Paddy Duffy Collection

Famous Faces

2012-01-252026-08-02Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The entry-way to the courtyard of the Dark Horse is a dense gallery of famous faces from popular culture, both local and international.

Inside: David McWilliams, James Galway, Alex Higgins, Rab McCullough, Gary Lightbody, Barso, Joey Dunlop, Terri Hooley, Feargal Sharkey, John O’Neill, Big Jim McDowell, Mark O’Shea, The Edge, Sam Neill, Jimmy Reilly, James Young, Liam Neeson, Jimmy Nesbitt, Rory Gallagher, Seamus Heaney, Clodagh Rodgers, Ruby Murray, Tony McCoy, Katie Melua, Ann Marie, Geraldine Hughes, Cormac Neeson, Jackie Wright, Johnny Hero, Brian Kennedy, Darren, Juliet Turner, Dan Gordon, Gerry Anderson, Gloria Hunniford, Barry McGuigan, Sinead O’Connor, Rinty Monaghan, Gary Moore, Dana, Phil Coulter, Phil Lynott, George Best, Pat Jennings, Derek Bell, Jimmy Ellis, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Neil Young, Willie Jack

Outside: Mark, Una Healey, Michael, Enya, Nick, Angela Feeney, CS Lewis, Dennis Taylor, May McFettridge, Paul Brady, Winston, Patrick Kielty, Brian Moore, Willie John McBride, Pearce Elliot, John Lynch, George Hamilton, Pierce Brosnan, Ciaran McMenamin, Maggie Cronin, Hammy, Lisa, Big William, Chris, Paddy, Eddie Irvine, Christine Bleakley, Brendan Behan, Derek Dougan, Patrick Kavanagh, Sir John Lavery, John McCormack, Danny Blanchflower, Mary Peters, Harry Gregg, Frank Carson, Martin O’Neill OBE, Dervla Kirwin, Stephen Rea, Hugh Russell, Wee John Caldwell, Nadine Coyle, Julie, Martin Lynch, Nee, Ronnie Drew, Dolores O’Riordan, Ciaran Hinds, Caron Keating, Kenneth Branagh, Alice, Liam Clancy, Duke Special, Bono

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Copyright © 2012 Paddy Duffy
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Persistence Of Belfast Memory

2012-01-242026-08-10Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Time becomes distorted under the influence of Guinness and Salvador Dali and his Persistence of Memory in the entry that leads from Donegall Street to the Duke Of York. (The supports/tripods are from “Sleep”; the horse is from “The Temptation of St. Anthony”) Dali’s original is only 9.5 x 13 inches. This is the centre part of a larger mural; there are also three images of Dali in the windows above the archway. (The Spaniard bar in Skipper Street, one block south of the Duke Of York, also featured Dali on its sign.)

Also in the entry is BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, in both young and old appearances. Peel is famous in Northern Ireland for his love of the song “Teenage Kicks” by Derry group The Undertones (WP). Peel died in 2004 (WP) and a line from the song – “Teenage dreams so hard to beat” – was used in a tribute mural under the M3 on-ramp in east Belfast.

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Copyright © 2012 Paddy Duffy
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Classics Of The Silver Screen

2012-01-232026-08-02Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is a 3-D/plane-breaking board/collage from the courtyard of the Duke Of York, featuring King Kong on the Empire State building (1933), Atlas (Metropolis 1927), a zombie (also from Metropolis?), riot police controlled by a puppet-master, Hokusai’s Great Wave Of Kanagawa 1830, WWI biplanes, a steamer/cruise-ship with searchlight and something that looks like the Giant’s causeway?? The car with L plates is from Death Proof.

Artists Ciaran Gallagher and Kathryn Bannister have a gallery of pictures of the piece being constructed and installed. The piece, they say, is inspired by “classics of the silver screen” and was part of Culture Night 2011.

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Copyright © 2012 Paddy Duffy
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New Life

2012-01-222026-08-02Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Barrow Square, in Sailortown between Clarendon dock and the Rotterdam bar, is named not for the carts used to unload and move goods along the docks, but for the Barrow Steam Navigation Company, which had a line of travel going between Belfast, Douglas (Isle Of Man), and Barrow (Cumbria, England), the peak of which appears to have been the 1890s (PaddleSteamers).

The mural, which was painted in 2004, features the “new life” coming to the broader docks area, though Sailortown itself has yet to see much investment. A Sailortown Regeneration Group (web) was formed in response to the closure of St Joseph’s in 2001. Both the Rotterdam and Pat’s are slated for demolition (BBC).

Clarendon Street, Sailortown, north Belfast

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Fáılte Go Dtí Ard Eoın

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“Fáılte Go Dtí Ard Eoın. Ardoyne – a confident, colourful, creative community, and the people who made it so” particularly the local schools, whose insignia are shown on the left: “Thnx 2 all r teachers past and present.”

The previous mural in this spot (M01783) is invoked by the banner across the top: “Everyone has the right to live free from sectarian harassment” and the inclusion of Holy Cross Girls among the schools.

Whitney Houston and Bobby Sands are invoked on the right “We believe the children are the future – value the laughter of our children“.

Estoril Park, Ardoyne, north Belfast

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Copyright © 2012 Paddy Duffy
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The New Lodge Six

2012-01-182026-08-02Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Community Inquiry Report: There was a clear breach of Article 2 of the European Convention On Human Rights, the right to life. The jury was deeply moved by the integrity and honesty of the evidence they heard. We have been deeply shocked by the state’s total failure to investigate killings and woundings. The evidence is unequivocal regarding the innocence of the deceased and wounded. There is no evidence whatsoever that they were armed or acted in a manner that could be perceived as a threat to the security services.”

Two of the New Lodge Six (James Sloan, James McCann) were killed by the UDA outside a bar and four (Tony ‘TC’ Campbell, Ambrose Hardy, Brendan Maguire, John Loughran) were among the crowd that gathered, killed by British Army snipers from their positions on top of the flats, using night-vision sights, February 3rd-4th, 1973. Sınn Féın politician Gerry Kelly spoke at the launch.

Donore Court, New Lodge, north Belfast

Liggett & Brady

2012-01-172026-08-02Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

IRA volunteer Francis Liggett was shot by the British Army in January 1973 as he attempted to rob the Royal. One of the images of Gerry Adams in paramilitary beret comes from Liggett’s funeral.

Paddy Brady was a Sınn Féın activist shot in 1984 at his work by the UFF (Sutton). Both were from the St James’s area of west Belfast. Their portraits are on either side of Éıre personified. They are also included in the ‘Roll of Honour’ in the memorial garden below them. The verses are from Bobby Sands’s poem Weeping Winds.

The Final Salute

2012-01-162026-08-01Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“30th anniversary of the hunger strike. 5th May 1981. IRA final salute. IRA Vol. Bobby Sands, MP Fermanagh South Tyrone.” Gerry Adams watches on as a funeral volley is fired over Sands’s coffin.

Also new is the plaque naming the wall as “Dorothy Maguire Corner”, after the 19-y-o shot in 1971, a member of Cumann Na mBan.

Painted on the Whiterock Road, west Belfast by Lucas Quigley.