This emerald claddagh, flanked by two robins, was painted by Peaball (web) in Central Drive, Creggan, between two other pieces of street art (by Friz and emic) and so removing the last blank wall for graffiti at the entrance to the Bishop’s Field sports centre – see previously Victory To The PFLP. A gallery of anti-Agreement boards is still on the main exterior wall of the centre – see Stand Up And Speak Out.
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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Girls from Seán Dolans GAC (Fb) and Trojans Youth & Community Group (Fb) are “bringing communities together”, “forging friendships”, and “making memories”.
Painted by Peaball (web) with support from Féıle Derry (web) on what is now the Health For Life (Fb) building on Linsfort Drive in Creggan, Derry
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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Maps | Visual Histories | Collections: Peter Moloney | Paddy Duffy | Seosamh Mac Coılle
Thank you visiting the Paddy Duffy Collection!
The galleries below provide a quick way to view the more than 7,000 images added to Paddy’s collection so far. Write-ups with descriptions and background information for many individual images are also available – click on each image in the galleries for individual entries or use the search tools in the side-bar on the right (or simply keep scrolling).
Avenue Hall – the building at the junction of Lower Garfield Street and North Street – was built in 1896, with ground-floor shops and upstairs ballrooms. The upstairs rooms were damaged by fire in 1990 and the last occupied unit on the ground floor was the Tivoli barbers, which held on until 2013 before moving to North Street. The shutters of the ground-floor shops, along with much of the derelict (lower) North Street, were covered with graffiti, and in 2012 became the epicentre of ‘Shutter Scape’, the first year of what came to be called Hit The North (see Visual History 11 and the historical map). The blocked-up windows of the upper floor were also painted, in 2014.
Future Belfast lists three potential developments and developers, in 2000, 2012, and 2016, and there were others in 2017 and in 2020. Castlebrooke currently has request for comments on its latest plan for the whole Garfield and Donegall Street area (RSUA | pdf). The current scaffolding was erected in 2018 along with the hoarding around the bottom, which was painted by Danni Simpson (‘Bout Ye, Belfast). Some demolition of the interior took place; the facade is protected by a grade B2 listing in 1991 (Plan Belfast | Future Belfast). Seven years later, the hoarding and the scaffolding still stand, and the hoarding has been repainted with a variety of Belfast sayings – “Aye”, “Dead on”, “Grand”, “Class”, “Awk, hiya” – painted by Alana McDowell (ig). The first part, above, replaces the anti-homelessness art in Life In A Bag.
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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Fleadh Cheoıl Na hÉıreann takes place in Belfast from Sunday August 2nd to Sunday August 9th. Approximately 20,000 musicians will perform and compete, around 100,000 people are expected to attend each day, (Irish Times | Irish News | BBC), and 1,300 volunteers have signed up to assist with the event (Belfast Media), which also takes place the week after TradFest (web) during the second week of Féıle An Phobaıl (pdf).
This large painting of dancers and musicians outside the Duke Of York in Commercial Court (one drinking a “Belfast Session”, an American pale ale from MashDown Brewery (ig)) is by Ciaran Gallagher (web) in the courtyard of the Dark Horse bar. Launched July 2nd.
See also Stay For The Craic.
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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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A crude stencil pays tribute to IRA volunteer Sean Clinton, who died in April (2026) (Pensive Quill).
The stencil re-creates a famous photograph (CAIN), taken by Brendan Murphy of the Irish News (November 2025 BBC obituary), showing Clinton firing from this spot at an RUC checkpoint on Ormeau bridge. Clinton/the photo is also known as “The Last Gunman”, as the ceasefire was renewed a few days later, on July 19th, 1997.
Artana Street, lower Ormeau, south Belfast
For the Parades Protest mural, see Stand Off, Trade Off, which gives links back to its original appearance in 1998.
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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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The full Belfast City Council last week overturned a committee decision to place dual-language (English and Irish) street-signs only on the CNR parts of long roads that pass through both CNR and PUL areas (Belfast Live). A TUV councillor at the meeting promised that any new signs would be “cut down” (BelTel) but the motion was carried by 31 votes to 25.
Currently at issue are Donegall Park Avenue, Oldpark Road, and Skegoneill Road. Donegall Park Avenue reaches a PUL area of the Shore Road at its eastern end, the site of the recent bonfire and anti-immigrant banners. In protest at the plan, and to make the identity of the area clear, the current street-sign at the junction has been papered over with “Loyalist Donegall Park Avenue”.
The policy statement on street-signs can be found at the Council’s web site (pdf).
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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Here are images of this year’s (2026) Craigyhill bonfire, shrouded in sea-fog. The bonfire was finished on July 5th, a week in advance of its lighting, which will be at midnight on Sunday, amid two days of entertainment by DJs, dancers, and flute bands. The kids’ bonfire (in the fifth image) will be lit on the 11th at 10 p.m. (Fb)
The banner on the fence celebrates an “International bonfire community” between Craigyhill and Scheveningen, in the Netherlands, which holds the official record for the world’s largest bonfire by volume (Guinness). The largest bonfire by height – officially recorded – was in Lustenau, Austria; for Criagyhill’s claim to the title, see the entry on the 2024 bonfire.
