Centre: Carson signs the Covenant – the document is top right; top left: gunrunning on the Clyde Valley; bottom left, mounted rifles; bottom right, Carson presenting colours (and the 2011 Ballyduff bonfire).
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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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John “Grug/Grugg” Gregg and Robert “Rab” Carson of the UDA’s Southeast Antrim brigade were killed on February 1st, 2003, on orders from Johnny Adair of the West Belfast brigade after Gregg and other brigade bosses voted to expel Adair from the UDA (October 2002).
The emblem is of the Royal Irish/Ulster Rifles/Regiment – it’s not clear if there is connection to Gregg or the UDA; the emblem is also used by the Cloughfern Young Conquerors, but again the connection to the RIR is unclear.
Replaces the Cloughfern Eddie. (See also the Visual History page on Eddie.) Gregg was known as “the grim reaper” and had a tattoo of the reaper on his back (Guardian).
The Israeli flag flies from the Watta-Chip in Knockenagh Avenue, Newtownabbey.
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The Cloughfern Young Conquerors (a UDA flute band) (Fb) was founded in 1973 in Rathfern – the same year as the UFF. Knockenagh Ave.
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The White Star Line ship Titanic sank in the Atlantic in the early morning of April 15th, 1912, a thousand miles from New York (the co-ordinates are given in the top right), having been launched from Belfast’s Harland & Wolff shipyard, which is near this mural just off the Newtownards Road in east Belfast. The portraits are of Captain Edward Smith, architect Thomas Andrews, Jack Phillips (wireless officer), and paperboy Ned Parfett.
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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“We seek nothing but the elementary right implanted in every man: the right if you are attacked, to defend yourself.” Hooded gunmen return to east Belfast at the junction of Newtownards Road and Dee Street (Bright Street), replacing a mural for the Glentoran Community Trust. It’s not clear who the UVF felt attacked by in 2011; it is possible that this mural is also about local muscle-flexing in addition to sectarian politics or attention from the police.
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The mural appears to show a “show of strength” (firing into the air) rather than a parade, by hooded gunmen of the east Belfast UVF. The crowd is gathered on Newtownards Road at Dee Street, date unknown (but prior to 2008).
Newtownards Road, east Belfast.
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An angelic face bearing a rose in Alexandra Park, north Belfast.
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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Here are three details from the metalworks in the Mount Vernon WWI memorial garden, showing scenes from the conflict and a map of the area around Messines (photoshopped in red). For more, including the panels to John Cordon and William McFadzean, see M07770.
Update: As the images below from 2017 and 2018 show, the metalworks themselves have also been repainted (and replaced in a slightly different configuration), a new gate has been installed and the boards on the surrounding wall have been restored, against a freshly-painted background of green. The boards have verses from Laurence Binyon’s For The Fallen. “They mingle not with their laughing comrades again/They sit no more at familiar tables of home/They have no lot in our labour of the day-time/They sleep beyond Ulster’s [originally, England’s] foam.”
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T04420 T04419 courtesy of Paddy Duffy
Titanic sails (impossibly) between the Giant’s Causeway (on the left) and one of the Harland & Wolff cranes – all under Napoleon’s Nose and Cave Hill.
This mural replaced a UDA mural in Downing Street, Belfast.
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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“This mural is dedicated to the officers and members of the Woodvale Defence Association who gave their lives and their freedom in defence of this are. All gave some, some gave all. Quis separabit.” The plaque reads: “This plaque is dedicated to the officers and members of ‘B’ Company WDA (UFF) who gave their lives and their freedom in defence of the Woodvale. Quis separabit.
Ernie “Duke” Elliott came from the Woodvale area and was a founder member of the Woodvale Defence Association in 1971, which was later folded into the UDA. He was also a Marxist. He was killed in a pub brawl in December 1972 in a dispute over weapons (WP | Tele | Watching The Door).
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Extramural Activity 