JP Beadle’s painting “Battle of the Somme: Attack of the Ulster Division” hangs in Belfast City Hall (Royal Irish has a history of its purchase) but is reproduced here in a new Rathcoole memorial to the dead of the Great War. (A list of “Ulster’s VC Heroes” can be found at the bottom of The Dead We Honour Here, from the east Belfast memorial garden. For the King George V quote, see How Nobly They Fight And Die.)
“Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal/Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres./There is music in the midst of desolation/And a glory that shines upon our tears.” This is the second verse of Binyon’s For The Fallen, a poem whose fourth verse – “They shall not grow old …” – is used in dozens of murals and memorials. (And in one case, the fifth verse: They Sleep Beyond England’s Foam.)
John McCrae’s poem concludes the board to the left: “In August 2019 a group from Rathcoole Protestant Boys [Fb] travelled to the battlefields of World War 1 to respect the fallen. The images represented pay homage to that visit, which prved to be and continues to be a journey of discovery and appreciation for the sacrifices made by those brave souls who fought during the Great War and who paid the ultimate sacrifice. As a group and society we look to a better future in the knowledge that those who do not learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat it. ‘If ye break faith with us who die/We shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders fields.'”
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Extramural Activity 