Here is another pair of combined UVF memorial stones – from both WWI and the modern conflict. Above, the fallen comrades of 2nd battalion South Belfast are remembered by their fellow officers and volunteers in the Village’s B Company; below, the garden is dedicated to the “glory of God” in memory of the “sons of Ulster” by “all of their comrades in arms who, by divine grace, were spared to testify to their glorious deeds.” (BelTel and Irish News articles on the unplanned inclusion of modern-day UVF.)
Fifteen football teams from west and north Belfast are involved in a new Suicide Awareness and Mental Health Initiative (SAMHI) in order to combat a recent increase in suicides, including two players from Belfast Celtic (BBC).
“Storm drain – all pain, no gain for residents”. This is perhaps a reference to the major construction project needed to provide drainage for Windsor Park and the Olympia leisure centre – see Water Projects for images of Donegall Avenue and Olympia Avenue during the work.
Graffiti against both the IRA (“Your [You’re] a scumbag Martin McGuinness” and “Provo bastards”) and the police (“PSNI scum”) in the Village, south Belfast.
A happier image from Oakfield Drive (after yesterday’s offering): the interests of local children are reflected in the tiles they made: a Union flag and Ulster banner but also a heart and “Liverpool”. One of four such tile collages on the front of the (now-defunct) Glenfield Community Association building.
February 2015 saw the controversial painting of two UDA murals in the Glenfield estate, Carrickfergus. They are now graffitied over with “child beaters”, “fuck ur UDA” (above) and “child molester”, “fuck yerz” and the red hand x’ed out (below). It’s not clear what (or who) the allegations concern.
Here are two final images from the memorial garden in Kilcooley. As mentioned in Tuesday’s post (To Keep Our Ulster Free), it seems that the combination of WWI imagery (today’s post and Across The Wire) and paramilitary memorials was not the plan approved by the Department of Social Development, which contributed funds to the project (Belfast Telegraph). A wide shot of the whole is included below.
According to an article in the Tele last Friday (2017-04-21), the Housing Executive has a list of over 100 memorial on Executive-owned land that it considers illegal. The list itself does not seem to be available and so it is not not known if the Kilcooley garden is one of these.
“Faugh a ballagh” (Clear the way) was the motto of the Royal Irish Fusiliers (and then of the Royal Irish Rangers and currently of the Royal Irish Regiment). The Fusiliers served on the western front during WWI – the first and ninth battalions serving in the 36th (Ulster) Division – and the 3rd battalion helped put down the Easter Rising in 1916. Its coat of arm are one of four panels along with the 36th, the Royal Irish Rifles, and the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.
The Thiepval Memorial, the Cross of Sacrifice, and the Ulster Tower are pictured in the bottom left.
Close-ups of the four regimental insignia are included below. “Nec Aspera Terrant [sic, for “terrent”]”, meaning “frightened by no difficulties”, was the motto of the Inniskilling Fusiliers, who fought in both Boer Wars and both World Wars – its battalions saw action at Gallipoli and on the Western front – before being amalgamated in the Royal Irish Rangers in 1968, along with the Royal Ulster Rifles and the troop featured in the third image, the Royal Irish Fusiliers. Their arms are shown along with those of the Royal Irish Rifles and a board commemorating the charge from Thiepval Wood during the Somme
“We have slain him but we fear him/As we stand in silence now/For the hero light still lingers/Like a lantern on his brow. And the wiles of witchcraft jeer him/With the phantoms of our dead/As they moil like may mosquitoes/Round his torn and bleeding head.” Cuchulainn is invoked as a “defender of Ulster” on the UDA memorial stone in the Kilcooley estate. The Red Hand Commando and UVF stones are shown below. The three paramilitary stones were added independently of the WWI garden (BelTel).
WWI soldiers from the 36th (Ulster) Division go over the top and make their way through the barbed wire. Not a mural but a painted sky on a memorial stone. Part of the Owenroe memorial garden in Bangor.
Extramural Activity 