Welcome To Extramural Activity

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Maps | Visual Histories | Collections: Peter Moloney | Paddy Duffy | Seosamh Mac Coılle

Thank you for visiting! Extramural Activity is …

(1) A map/database of the wall-paintings in Northern Ireland/north-east Ireland, especially Belfast and Derry. There is one map showing all the wall-paintings ever, and another showing only those that are currently visible in Belfast.

(2) A set of “Visual Histories“, that is, pages describing and illustrating the history, trends, and common motifs in muraling and street art, e.g. Cú Chulaınn murals, the Bobby Jackson murals, Free Derry Corner, the International Wall, murals with Iron Maiden’s Eddie The Trooper, etc., etc.

The mural-image collections of the following photographers are curated by Extramural Activity:

The Seosamh Mac Coılle collection is housed at this site. This collection is searchable using the tools in the side-bar on the right. You can also scroll through the entries below.

The maps and Visual Histories draw on all of the available collections of images of murals.

If you want a feed of the latest art, “follow” the Seosamh Mac Coılle collection and the Paddy Duffy collection, using the links in the side-bar of each site — a new entry is added to one of those two collections (almost) every day. A vintage image is added to the Peter Moloney collection (almost) every day.

Times Bar Bombing

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A memorial service was held at the Times Bar on Friday June 5th (News Letter) to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the attack on the Times Bar in 1976, in which Edward McMurray and Robert Groves were killed by a republican bomb. (An image of the bombed bar can be found on Xitter.)

Three plaques were added to the memorial garden where the service took place, to William Haddock, James Smyth, and William Flynn. (Compare to 2019.)

As the images from May 10th in the Paddy Duffy Collection show, a painted mural was originally planned for the spot.

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East Belfast Blitz Memorial

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The German Luftwaffe blitzed Belfast on four occasions in April and May of 1941, targeting especially the industrial yards of east Belfast, including H&W shipbuilding and Short Brothers. Nearby streets were hit in the attacks (see Belfast Blitz), and some suffered very heavy damage, including Thistle, Tower, and Westbourne streets. This new memorial (City Council planning application) is in the grounds of Westbourne Presbyterian church, which was built in 1877 (Stone Database), was hit during the war, but survived.

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When All That Was Solid Melted Into Air

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At its peak, the Harland & Wolff shipyard employed 35,000 people (IndustriAll) and the flat-capped worker became a symbol of east Belfast, along – much later – with Samson and Goliath, the two gantry cranes at the shipyard that were raised in 1974 and 1969 (WP) and which have become the symbol of Belfast.

The title of this entry is the first line of Martin Mooney’s poem ‘Launching The Whaler Juan Peron‘.

The silhouetted workers and cranes are on a mobile office in Fraser Pass, Newtownards Road, Belfast, at the end of the Pitt Stop next to the Belfast Bikes racks.

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Palestine Bleeds

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“Over 20,000 children killed. That’s more than one child killed every hour. And 42,000 injured by the Israeli murder machine. Their revenge will be the laughter of their children. Andersonstown stands with Palestine. We are all Palestinians.” The figures perhaps come from a Save The Children report from September, 2025.

South Link, Andersonstown, west Belfast, next to the large Oppression Breeds Resistance mural.

See also: The Occupied Territories.

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Andersonstown Apache

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Anto “The Apache” Cacace was pictured with two belts – IBF and IBO – in the 2024 mural celebrating his accomplishments. Since then, he has given up the IBF title, defended the IBO title – see The Ringmaster – and added the WBA title by defeating Jazza Dickens in March, 2026.

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The Fallen Comrades Of The INLA

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Christopher “Crip” McWilliams has been added this new version of the INLA memorial on Northumberland Street (Visual History). McWilliams was a long-time member of the IPLO and was present at the Lenadoon shout-out with the RUC in Lenadoon in which Bonanza McCann died. He joined the INLA while in prison for the 1991 killing of a snooker-hall manager (Independent) and in 1987 was the gunman in a team of three that killed the LVF’s Billy Wright in the H-Blocks (IRSN | Cory Report (pdf) | MacLean Report (pdf)).

The info board in the final image was originally mounted in 2014 to accompany the version painted on a board which featured Loughran, McLarnon, McCann, and Gallagher, and updated in 2019 for the printed version which added McElkerney.

For images and video from the launch on May 17th, see El Norte De Irlanda.

