Paddy Duffy Collection

We Are All Palestinians

2026-03-152026-08-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Palestine bleeds. Over 20,000 children killed. That’s more than one child killed every hour. And 42,000 injured by the Israeli murder machine. Their revenge will be the laughter of their children. Andersonstown stands with Palestine. We are all Palestinians.” The figures perhaps come from a Save The Children report from September, 2025.

South Link, Andersonstown, west Belfast, next to the large Oppression Breeds Resistance mural.

Drop Allianz

2026-03-152026-08-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The campaign urging the GAA to sever its ties to sponsor Allianz (web) began in August 25th, after an update to a 2024 report by the UN urged businesses – including Allianz – to end their ties with Israel (UN | youtube). In response, a letter of protest, signed by 800 former and current players, was delivered to the GAA (RTÉ) but a vote in December retained the sponsorship (BBC | Irish Examiner). Protests have continued (e.g. at the GAA congress), among which is this message written in posters on the hoarding around Casement Park (for which, see Build Casement Now).

Andersonstown Road, west Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08645 T08646

Fine Heads

2026-03-152026-03-26Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Belfast match-maker Maguire & Paterson made matches under the brands Buffalo, Swift, Bo-Peep, and City Hall (and perhaps others). The factory was on the Donegall Road, on what became, for a time, the site of West Side Stores (and is now a set of houses facing the Park Centre. Here is an aerial view (on Fb) of the factory in 1947, when Celtic Park was still standing.

This tribute to the Belfast match is by Leo Boyd (web) in Beechmount Avenue, west Belfast.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08647 T08648

Blair “Paddy” Mayne

2026-03-142026-07-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Robert Blair “Paddy” Mayne was a rugby player, boxer, golfer, and solicitor, and in WWII a commando and one of the first members of the SAS (Special Air Service), participating in raids behind enemy lines in Egypt and Libya, and later, as SAS commander, in France, Belgium and other countries. His many decorations include the DSO (four times), Croix De Guerre, and Legion D’Honneur. Mayne was born in Newtownards and returned there at the end of the war. (WP) The medal to the right is the Distinguished Service Order, with three bars.

Painted by Jossie Pops (web) in Disraeli St, Woodvale, west Belfast

March 10th:

March 9th:

March 4th:

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08617 [T08618] T08619 [T08620]
March 10: T08614 [T08615] [T08616] T08617
March 09: [T08602] T08603 T08604
March 04: T08535 [T08536] [T08537]

For What Died The Sons Of Roısín?

2026-03-102026-03-29Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is a pair of small boards at the corner of Balkan Street and Leeson Street, Divis, west Belfast.

Above, “Saoırse [freedom]” and “beır bua [seize victory]” and imagery of the four provinces and a lark in barbed wire are on top of the old Divis flats. The flats were built to replace the tightly-packed streets of the lower Falls. After the first three blocks were completed in 1969, there was a plan to have a mixture of flats all the way up to Dunville Park (“Phase 2” in this 30-minute BBC video on the flats, which also includes the story of its eventual demise.

Below, “For what died the sons of Róısín [Dubh]?” The Dogs of IRA D company, second battalion [Belfast brigade] are “unbowed” and “unbroken”.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08605 T08607 T08606

Óıge Na bhFál

2026-03-102026-08-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Our youth, out culture, our community, our future”. This mural was painted in 2014 but the future for one of the clubs featured – Seán Mac Dıarmada/Seán Sean McDermott’s in the yellow with green stripe – was short-lived, as the club folded later the same year. The other club, Michael Davitt’s in the green, white, and gold strip, still exists.

Painted by Lucas Quigley in Sultan Way/Ross Road, Divis, west Belfast.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
T08609 T08610 T08608

Strabane

2026-03-082026-03-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Four local landmarks are featured in this recent (2025-07) mural in Strabane. From left to right/top to bottom: one of the five Tinnies (TripAdvisor) (officially known as the ‘Let The Dance Begin’ sculpture), the pedestrian/cycle bridge (with a heart drawn around it), the pig sculpture (WikiMedia), and the boat in Abercorn Square (Geograph).

Painted by Peaball (web) and young people from SPARYA (Fb), with support from DC&S council (web), and the Housing Executive

Springhill Park, Strabane, next to the Good Vibes piece.

An Lon Dubh Ar An Bhalla Bınne

2026-03-082026-03-19Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“The blackbird on the gable wall.” This piece of Peaball (web) art is on the side of the credit union in Main Street, Claudy, commissioned by Derry Credit Union to celebrate its sixty-fifth anniversary (ig).

Cuımhníonn An Srath Bán Orthu

2026-03-082026-03-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Ceannasaíacht [sic Ceannasaíocht] Iarthar Thír Eoghaın – Cuımhníonn an Srath Bán ortha [sic orthu]. [West Tyrone leadership – Strabane remembers them]”. This large tarp replaces another one that used similar language – Cuımhníonn An Srath Bán Orthu Go Deo – but where that tarp remembered the dead of 1916, this one commemorates Sands and Guevara (who are also painted together just to the viewer’s right on a yard wall – see Revolutionaries) and the hooded gunmen of the Troubles-era armed struggle.

Fountain Street, Strabane