You can see (or imagine) all of east Belfast with the help of the guide-post in the middle of Lisvannon Community Garden: Stormont to the east, factories to the south-west, and Harland & Wolff to the north-west.
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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Here is another set of four portraits of Robert Bennett, Joe Long, James Cordner, and Robert “Squeak” Seymour, all members of the UVF killed in the 1970s (Bennet, Long, Cordner) and 1980s (Seymour).
Inverary Street, east Belfast.
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King Billy’s sword is tipped in blood, and he rides below a shamrock, rose, and thistle, uniting the kingdoms. Ballyclare Orange Hall is named after Hugh McCalmont, a major-general in the British Army Ulster Unionist MP for North Antrim in 1895 (and East Antrim in 1918?). His Whiteabbey house was burned down by suffragettes in 1914 because it was used as a training ground by the UVF of the anti-franchise Carson.
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Strandtown and District Unionist Club used to be at 4 Belmont Road (Strandtown Hall) and it erected this memorial to local casualties in the Great War in Portland stone on the adjacent wall,(Lord Belmont in NI) which is now part of a Christian Fellowship church. “Hereon are recorded the names of those men and women who in serving voluntarily their King and country, laid down their lives. Pass not this stone sorrow but in pride and may you live as nobly as they died.” The building currently houses Bennett’s On Belmont, a UUP headquarters, and the Victoria Ulster Unionist Association upstairs.
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On 20 August 1943, second pilot Sergeant John Erskine and the Liberator crew of seven others failed to return from a convoy patrol of the west of Ireland (59 Squadron). Erksine and 28 others from WWII (and one from the Korean War) are commemorated in a new mural in Erskine Park, Ballyclare. It’s not known if the street name is connected to Sergeant John.
The left-hand portrait is of Edward Girvan, from Ballynure, who was killed on the H.M.S. Repulse, when it was attacked by Japanese aircraft and struck by torpedo bombs in the South China Sea on December 10th, 1941 (WP).
The soldier in the centre of the mural wears the emblem of the Royal Ulster Rifles, Parachute Regiment on his cap. William Johnston 7018189 and George Williamson 7022501 are listed (on the right) as riflemen in airborne battalions of the RUR, but this appears to be a reproduction of an original painting of an RUR major.
Like the WWI Ballyclare & District mural, the UDA are on the side wall – see the wide shot, below.
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UVF volunteer John Hanna was 19 years old when he was killed by “the enemies of Ulster” (the IRA) at his home on Donegall Road in the Village. This new board is in Prince Andrew Park, just off Donegall Road. “Always remembered by the officers and volunteers South Belfast [2nd Batt Sandy Row] UVF”.
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The picture tells a thousand words and a few more are added around the top: “Individual, unique, cherished, treasured, miraculous, fearfully & wonderfully made. Survivor!” This is Mark Ervine’s piece for #HitTheEast. In the in-progress shot below, Mark stands aside to let a local try her hand.
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Twenty-five victims of five “Shankill atrocities” – at the Four Step Inn, the Balmoral Furniture Store, Mountainview Bar, Bayardo Bar, and (from the 1990s) Frizzell’s fish shop – are remembered in an updated board in Dundee Street. The central image remains 17-month-old Colin Nichol in the arms of ambulance man Bob Scott. (See the Peter Moloney Collection for the previous version. Before that, there was a painted version on Bellevue Street: Where is our truth?)
“30 years of indiscriminate slaughter by so-called non-sectarian Irish freedom fighters. Provisional Sinn Fein demands “equality/respect/integrity”. No military targets! No economic targets! No legitimate targets! No enquiries! No truth! No justice! Where is the “equality” in justice? Where is the “respect” for Protestants? Where is the “integrity” in murder? We remember the victims of Provisional Sinn Fein genocide.”
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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG) (Tw | Fb) is an advisory body to the UDA and produced Common Sense (available at CAIN) in 1987 (and before that, in 1979, NUPRG produced Beyond The Religious Divide, which is mentioned in the long-standing John McMichael mural in Lemberg Street (see We Must Share The Responsibility); this is the side-wall to the new C Coy South Belfast UDA/UFF/UDU/UYM/LPA mural in Tavanagh Street.
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Sculptor Elaine Taylor (Tw | Fb) makes creations out of wire (see images at Studio Souk). For her Hit The East mural she has created what looks like a wire robot monster rising out of the lough to terrorise east Belfast.
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Extramural Activity 