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The Magic Within

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“The Shamrock supports Kneecap”. At the time this mural was originally painted, in June 2025, Kneecap member Mo Chara (Lıam Óg Ó hAnnaıdh) was facing charges of displaying a flag of a proscribed organisation (Hezbollah). That charge was thrown out on technical grounds and the appeal against that motion was denied in March (BBC).

The Scottish flags are flying over the Shamrock in support of the World Cup soccer team. Scotland is in Group C with Haiti, Morocco, and Brazil.

Ardoyne Avenue, north Belfast

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Gormley

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Cliftonville striker Joe Gormley has been honoured with a new mural in his native Ardoyne. He is Cliftonville’s all-time leading goal-scorer, with more than 300 goals. He has recently signed for the forthcoming (2026-2027) season, which he says will be his last (BBC).

Velsheda Court, Ardoyne/Glenard, north Belfast. There was previously a board to Joe The Goal in Berwick Road.

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Union Is Strength

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“Colonel Edward Saunderson MP, UDU founder, leader of the Irish Unionist Party. 1837-1906. Union is strength. ‘We must be prepared for every possible eventuality’ – on the issue of Home Rule 1893.”

The dates given are the span of Saunderson’s life, not his political career, which began in 1865 as MP for his home county of Cavan.

The bill under consideration in 1893 was the second Home Rule bill, which the UDU was formed to resist. The UDU initially met in Belfast in March; the manifesto of the meeting can be read on page 5 of the [Sydney] Freeman’s for 1893-04-29.

On June 8th, 1893, the Westminster government asked the police for a report on the Union, fearing its goal was armed resistance to Home Rule, and considering declaring it an illegal organisation ([Sydney] Daily Telegraph, 1893-06-10 page 5).

In September, the bill was passed in the Commons but defeated in the Lords. An account of the October meeting quotes Saunderson saying that the organisation should maintain itself by “if the necessity arose” “proving – not by words, but by deeds – that they meant what they said.” (Gympie Times & Mary River Mining Gazette, 1893-12-07 page 3).

Saunderson at the time was (also) leader of the Irish Unionist Alliance (here called the “Irish Unionist Party”) and he went on to be the first leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, from 1905 to 1906 (WP), when he died of pneumonia (WP).

The Ulster Defence Union is employed as an origin-story by the Troubles-era UDA as the UDU formed an ‘Ulster Defence Association’ – see UDU-UFF-UDA and UDU-WDA-UDA-UFF – and the name is used by the post-Agreement UDA – see Daffodil Days.

Next to Saunderson are boards mounted to celebrate the seventieth (platinum) jubilee of Queen Elizabeth in June 2022. Similar paintings were produced by schoolchildren in west Belfast – see The People’s Monarch.

“This artwork was designed and created by pupils from Abbots Cross Primary School in partnership with the local children from Rathcoole Community Hub to commemorate the platinum jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.”

“From Rathcoole to the house of Windsor – happy platinum jubilee 1952-2022. God save the Queen.”

Owenreagh Drive, Newtownabbey

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We Lead Across Time And Space

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“Echoes of the Ulster-Scots across the United States Of America”, “The Ulster-Scots … their footprints and songs graced the Appalachian Trails”, “We don’t just inherit, we lead across time and space.”

This is a new Ulster-Scots (Visual History) mural on Ulster-Scots (or, Scotch-Irish) emigration in the 1700s to the British colonies that in time became the United States, painted in North Howard Street and Fifth Street.

Upon arrival at eastern sea-ports, many of the Scotch-Irish headed west across the Allegheny mountains and down into the Appalachians. By 1790, it is estimated, almost 200,000 people, or 6% of the population, of the recently-created United States Of America were of Ulster-Scots heritage (WP).

The remaining panels bring us from the founding of the United States in 1776 to the space age. The portrait is a rendition of John Trumbull’s painting ‘Declaration Of Independence’ (image at WP) along with (below the “250”) the signature of “Cha[rles] Thomson”, who was born in Maghera, served as Secretary of the Continental Congress, designed the Great Seal Of The United States (which appears next to the right), and signed the Declaration (Ulster Scots Agency pdf). The person third from the left is Robert R. Livingston, one of the Committee Of Five that prepared the Declaration; he also negotiated the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 (Discover Ulster Scots).

The flag is a combination of a proposed Ulster Scots flag and the Stars And Stripes of the United States.

North Howard Street/Fifth Street, west Belfast

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