Local Inspiration

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The emblem in the top left of this board is the original emblem of the Irish Football Association. The Association was formed in 1880 by seven Belfast clubs but after partition a rival Football Association Of Ireland was formed and the original body eventually represented only Northern Ireland. (WP)

All of the players named and pictured post-date 1950, when the IFA stopped selecting southern players for the IFA’s team. They are … Tommy Jackson, Billy Caskey, Phil Gray, Tom Finney, Norman Whiteside, Danny Griffin, George McCartney, Alf McMichael, Tommy Cassidy, Robbie Garrett, Brodie Spencer, Jordan Owens, Billy Ferguson, George O’Boyle.

“AONISC” (bottom left) is the Amalgamation Of Northern Ireland Supporters’ Clubs (web). There are about 60 clubs in the amalgamation, but seven local clubs are named here: Albert Foundry, Woodvale Loyal, Tavern GAWA, Bootle Street, Wheatfield, 1st Shankill, Ligoniel.

In Battenberg Street on the side of the Stadium Bar and off-sales.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T07311 T07310

The People’s Band

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Shankill Protestant Boys [Fb] “The People’s Band” 45th anniversary, 1980-2025.” The band held a parade on August 1st to commemorate the anniversary, with nearly forty other bands attending (Fb).

For “USSF”, see the Peter Moloney Collection. The band’s club is in Bell Close – see SPB Way.

Shankill Road, west Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T07327 [T07328]

A Forgotten Atrocity

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Wreaths are laid at the Bayardo Bar memorial on the Shankill Road on the fiftieth anniversary of the attack, which involved the shooting of two people at the door and the bomb being left at the entrance, which caused the deaths of a further three people: “In memory of five innocent Protestants slaughtered here by a republican murder gang on 13th August 1975. William John Gracey aged 63, Samuel Gunning aged 55, Joanne McDowell aged 29, Hugh Alexander Harris aged 21, Linda Boyle aged 17. Erected by the Bayardo Somme Association. “A forgotten atrocity”.” Fifty other people were injured in the attack.

Here is an opinion piece in the BelTel claiming that “republican communities … have been far more active not only in memorialising violent events impacting upon them, but also campaigning for the truth about those actions … the lack of balance in how the past is being investigated here has created a one-track, green-tinted narrative”.

See also: the memorial in 2023. Included here are close-ups of two recent plaques, one “In memory of Neily Reid Scotland, true friend of the Bayardo Somme Association, died 4th February 2022. Lest we forget.” and the other “In memory of Billy Boyce, loyal friend of the Bayardo Somme, died 19-12-2018. Lest we forget.”

Shankill Road/Aberdeen Street, west Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T07312 T07314 T07313 T07326 T07315 T07316 T07317 T07318 T07319 T07320 T07321 T07322 T07323 T07324 T07325

Let Tyrants Tremble

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This entry updates Cuımhníonn Doıre from August 2024, in which the central part of the mural, showing Maıréad Farrell (above), was incomplete. In addition to a completed portrait of Farrell there are two quotations from Bobby Sands and one from Fidel Castro (along with a list of the twelve dead hunger-strikers of the Troubles era):

“‘Everyone, Republican or otherwise, has their own particular part to play. No part is too great or too small, no one is too old or too young to do something’ – Bobby Sands” [Diary, March 14th, 1981]

“‘Our revenge will be the laughter of our children’ – Bobby Sands”

“‘Let tyrants tremble before men who are capable of dying for their ideals after 60 days on hunger strike’ – Fidel Castro” [The line comes from Castro’s opening address on September 15th, 1981, to the Inter-Parliamentary Conference (pdf)]

Also included below are an adjacent IRA Derry Brigade roll of honour and a plaque to Maggie McAnaney.

The ‘roll of honour’ boards are the same as those seen in Lecky Road.

McAnaney died when a gun went off at an IRA checkpoint near Burnfoot, Co. Donegal, a month before the Civil War began (Derry Journal). This is an unusual use of the phrase “active service”, as McAnaney was travelling to a picnic at the time, rather than on exercises or preparing munitions; the phrase would later come to be associated primarily with a premature bomb explosion.

“In proud and loving memory of Margaret “Maggie” McAnaney, Cumann na mBan, died on active service at Burnfoot on 31st May 1922, aged 18 years. The McAnaney family home was situated on Bishop Street. Fuaır sıad bás ar son saoırse na hÉıreann.”

