King William III is flanked by foot soldiers from 1690 and 1990. A small painted sign to the right reads, “We the people of Sandy Row remember with pride the 300th anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne. No surrender. Signed, UFF.”
The modern-day gunman on the right would later be replaced by another period soldier – see the Peter Moloney Collection.
Blythe Street, Sandy Row, south Belfast
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Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00131 T00121
“YCV/Red Hand Commando/PAF – 4th battalion, south Belfast brigade, Village”
Hooded gunmen fire over a modified UVF emblem, with four quadrants of flowers, which appear to be (top left) a poppy (or rose?) with one shamrock leaf and some thistle leaves, (top right) three shamrock leaves and a thistle, (bottom right and left) thistles.
Broadway, in the Village. There was also a side-wall, to the left, dedicated to Stevie McCrea – see the Peter Moloney Collection.
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Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00119
The mural at the corner of Roden Street and Donegall Road was repainted annually in 1989, 1990, and 1991. The first (see the image from 1988) lacked the McMichael memorial seen here and the white background only went half-way up the wall; the second completed the background, added LPA and UDF emblems and “In memory of John McMichael” in text (see C00525). This third iteration places the McMichael memorial and the attendant graveside mourners on a bed of grass.
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Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00120
New Lodge native Joe Doherty was part of the “M60” IRA unit (referenced in Beware Of The M.60 and Notes) that was arrested after a shoot-out on the Antrim Road in 1980. He then escaped from Crumlin Road jail in 1981 and fled to the United States, where he was arrested in 1983. There then followed a protracted and very public campaign to avoid extradition and deportation to either the Republic or Northern Ireland.
At the time this mural was painted, the Attorney General Edwin Meese had decided to deport Doherty but the decision was under review by his successor. (Eventually, the US Supreme Court would rule that Doherty could be deported in February, 1992.) The writing out of shot to the right reads, “Would the US Att. General Edwin Meese have deported George Washington? Don’t hand over Joe Doherty to British warlords! – New Lodge Republican Youth”
(WP | Bowe 1990 pdf | Kelly 1992 pdf)
By Mo Chara Kelly on the New Lodge Road, north Belfast
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Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00100
Núada and Morrígan (from Jim Fitzpatrick’s Beneath The Sky Of Stars) embrace below a ram (from Fitzpatrick’s Senach The Spectre) and between Celtic creatures inspired by the Book Of Kells.
This is a bright and colourful mural in stark contrast to the greys and browns of Unity flats, west Belfast
For many more images of Nuada, see the Visual History page on Jim Fitzpatrick.
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Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00173
The writing – D coy, 2nd batt, Belfast Brigade [IRA] – has been added where the volunteer’s legs used to be – see the Peter Moloney Collection for the original. A small plaque has been added at the top. Otherwise, the mural remains as before, with a hooded volunteer raising an assault rifle in front of a sunburst and Tricolour, with a row of barbed wire and the four provinces named in Irish.
Falls Road, west Belfast, now the site of the Garden Of Remembrance
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Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00088
A smiling Bobby Sands on the side of the Sınn Féın offices on the Falls Road, (also the west Belfast office of An Phoblacht/Republican News), with his famous statement that “Everyone, republican or otherwise, has his [here: “his/her”] own [particular] part to play” (and the lark with its “spirit of freedom“). This version was painted by Mo Chara Kelly in 1989, and an image of Sands has been on the wall continuously since then.
Sevastopol Street, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00089
Both of these murals by Mo Chara Kelly in the old Linden Street remained unfinished. “I was doing one about the Falls Curfew [for the 20th anniversary march – shown above]. … It never got finished because we had to start Women Against Oppression. When you’re available, people just came up to you, “Mo Chara, we need a mural on this. Could you stop that one? We need to do this one. There’s a Nelson Mandela one needs doing, could you do that?” Everything was chopped and changed all the time, and I never got back to it.” (Painting My Community/An Pobal A Phéınteáıl – English-language version available for free)
The second shows a barefoot woman carrying a large Tricolour and a lark overhead. It is based on the Women’s Day (“Frauen Tag”) poster from 1914. “Heraus mit dem Frauenwahlrecht” – “Forward with women’s suffrage”. German women were given the right to vote in 1918. This mural was replaced by Women Against Oppression.
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Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00090 T00096
Manacles “Made in Britain” constrain the republican desire for a united Ireland, contrary to the burning GPO and rising phoenix.
“Numerous foreign groups and delegations visited Ballymurphy and west Belfast during the troubles. I remember one meeting I was at in Conway Mill, I picked up a pamphlet with a drawing of a manacled fist. The caption read “Made in the USA.” So I just took the image and changed the slogan to “Made in Britain”.” (Painting My Community/An Pobal A Phéınteáıl – English-language version available for free)
The plaque – which pre-dates this mural – is to local (A Company 2nd Battalion) IRA volunteers Stan Carberry, Frankie Dodds, Paul Fox, Sean Bailey, Paul Marlowe, and Tony Campbell. “Fuaır sıad bás ar son na hÉıreann”, “Ireland unfree will never be at peace”. (See the Peter Moloney Collection.)
Painted by Mo Chara Kelly in Beechmount Avenue/RPG Avenue.
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Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00097 T00098
“Beıdh an bua agaınn” [victory will be ours] is a slogan that Mo Chara Kelly saw inside a cell in the H-Blocks. A circle of four hands – perhaps intended to be in the colours of humankind – releases three doves: “freedom, justice, peace”. “We will be free.”
Painted by Mo Chara Kelly at the top of the Whiterock Road, west Belfast.
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Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00095
Paddy Duffy Collection 