You can enter the Finn Square cul de sac, but you might not make it out.
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Cross Roads
Author: Extramural Activity
The Earth And Its Toiling
“Fading away like the stars in the morning/Losing their light in the glorious sun/Thus would we pass from the earth and its tolling/Always remembered for what we have done.//Who’ll sing the anthem and who’ll tell the story/Will the line hold will it scatter and run/Shall we at last be united in glory/And always remembered for what we have done.”
Only Remembered (or: The Everlasting Memorial) is originally a hymn by Horatio Bonar dating back to 1860 at least, but its music and words have been modified many times (Mudcat). All versions, however, give “toiling” instead of “tolling”, and “only” rather than “always”.
English folk singer John Tams added a verse paying tribute to British war dead which is included here along the bottom of the mural (“Who’ll sing the anthem …” etc) (YouTube). The soldiers commemorated here are UVF members William Marchant, Trevor Logan, Douglas Mahood, John McClean, Norman Dunseith, Stevie Wilson, William Mahood, Brian McCallum, Ronnie Marchant, John Alexander McClean. The mural is on the side wall of the memorial to Brian “Herbie” McCallum.
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Orange Fest
There is a now-annual campaign to discourage excessive drinking and focus on “heritage, tradition, respect, remembrance, culture” during 12th celebrations, rebranded as the more family-friendly “Orange Fest’. Sponsored by the Policing And Community Safety Partnership (web | tw | Fb) Here is 2016’s campaign: Battle Of The Bottle.
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Masked Republican Mercenaries
The Strategic Policy and Resources Committee of Belfast City Council decided on the 8th to remove two east Belfast bonfires built on council-owned land, carparks at the Avoniel leisure centre and in Ashdale Street, after staff arriving for work reported being threatened (BBC), perhaps by bonfire-builders reacting to the removal of tyres in Lismore Street (ITV) (see A Vote For The IRA). In response, builders of the Avoniel pyre removed its tyres, lowered its height, and moved it further away from buildings, but the Council affirmed its decision. A crowd of about 400 gathered to protect the site on Tuesday evening (BBC) and barricaded the site. The graffiti shown above appeared, calling contractors “masked republican mercenaries” and vowing that if they interfered they would “Attack loyalism at your own risk!!!” On Wednesday (1oth) the Council committee again affirmed its decision (Ailerain) but expressed concern over information of possible UVF involvement (Belfast Live) supplied in a letter from the PSNI (Mark Simpson). (The mural is the background is a UDA one. See Northern Island.) The barricades were removed on Wednesday (as the image below shows). A contractor hired to remove the fire pulled out (BBC) on Wednesday evening. A “cultural celebration” was held throughout the night (BelTel).
The Ashdale Street fire was moved to a different location, near the Oval (BBC) and was set alight last night (BelTel).
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Edenderry Bonfire
Edenderry bonfire standing tall on the site of the former Portadown railway station, with commemorative plaque to the Ulster Volunteers on the left-hand pillar.
Elsewhere in Portadown, local residents were advised by the council to leave their homes ahead of the Corcrain/Redmanville bonfire, to be lit tonight (10th) (BBC).
See previously: The Killicomaine bonfire: Respect.
Copyright © 2019 Dean Weir
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A Vote For The IRA
1,800 tyres were removed from the bonfire in Lismore Street this week by contractors in “armoured Land Rovers” (according to by Robert Girvin, East Belfast Cultural Collective, to the BBC; see this gallery of images at Belfast Live) working for Belfast City Council. PUP councillor John Kyle spoke out in favour of their removal (twitter | Belfast Live). Local residents have interpreted his comments as treasonous, with three pieces of graffiti painted in the area, one on Roseberry Road next to Young’s fish and chips (above), one on London Road (below), and at the bonfire site on Lismore Street (final image): “A vote for John Kyle is a vote for [the] IRA.” The graffiti has been criticised by unionists – PUP | DUP – though Jamie Bryson suggested that the Council was pushing unionists and the PSNI into conflict.
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Herbie McCallum
The memorial to Brian “Herbie” McCallum at the top of Ainsworth Avenue received a major upgrade late last year, with two new plaques and a mural (shown above) along with a side wall that will be featured in a separate post. The long plaque reads: “June 1993 brought extreme Republican violence and agitation surrounding the annual Orange Whiterock parade, which was travelling its traditional route past this very spot and onto the Springfield Road. The threat being so severe to this community, the 1st Belfast Battalion Ulster Volunteer Force deployed several armed active service units. Herbie being Herbie was first to volunteer for duty. Realising the grenade he had been issued with had malfunctioned and giving absolutely no consideration for his own safety, he carried the device to a safe location, away from men, women and children. This one selfless act costs Herbie his life when the grenade detonated prematurely. Volunteer Brian “Herbie” McCallum died 29th June 1993. Sadly missed by his family friends and comrades. Rest easy soldier your duty is done. For God and Ulster.” McCallum died three days after the explosion.
The plaque from the original memorial (which dates back to 1994) has also been retained (above the one shown next, below): see Some Day Soon We’ll March Proudly On Parade.
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“There is discipline in a volunteer/You can see it when he walks/There is honour in a volunteer,/You can hear it when he talks/There is courage in a volunteer,/You can see it in his eyes/There is loyalty in a volunteer/That he will not compromise.”
“We will remember him. The officers and members of Sweeney’s ‘A’ Company 1st Belfast Battalion Ulster Volunteer Force.”
Ulster’s Present Defenders
This is the matching pair to Ulster’s Past Defenders from last week, which featured the B Specials and UDR. Ulster’s Present Defenders are the “undefeated” (“invicta”) UFF, who are shown here taking a sledgehammer to someone’s front door. The quotation on the rights is a modified version of the Declaration of Arbroath: “For as long as one hundred of us remain alive we shall never in anyway consent to submit to the Irish. For it’s not for glory, honour or riches we fight but for freedom alone which no man loses but with his life.” The gunman in the lower right is famous from a mural (M02474) – now gone – in the lower Shankill. Carnany estate, Ballymoney.
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Respect
Two images today from our Portadown correspondent of the ‘Respect’ mural in the bus shelter (painted November 2018) along with (in the second image, below) the bonfire currently in place in Killicomaine, Portadown, sporting Paratroop flags and an Ulster Banner – to be taken down before lighting.
Copyright © 2019 Dean Weir
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Another Hole In The Wall
The solid gates at the eastern (city centre) end of the west Belfast “peace” line have been replaced with see-through gates. The plans were released back in February (Belfast Live). Most of the Mickey Marley mural on the left (from the nationalist side) remains. According to the PA, the gates dated to 1992. Other gates have been similarly upgraded: see the gates in Workman Avenue (See-Through Sectarianism) and Howard Street (Belfast Lock-Up). Here is the list of DOJ-owned “interface structures”.
For images from Townsend St Prebyterian, see On The Other Side.
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