Bangor/Holywood

North Down Battalion

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The yellow board in the foreground lists battles of the North Down Battalion in World War I (for a description of the battalion, see the previous 2017 post). Added to that since then is a large black-and-white board to the modern Ulster Volunteer Force and its divisions: Bangor, Donaghadee, Ballywalter, Newtownards, Millisle, and Portavogie. (It’s worth noting that although this is a board, the UVF emblem in the middle is depicted as having been painted on a brick wall, indicating a preference for old-school muraling.)

Below is a shot of the rest of the low wall, with Bangor Protestant Boys Flute Band (previously seen in 2017). Owenroe Drive, Bangor.

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Simply The Best

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These  UDA 2nd battalion D company boards are in the lower Kilcooley estate, Bangor. This piece is co-branded as “North Down/West Belfast”, even though it is only metres away from a (North Down/East Belfast) North Down Defenders board. See Ulster Defence Unions for more on the tensions between the rival UDA factions.

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X06091 Ganaway Avenue

1912 UVF

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This post updates a 2017 one (Always A Little Further) from Whitehill, Bangor, with the addition of “1912 UVF” between the two “East Belfast UVF” boards, suggesting a softening of message. Similarly, a long “Ulster Volunteer Force” has been blacked out directly across the street.

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East East Belfast

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This hooded gunman from the East Belfast UVF – like the series of stencils featured previously in EB UVF – is on a wall in Newtownards’s Westwinds estate. Below is a EB UVF mural at the bottom of Bowtown, not far from the West Belfast UDA mural in Greenwell St. The UVF and UDA also compete in the Glen estate; compare Today’s Local with Our Heritage In Your Hands.

Questions about EB UVF lawlessness in north Down arose over the summer with a “business opportunity” presented to local hostelries (Belfast Live | ITV).

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Welcome To The Jungle

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Dee Stitt of the UDA resigned last week as chair of Charter NI citing the strain on his family caused by negative media attention (BBC-NI | Irish News). At the end of 2016, Stitt was criticised for remarks describing his North Down Defenders (tw | Fb) as the “homeland security” of the area and describing working-class estates as “jungles” in which there is always a “big guy” (Guardian video 8 min mark ff.| BelTel | ITV) . The mural above does not directly indicate ties to the UDA/UFF, except for the red fist. For a more explicit NDD board further down the estate, with UDA, UFF, UYM, and LPA flags, see North Down Defenders.

For the recent tension between UDA factions in north Down, see Ulster Defence Unions.

Replaces the mural to VC winner Sir Edward Bingham.

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Available Here

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On the right of this image there is a European Regional Development Fund plaque (dating back to at least 2008) but we do not have any record of a previous piece in this spot (Main Street, Conlig). It is not likely that it is referring to the Red Hand Commando board. Please get in touch if you have any information. See also the UVF board on the Today’s Local in the Glen estate, Newtownards.

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North Down UVF

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This mural at the bottom of Kilcooley estate in Bangor has recently been repainted, with the main alteration being the “North Down UVF” replaces “1st July 1916”, focusing attention on the locals from battalion that joined the 36th and away from the Somme. (See the previous mural in 1st July 1916.)

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Negative Space

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This was presumably to be a UDA mural in the Bangor estate of Kilcooley (there used to be a UFF mural on this wall – see M03710), but the mural was started in May 2016 and the image above taken in April 2017. If you have any information about why the painting stopped, please get in touch.

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They Sleep Side-By-Side

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“Bangor’s Finest (Fb)” the Pride of Whitehill Flute Band marks its 40th anniversary (1976-2016) with a mural and two small boards dedicated to Ulster Volunteers and Young Citizen Volunteers in WWI: “When you go home, tell them of us and say “For your tomorrow we gave our today.” “They fought together as brothers-in-arms, they died together and now they sleep side-by-side. To them we have a solemn obligation.”

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Always A Little Further

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East Belfast now extends all the way to Bangor: shown today are two East Belfast UVF boards in Whitehill, one a red hand and the other the familiar “pilgrims” image, seen continuously in east Belfast since the 90s in Tamar Street, Mersey Street, and (twice) on the Newtownards Road (currently in the Iceland car park). (Article on the EB – North Down UVF dispute in nearby Bowtown area in 2015.)

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