Paddy Duffy Collection

Quoth The Raven, “Evermore”

2024-07-252024-08-01Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A new board was unveiled on July 1st 2024, by the 1st Raven Somme Society and The Loyal (Fb) at the Raven social club (Fb), putting together the Ulster Tower (see e.g. A Thought Is Not A Lot), JP Beadle’s painting of the 36th going ‘over the top’ (see The Trenches Have Vanished Under The Ploughs) and Wilfrid Spender’s famous quote about the first day of the Battle Of The Somme (see I Would Rather Be An Ulsterman).

This board takes the place of the King Charles board (seen previously in Long Live The King), which has been moved to the other side of Castlereagh Street and joined by the board that it replaced, to Queen Elizabeth (both on top of some old (2012) panels depicting east Belfast of yesteryear – see Shipyard Workers).

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Leader Of The Band

2024-07-242025-01-08Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Jayden Braniff passed away in August in 2023 (Fb) from neuroblastoma. He was made an honorary member of the Pride Of Ballymacash (Lisburn) flute band (Fb). He is remembered by the Pride Of Ardoyne (Fb) and the Shankill Protestant Boys (Fb) in a tarp in Lawnbrook Avenue (upper Shankill, Belfast), next to the Walter Smith/Rangers tarp (one | two) and near his father’s house (Funeral Times).

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Say It With Flowers

2024-07-192024-08-29Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Verz’s (ig) Hindu man on the side of the Hospice Shop in Finaghy was paint-bombed back in December (2023) even before it had been completed (see Tilaka) and after subsequent vandalism was “removed following community engagement”. At a subsequent meeting, Nisha Tandon (CAP profile) of ArtsEkta (web) (whose grant is paying for this and other south Belfast murals) was subject to racist remarks (Belfast City Council’s South Belfast Area Working Group – pdf). At a June 5th meeting (Fb), however, this design by emic (web) – of a bunch flowers being offered from one person to another – was accepted.

The in-progress shot (final image) is from August 7th

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Alfie And Margaret

2024-07-192024-08-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Kieran Doherty died in the 1981 hunger strike after 73 days of fasting; the Andersonstown mural in his memory shows scenes from his funeral cortège on August 4th.

In preparation for this year’s anniversary, the mural has been refreshed and a new, enlarged image of Doherty’s parents, Alfie and Margaret, included. The photograph that provides a source can be seen in the An Phoblacht report on the funeral of Alfie, who died in 2008. Margaret Doherty died in 2019 (Bobby Sands Trust).

See Kieran Doherty for images of the mural when originally launched in 2014. For the memorial stone depicted in the fourth image, see Those Who Endure The Most.

A close-up of the plaque to Roger Casement can be seen in Seas Leıs An Phalaıstín.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Through The Middle Of Lidl

2024-07-192024-07-29Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The gates in the “peace” line at Kells Avenue, Stewartstown, are unlocked each morning at seven, allowing people to walk between to walk between Lenadoon and Blacks Road (the Lidl is on the Lenadoon side) until they are locked each evening at seven. The gates were painted by emic (ig) in December 2022, with PEACE IV funding (Belfast City Council).

The Stewartstown/Lenadoon side:

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Row On Row

2024-07-182026-05-30Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This images in this entry depict, above and below the information board about the park, the World Wars installation inside the park and the banners on the fence along Derrycoole Way.

There is an annual commemoration of the fallen in the World Wars in Rathcoole each year. The monument consisting of mourning soldiers and sandbags) was created in 2020 (Fb group | News Letter) and the bench was perhaps added in 2022. Images from the 2023 ‘row on row’ commemoration can be seen at NI World. The Row On Row group (web) hope to create a permanent memorial on the spot.

Rathcoole People’s Park was renamed the Sir James Craig Play Park by Antrim & Newtownabbey council in September, 2021, as part of the council’s celebrations of the centenary of Northern Ireland (NI World).

The banners on the side are from the Rathcoole Protestant Boys flute band (Fb) whose annual parade was at the end of June, and the Whitehouse Williamite Historical Society (Fb) whose fun-day on June 15th included a historical re-enactment of William’s army landing at Whitehouse. (For more on William’s connection to Whitehouse, see June 14th, 1690.)

Bangor Is Buzzing

2024-07-142024-09-01Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a gallery of the street art in the Project24 space along Queen’s Parade (which continues on from the art on the main road – see Remember To Daydream), updating the gallery in How About This For Art? The buzzard, toad, and turtle are all by Keyto (ig) and the partial face is by Kate Whiteman (web); the artist of the final piece is perhaps COZ (ig).