Beyond these are the pieces seen in Empower Your Community.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T07335 T07337 T07338 T07336
T07333 T07334

Empower Your Community

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here are IRSP (web) and RNU (Fb) signs side-by-side in Bishop Street, Derry, both employing the idea of ’empowerment’. Above: “Empower your community – Join the IRSP, the party of Connolly and Costello”; below: “RNU for the community – support, empower & prosper”.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T07331 T07332

Centuries Of Resistance

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Ireland was created in 1801, a reaction to the 1798 Rebellion, led by (amongst others) Wolfe Tone and Henry Joy McCracken, who were founding members of the Society Of United Irishmen in 1791 in Belfast.

In this mural, Tone and McCracken on the left gaze across the “centuries of resistance” from 1798 to 1916 Rising revolutionaries Countess Markievicz and James Connolly, and beyond to Troubles-era figures Maıréad Farrell, Bobby Sands, and Máıre Drumm.

Around the same time as this mural was painted, a Féıle exhibition called ‘Vibrant Colours, Violent Past’ included A Panorama Of Republicanism which contains dozens of figures but again chooses 1798/Tone, 1916/Connolly, and the Troubles/Martin McGuinness as the pivotal moments and figures.

“Comóradh Éırí Amach Na Cásca Bhéal Feırste/Belfast Easter Commemoration. This is the traditional place where on Easter Sunday Belfast republicans gather to honour Ireland’s patriot dead on their way to Milltown Cemetery.” “Honour Ireland’s patriot dead – wear an Easter lily.” “Unbowed, unbroken.”

The Beeechmount-Falls Corner has its own Visual History page, as the most-often painted wall in Belfast.

July 27th:

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T07295 T07294 T07296
T07258 T07259

Comóradh Blıantúıl Ar An Staılc Ocraıs

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Michael Devine was the last of the 1981 hunger-strikers to die, on August 20th, 1981, and although the strike was not called off until October 3rd, his death now marks the end of the strike for commemorative purposes. The 44th annual national commemoration of the strike will take place this year on the 24th, “assembling at Dunville Park” in west Belfast.

Beechmount Street, west Belfast. The MLK tarp goes back to 2014.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T07308 T07309

Maıreann An Grá Go Deo

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This mural celebrates the Irish-language institutions in west Belfast. From left to right, the buildings by the loch are: Gaeltacht Bhóthar Seoıghe, Bunscoıl Phobal Feırste, Raıdıó Fáılte, An Chultúrlann, Teach Ard Na bhFeá, Coláıste Feırste, and Áras Na bhFál. In a sense they are all ripples from the initial drop that was the Shaw’s Road Gaeltacht, established in 1969 and which led quickly to the bunscoıl in 1971 (WP). The NVTv documentary about the Shaw’s Road gaeltacht borrows its title from the slogan motivating the early efforts, “Ná habaır é, déan é” [Don’t say it, do it] – the bunscoıl was not officially recognised until 1985.

Among the pioneers (“ceannródaıthe”) of those early ventures were the Mac Seáın family, who grew up in a house adjacent to the wall on which the new mural is painted: “Tógadh Séamus Mac Seáın, Seán Mac Seáın, agus Caıtlín Mıstéıl (née Mhıc Sheáın) sa teach seo. Bhí an trıúr seo ı measc na gceannródaıthe a bhunaıgh Gaeltacht Bhóthar Seoıghe.”

The mural was commissioned by Spórtlann Na hÉıreann’s Irish-language heritage project “Gael Staır” (Meon Eıle | Belfast Media), with support from Mary’s Gift (Belfast Media), and painted by Aodán Ó Manacháın (Fb). It was unveiled Sunday 10th.

Rodney Drive, St James’s, west Belfast

In-progress image from July 27th:

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T07298 T07297 T07307 T07306 T07305
T07304 T07303 T07302 T07301 T07300 T07299
T07260 [T07261]

Collecting Signatures

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Tourists from various countries – shown above are Brazil, Canada, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, New Zealand, German, the United States – can now sign the Cupar Way war-wall in a specially-designated panel for their country; guests from other nations will have to continue defacing the wall wherever they can find a spot, whether or not it is covered in art.

The panels extend to the right of image and replace Only A Fool Would Fight, which already has various place-names of divided areas above it – Israel/Palestine, Shankill/Falls, Nicosia, Baghdad, Berlin.

For background, see the wall’s Visual History page.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
T07205