Paddy Duffy Collection

1916 Battle Of The Somme

2024-01-072025-04-15Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

153 men of the 12th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles (which included men from Ballymena and other Central Antrim Volunteers) died on the first day of the Battle Of The Somme, July 1st, 1916, as they and the 9th Royal Irish Fusiliers attempted to take German trenches near Beaucourt railway station (Royal Irish). According to the account of the movements of the 12th Royal Irish Rifles by Des Blackadder on the Great War Forum, “they were cut down like corn before a scythe”. In all, more than 2,000 men from the 36th Division were killed that day (WP).

The new mural in Drumtara, Ballymena, was painted by Craig Gilmore, who also did the recent tribute to Elizabeth II (see The Crown) (Ballymena Guardian article on the mural, also by Blackadder). The cut-outs (in the third image) are on a wall at the bottom of the estate; the machine-gunner is unusual.

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To Markets New

2024-01-072024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Saturday market in Ballymena goes back to the 1600s but has had troubles recently finding a thriving home (Ballymena Guardian). The recent streetart by Friz (ig) and NRMN (ig) in Greenvale Street is intended to be a reference to the ancient market and is (probably) inspired by James Guthrie’s 1883 painting, ‘To Pastures New’, showing a girl herding geese in Lincolnshire.

Funded by the Department For Communities, Department For Agriculture, Environment, And Rural Affairs, and the Department For Infrastructure, with support from the Mid- & East-Antrim Borough Council.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Unrecognisable Britishness

2024-01-072024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Billy Wright broke with the UVF over the ceasefire in 1994 and after being expelled (and the Mid-Ulster brigade disbanded) in the summer of 1996, formed the LVF (WP). The tarp shown above, however, is in the UVF Ballykeel area of Ballymena, which has come around to his anti-Agreement way of thinking in the current anti-Protocol environment. There is video of the speeches from which these paragraphs come; the first paragraphs can be seen in this AP report; the third paragraph (from a speech on Xitter) is followed by the claim that “democracy has been stood on its head”.

“”I am living through the death of our nation, the destruction of our way of life. I am sick of ambiguity, I am sick of the government’s lies and deceit. I will not become part of a process that is designed to ease our people into a United Ireland. They shall demand concession after concession, their small inches will soon turn to yards, then yards to miles and finally they shall have their way, your Britishness shall become unrecognisable.” – No Irish Sea border – Maintain the Union – Defending our heritage and culture.”

On top of a Covid-era “NHS thank you” board on Crebilly Road, Ballymena, next to Somme, King Billy, and VE Day pieces.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Day Of The Dahlias

2024-01-072024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

English artist Sophie Mess (ig) says that this variety of dahlia “represent[s] wealth, change and creativity, a fitting symbol for the [Ballymena] area’s history: rich farmland and mineral deposits meant the town was turned into a prosperous market town” (press-release from Mid- And East-Antrim council, which sponsored the work). Purple dahlias are also said to symbolise “grace, beauty, dignity, kindness” (Saffron Marigold) or royalty (Bouq’s). So, whatever you want, really.

Mess also painted flowers in Belfast for HTN 2022.

Wellington Court, Ballymena.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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The Specials

2024-01-062024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Jack Nicholson and Noel Gallagher have disappeared from Glen Molloy’s (ig) Corporation Street gallery, replaced by Amy Winehouse (above), who died in 2011 (Guardian), and Terry Hall (below) of The Specials and Fun Boy Three, who died in December 2022 (BBC).

For Nicholson, see God Of Madness; for Gallagher and others, see Runner & Hunter On The Wild Frontier.

Update 2024-03: Carrie Fisher, in Princess Leia guise, is being added – see final images.

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Pádraıc Fıacc

2024-01-022024-10-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Patrick O’Connor was born on this day in 1924 on the lower Falls but after his father emigrated he spent his early years – until age 5 – with his grandparents in East Street in the Markets. It was as a high-schooler in New York that he adopted the name Pádraıc Fıacc (“fiach dubh” is “raven”) and began writing poetry. He settled in Glengormley upon his second and final return; it is not clear that he ever saw East Street lined with British Army soldiers, as shown in the mural above. He wrote of his early life in ‘First Movement’:

Low clouds, yellow in a mist wind
Sift on far-off Ards
Drift hazily …
I was born on such a morning
Smelling of the bone yards
The smoking chimneys over the slate top roofs
The wayward storm birds
And to the east where morning is, the sea
And to the west where evening is, the sea
Threatening with danger
And it would always darken suddenly

Some of Fıacc’s poems are in the TroublesArchive. He was interviewed by NVTv’s Bernard Conlon (Vimeo); he also appears in a reception in Belfast City Hall (youtube).

Lower Stanfield St, Markets, south Belfast

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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A True Red

2024-01-022024-10-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a 2014 mural in the Markets area of south Belfast celebrating the achievements of local boy George McMullen, who played youth football for St. Malachy’s and St. Matthew’s before joining Cliftonville in 2011 age 20.

On the left is the familiar Cliftonville huddle (see previously: The Red Army). The two poses in the centre and on the left are reproductions of Belfast Telegraph images. The first is from Cliftonville’s 2013 Dankse Bank Irish League-clinching win over Linfield, which the Reds won with a McMullen penalty in the dying seconds; the second in from the same moment in the 2014 campaign: Chris Curran has just scored to put the Reds two-nil up in a game against Portadown that would win them the League for the second year in succession.

Other Cliftonville players have been featured in murals: Joe The Goal in Ardyone and Rory Donnelly in the Bone.

Lower Stanfield St, Markets, south Belfast

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End The Siege On Gaza

2024-01-022024-10-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Free Palestine”. Tears of blood flow from a face that is shrouded by a Palestinian flag and behind barbed wire. The writing at the bottom is a quote from Malcolm X: “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the oppressed and loving the oppressor.”

Lower Stanfield St, Markets, south Belfast. Almost a decade old – this mural was launched 2014-07-29.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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