Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ICONIC MURAL CHILD PADDY PASSES AWAY
Man whose ‘boy in mask’ Derry riots snap became symbol of Troubles dies
IT became an iconic symbol of Northern Ireland’s Troubles - the photo of a child, face swamped by a WWII gas mask, holding a petrol bomb in a small, grubby hand.
Derry boy Paddy Coyle was just 13 years old when the photo was snapped during the street riots in 1969.
Almost 51 years on, his family and the community are mourning his death at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, in the early hours of Sunday following a short illness.
The image of Paddy, captured by photographer Clive Limpkin – who died in May – made the front page of newspapers and magazines around the world.
It was later adapted in 1994 by the Bogside Artists, including his cousin Tom Kelly, into a street mural capturing the Troubles’ earliest and most defining images.
Tom said: “Paddy never exploited this image, he turned down many offers from documentary makers and the media to tell his story. He believed the photo told its own story. A child in a gas mask with no filter doing what he could do when his family, home and community came under seige.
“He only publicly revealed he was the boy in the photo when the Good Friday Agreement was signed. He lived a life of good humour, devout faith and decency and worked as a driving instructor.
“It was his brother Gerard who gave Paddy a telling off for wearing his jacket that weekend without asking - when the photo emerged there was no denying it. So out of all the trauma there was a bit of humour too.” Maeve Mclaughlin, of the Museum of Free Derry, said Paddy and Mr Limpkin met last year when the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Bogside was being marked in Derry.
She said the photograph was symbolic of the “ordinary people, in this case a child, in extremely extraordinary times”.
Mr Limpkin told the BBC last year: “I knew then I wasn’t going to beat that and I never got a better picture.”
Requiem Mass will be held for Paddy tomorrow at St Eunan’s Cathedral, Derry.