Paddy Coyle: Man from iconic ‘boy in the mask’ photo dies

The man whose image defined the early days of the outbreak of conflict in the North has died.

Fr Paul Farren, who officiated at his funeral, said that Paddy Coyle “never let the image define him” and he lived the life of “an ordinary Catholic”.

Mr Coyle was photographed in Derry as a teenager wearing a gas mask and holding a petrol bomb in what is now regarded as one of the Troubles’ most defining images.

Fr Farren told The Irish Catholic that, aside from the famous image, Mr Coyle lived the life of an ordinary Catholic. “It was a moment in his life which didn’t define his life,” said Fr Farren. “He lived a life like the rest of us, an ordinary Catholic, devout in his own way.”

Humble

Bishop of Derry Donal McKeown reiterated Fr Farren’s sentiment, saying Mr Coyle was “an ordinary humble churchgoer”.

Paddy Coyle was aged 13 when he was photographed in the city’s Bogside in 1969.

Photographer Clive Limpkin’s image made the front cover of newspapers and magazines around the world.

In a statement on social media, Mr Coyle’s cousin, Tom Kelly, said: “Paddy never ever exploited his iconic image, he refused many offers from TV documentary makers and newspapers to tell his story behind the image as he didn’t like talking about it”.

Mr Kelly, one of the Bogside Artists, would later use the image in one of Derry’s most recognisable murals.

He said Mr Coyle will be “missed by all who knew and loved him, but his image as a young boy…in 1969 will live on forever”.

Limelight

Maeve McLaughlin of the Museum of Free Derry said to the BBC that Mr Coyle had never “wanted to be in the limelight but was quite proud of it (the image) in his own way”.

Ms McLaughlin said the image of Mr Coyle was very much symbolic of the history it reflects, and of the “ordinary people, in this case a child, in extremely extraordinary times”.