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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Various flags are flying or hanging on the Ballyduff bonfire prior to their removal and its incineration, including the flag of the Paratroop regiment. On the fencing in front are two UVF hooded gunmen boards and an Ulster Volunteers (1913) flag.
Forthill Drive, Ballyduff, Newtownabbey
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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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The left-hand part of this large installation in Dervock is given over to six boards commemorating the First World War and the locals who served and died in it. Sixty-two names are listed on the “roll of honour”, including the “Upwards of 42 men [who] had made the supreme sacrifice” from the roughly 200 who served – as noted by “Lady McCartney” (perhaps at the opening of the Dervock War Memorial Institute – Larne Times & Weekly Telegraph, 25th December 1922). (For the Institute, see Ulster War Memorials, which also gives a (very different) list of Dervock dead.) The central image was long ago a mural in the centre of the village – it can be seen in the plates to Bill Rolston’s Politics And Painting and as image 24 in volume one of Drawing Support.
The right-hand part contains two boards about William McKinley, one to CS Lewis, one providing a small dictionary of Ulstèr-Scots words (“Our wae tongue – a proud heritage, a living language.”), one listing “memorable moments” of the Northern Ireland soccer team (“Our football. Our nation. Our pride.”), and one inviting people to “visit the north coast”.
There is no record (on-line, at least) of McKinley saying or writing, “Let us ever remember that our interest is bound up with the liberty and progress of all mankind. So long as any nation is oppressed, we are not free.” And only one of the quotations in the bio can be verified:
“President William McKinley (1843 – 1901).
1843: William was born in Ohio, after his parents [perhaps his great-great-grandfather] emigrated from Connagher [Conagher], near Dervock.
1861: Enlisted at 18. 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment. [The American Civil War]
1896: Defender of Sound Money [i.e. the Gold Standard]. “I am for sound money and opposed to the free and unlimited coinage of silver.” [“sound money” was a campaign slogan; the remainder can be found in the Republican policy platform of 1900]
1898: Spanish-American War. “War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed.” [From the first inaugural, 1897, and so not in response to the Spanish-American War; Congress declared war despite McKinley’s reticence]
1900: Gold Standard Act. Restored stability. Built prosperity.
1901: Died eight days later [sic, “after”] being shot, whilst attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffallo [sic] New York.”
See also: the Visual History page on Ulster-Scots murals.
CS Lewis did not say or write, “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” (CS Lewis)
Knock Road, Dervock, with support from Causeway Policing And Community Safety Partnership (Causeway PCSP) and the Causeway Coast & Glens borough council’s Good Relations team. Unveiled July 2nd, 2026.
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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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“We won’t have Home Rule.” Here is another view of the “Ulster Day” board seen previously in a gallery of five others. The heroes of the anti-Home Rule movement are Edward Carson (left) and James Craig (right). Carson and Craig were the first and third people to sign Ulster’s Solemn League And Covenant on September 28th, 1912.
For Ballymena during the Home Rule crisis, see History Ireland.
A few months later, in January 1913, the pair would found the Ulster Volunteers. The flags of the third (left) and second (right) battalions of the Central Antrim regiment of the Ulster Volunteers are in the bottom corners – see The Central Antrim Regiment. Ballymena men, however, joined the first battalion.
Painted by Dee Craig and mounted in Queen Street, Harryville, Ballymena.
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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Street artist emic (web) visited Titanic Men’s Club (Fb) in 2024 to give an indoor tutorial on painting art on walls and the group moved outdoors in 2025 to paint this mental-health message on the wall of the Connswater Community Centre.
The group also has a large board on the Greenway – see This Is the Crew.
For the NHS board, see The Glorious Dead. For the Somme board, see The Shipyard.
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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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“Chest, Heart & Stroke – Improving lives across Northern Ireland since 1946.”
2026 is the eightieth anniversary of the Northern Ireland Chest, Heart & Stroke Association. It was founded on June 14th 1946 as the first Northern Irish branch the National Association For The Prevention Of Tuberculosis (previously the National Association For The Prevention Of Consumption And Other Forms Of Tuberculosis) and in 1959 became the Chest And Heart Association and in 1976 the Chest, Heart & Stroke Association. The Stroke Association (web) was formed in 1992, but there remain the NI (web) and Scotland (web) CHS associations.
The landmarks, from left to right (top to bottom) are: Carrickfergus castle, Grand Opera House, Titanic Centre, the Harland & Wolff cranes (Samson and Goliath), Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge, St Peter’s pro-cathedral, Mussenden Temple, Devenish Round Tower, Scrabo tower, the Giant’s Causeway, Dunluce castle, Gosford castle, the Peace Bridge.
Painted by Visual Waste (web) on the shutters of NICHS headquarters at the junction of Bruce Street and Dublin Road. With support from Linen Quarter BID (web).
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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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