UVF 3rd Battalion [East Antrim? North Belfast?] board in Ballyclare to Vol. Robert Heaney and Vol. Brian Heaney. There doesn’t seem to be any information about these two in the usual places – please get in touch if you know anything about them.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03638 erskine pk
Garlands of poppies, one for each of 38 local men “who gave their lives during the Battle of the Somme 1st July 1916 – 18th Nov 1916”, form a circle around a photograph of “Ballyclare Main Streeet 18th September 1914” as the men go off to war. For information about 17 of the men, see this Love Ballyclare page.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03642 X03641 charles drive lest we forget south east antrim brigade UDA UFF Eddie Beck and Graeme Baird
East Antrim 1st battalion (specifically D Company?) and (North?) Belfast 3rd battalion mural in Erskine Park, Ballyclare.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Two fake vintage shopfronts in Ballyclare town centre: one showing a “village blacksmith” pausing for a moment, the other a cobbler behind the counter.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01820 X01819 farm tools and cart repairs horse and pony shoe and boot repair
The lettering has faded from this Ballyclare mural of soldier from the 36th (Ulster) Division going over the top. The scroll in the bottom right contained the familiar list of eight Somme battles: Somme, Ypres, Arras, Thiepval, St. Quentin, Grandcourt, Messines, Fricourt (featured also in Tamery Pass | At The Going Down Of The Sun and a part of the YCV flag, as in Where Youth And Laughter Go). The main panel read “Let us not forget those of our comrades who have made the supreme sacrifice. Ulster mourns them but is proud of the glory and honour they have won for the imperial province.”
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01828 uvf for god and ulster wwi
UDA/UFF/UYM (Ulster Young Militants) board in Grange Drive, Ballyclare, with red hand and red fist.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01818 quis separabit terrae filius feriens tego
UVF/YCV mural in Ballyclare celebrating and commemorating soldiers from the 36th (Ulster) Division in WWI and in particular at the Somme. The central panel, shown above, shows soldiers bearing the Division’s standard (painted in colour in an otherwise black-and-white mural and in the style of the (US) Marines ‘Iwo Jima’ Memorial (WP)) which comprises the Union flag, harp insignia of the Royal Irish Rifles, and the red hand of Ulster on a field of shamrocks.
The other panels, shown in the full shot, below, show (clockwise from top left) uniforms of the Ulster Volunteers, a Protestant woman defending the fields (see Deserted! Well, I Can Stand Alone), soldiers going over the top, and soldiers bowed at a UVF memorial.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01830 X01831 we band of brothers Henry V shakespeare
The close-up above is from the ‘Andrew Murphy Memorial’ mural at the top of Grange Drive, Ballyclare, showing King Billy crossing the Boyne. (full mural below)
‘Andrew Murphy Memorial’ is a flute band from Carluke, Scotland. According to the band’s Fb page, the band was formed in 1988 and named after a member of the Carluke Orange Lodge (LOL 190). Here is video of the band parading in Belfast, at the UVF centenary celebrations last year (2013).
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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This is the ‘yesteryear’ portion of the hoarding around waste ground on The Square, encouraging people to “Shop, live, enjoy – Ballyclare”. There are photographs of ‘McIlroy’s shop 1867’, ‘Main Street 1907’, and ‘Square in the 50’s’.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Extramural Activity 