Paddy Duffy Collection

How Real Men ‘Take A Knee’

2024-03-302026-08-30Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a survey of PUL boards (from left to right) at the shops in the centre of the village of Moygashel, just south of Dungannon.

First is a British Army soldier in a firing position. Compare this board to Now Is The Time To Kneel in Clonduff, Castlereagh, which suggested that the time for soldiers to kneel was in mourning for Queen Elizabeth.

The subject of the second image is obscure. Vanguard as a political and activist group dissolved in 1977 (WP) and the name and emblem have been taken up by the Vanguard Bears, a Rangers supporters’ club (see e.g. Defending Our Traditions).

Third is a children’s mural, produced (in part) by children from Howard primary school.

The ‘Time To Decide’ and UDR 8th (Co. Tyrone) battalion roll of honour were seen previously, alongside two others which are now absent, in Belfast Agreement Null & Void.

Beyond those is a tarp celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee, in 2022.

Finally, a Moygashel Youth Club (Fb) mural in disrepair.

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If Our Shores Are Threatened

2024-03-302024-11-11Extramural Activity1 Comment

“If our shores are threatened/We will take up arms/To defend our loyal cause/Our culture and our heritage/Our freedoms and our laws.” Moygashel’s own (William) Wesley Somerville, a member of both the UVF and UDR, was killed by a bomb prematurely exploding as he placed it on the minibus of the Miami Showband in July of 1975. Three members of the band died, one of them Protestant, along with volunteers Somerville and Harris Boyle from Portadown (WP). “He died for Ulster” (on the plaque).

“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.”

Moygashel Park, Moygashel

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The Children Of Palestine

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“Attach an item for every child murdered by the IDF in Palestine”. If the practice were followed in accordance with Al Jazeera’s track of casualties in Palestine, there would be roughly 16,500 teddy-bears and other soft toys on these railings at William Street/Anne Street in Dungannon.

For galleries of bears on the railings and lamp-posts of Belfast, see Boycott Israeli Genocide and It Could Be You.

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New Lodge Volunteers

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Twenty portraits in circular frames have replaced the twenty-one square portraits seen on the ‘Out Of The Ashes Of 1969’ mural in the New Lodge. From left to right, those portrayed are Michael P Neill, Seamus McCusker, Gerard Crossan, Colm Mulgrew, Francis Liggett, Brian Fox, John Kelly, Robert Allsopp, Louis Scullion, Billy Reid, Danny O’Hagan, Michael Kane, Sean McIlvenna, Jim O’Neill, Rosemary Bleakley, Martin McDonagh, James McCann, James Sloan, Dan McCann. Paddy McManus is no longer included, as compared with the earlier portraits.

For the mural without any portraits, at the time of its launch in 2012, see X00857.

New Lodge Road, north Belfast.

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Gaırdín Thomáıs Uí Chléırıgh

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Thomas Clarke/Tomás Ó Cléırıgh (b. 1858) has a long career in Irish fenianism, including fleeing to America after firing at police (at age 20) and 15 years of hard labour for an attempted bombing in London, beginning in 1883 (DIB). He is best known for his role, along with Sean Mac Dıarmada (The Mainspring), as architect of the Easter Rising. He is particularly honoured in Dungannon, where he grew up from the age of nine onward, the last posting of his British-Army–sergeant father. This statue in the Lisnahull area was unveiled (in this location) in late November 2021 (We Are Tyrone | NI World).

The circular placard is on O’Neill Park, across the street from the Garden.

The ‘East Tyrone Remembers’ board to IRA volunteers Sean Loughran, Patrick Carty, Patrick Quinn, Patrick McDonald, Kevin Murray, Paddy Kelly, Patrick Vincent – either this one exactly or a re-print of it – is mounted periodically. It first appeared in 2010 to be replaced by the Clonoe Martyrs. It was back again in 2013 and has been in place since 2017.

See previously from Lisnahull: Ireland’s Hunger Strike Martyrs

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Auld Cobblers

2024-03-292024-08-27Extramural Activity1 Comment

This new three-storey mural by Dee Craig (Fb) is at the city end of Newtownards Road and so serves as a highly-visible introduction to east Belfast. People arriving in the area are now greeted with a vintage image of a smiling bearded man in a cloth cap, surrounded by occupations from the industrial era: “Cobbler, rag’n’bone man, fish monger, welder, builder, sweep, carpenter, window cleaner, butcher”, capped off by an inspirational “Be your best”, with yellow highlights that match the colour of the shipyard cranes Samson and Goliath.

Ravara

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These images are from the Ravara Centre in Bangor. The cartoon characters (above) are probably by PENS (ig).

North Down UVF

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Each quadrant of Down (north, south, east, west) gave rise to a battalion of Ulster Volunteers, and North Down comprised 15 companies, almost doubling the typical British-Army size of eight companies (History Ireland; see also another History Ireland article on the initially sporadic development of the Volunteers out of Unionist Clubs).

Upon the outbreak of the Great War, the Down volunteers joined the 13th battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, which were assigned to the 108th brigade of the 36th Division of the British Army.

The mural shown in this entry is a recent repainting; the previous version was painted in 2017 (and originally c. 2007 – see M03697).

See also: Only A Few Minutes – a memorial mural to Bangor native James Samuel Davidson, of the 108th and a North Down volunteer.

Clandeboye Road, at the bottom of the Kilcooley estate.

Back On The Streets

2024-03-242026-08-30Extramural Activity1 Comment

This shelf of cassette tapes is a new mural by Blaze FX (web) at Portallo Street on the Woodstock Road, east Belfast, part of the wave of street art being along the avenue (see previously: Down The Woodstock | Up The Cregagh).

Van Morrison (who was with Them before going solo), Gary Moore, David Holmes, and members of Rudi (Spit) and The Defects (Spit), grew up in east Belfast, as did Thin Lizzy’s guitarist Eric Bell. (Comment/Get in touch if you know of any SLF connection to east Belfast.)

The odd tape out here is the Cut La Roc/David Holmes ‘Stars X2’ live recording from Coventry’s ‘Eclipse’ nightclub, which is from 1999 (Old Skool Anthems) while the rest are from the sixties and seventies.

The “Cregagh-Woodstock Traders” (Fb) pencil (on the right) is presumably for re-spooling the tape after you pull it out and fix the tangle.

See also: Morrison, Moore, Holmes and Bell are all included in the Luminaries And Legends mural at Connswater.

For the Belfast punk scene of the late 1970s and early 80s, see also Belfast Has The Reason.