).

It shows 13 year-old Paddy Coyle (Derry Journal) with a Molotov cocktail and wearing a gas mask (used to protect rioters against CS gas). The original did not have the green ribbon on the boy’s badge – it is a symbol of the movement to have POWs released as part of any peace agreement.

The Rossville flats are in the background of the mural (though not of Clive Limpkin’s original photo, included below from this gallery of Limpkin’s images of Derry 1969-1972).

Lecky Road, Bogside, Derry

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
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Copyright © 1996 Paddy Duffy
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Time For Peace, Time To Go

A Cormac cartoon is reproduced as a mural by Mo Chara Kelly: the ceasefire means that doves (“Time for peace”) can/should be carrying British soldiers (who themselves recognise it is “Time to go”) from Ireland (tricoloured, with dolmen) to Britain (with Union flag) over the Isle of Man.

Whiterock Road, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
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An Gorta Mór

“Nature sent the potato blight, government & landlords created the famine.” 1845-1849 saw one million Irish people die and a million more emigrate. During the period, the full range of other foodstuffs was produced and shipped to England, being too expensive for the native population.

This is one of about nine murals painted in 1995 on the Great Hunger (Visual History).

Lenadoon Avenue, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
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