South Belfast Volunteers

Here are five more small boards from the Village. Above is a one to the memory of soldiers from the 36th (Ulster) Division lost in WWI; the remainder refer to the modern UVF, though all of them include poppies, suggesting that they are memorial in intent and so less menacing than yesterday’s hooded gunman in Welcome To The Village.

Also, previously: Village UVF | A Hive Of Glass| For God And Ulster

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Welcome To The Village

Small boards (the same size as the Poppy Trail individual commemorative boards, as in XXXVI) have been erected at most of the street corners along Broadway in the Village area of south Belfast. Many are UVF emblems but this one of a hooded gunman aiming at the viewer is a remarkable return to openly paramilitary imagery in the neighbourhood.

See also South Belfast VolunteersA Hive Of Glass | Village UVF | For God And Ulster

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Life In The Old Dogs Yet

In addition to their Easter parade in April (Irish News) and large hoarding celebrating Charlie Hughes and Leila Khaled at the corner of Northumberland Street, IRA D Company’s presence in Divis now includes a cut-out assault rifle and tricoloured “IRA” mounted on the light pole.

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Drug Dealers Will Be Shot

“Drug dealers will be shot!!” “AAD” is Action Against Drugs, a group that emerged from the IRA after disarmament. See previously: Action Against Drugs in Divis | U’ll Do Nottin’ and Drug Dealers Will Be Shot in Ardoyne.

Duncairn Parade, New Lodge.

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Sunshine Not Skyscrapers

Residents of the Markets are challenging a planned 55 million pound high-rise office-block next to Central Station, which they say will overshadow their homes (Irish News). A decision in the case is expected by the end of the month (BelTel)

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A Fisherman, An Entertainer, A Shankill Road Man

From yesterday’s Ordinary People, Extraordinary Roles, here are the three individual plaques to Trevor King, Frenchie Marchant, and Davy Hamilton, three UVF volunteers killed at or near the junction of Spier’s Place and the Shankill Road. The poetic verse (in the wide shot) is from Siegfried Sassoon’s Suicide In The Trenches.

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Ordinary People, Extraordinary Roles

“This plaque is dedicated to the memory of Lieutenant Colonel Trevor King, died 9th July 1994, Major William (Frenchie) Marchant, died 28th April 1987, Volunteer David Hamilton, Died 17th June 1994. These brave men died near this spot [the corner of Spier’s Place and Shankill Road, west Belfast] by the enemies of Ulster. No sacrifice is too great for one’s country. They paid the ultimate sacrifice. ‘They shall grow not old/as we that are left grow old/Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn/At the going down of the sun and in the morning/We will remember them.’” King and Hamilton (along with Colin Craig, an RUC informer and not included on the plaque) were shot by the INLA and died of their wounds three weeks and one day later. Frenchie Marchant (in the middle of the image above) was shot by the IRA outside The Eagle chip shop.

For the individual plaques, see A Fisherman, An Entertainer, A Shankill Road Man.

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IRPC

The Irish Republican Prisoners Committee (IRPC) is currently without any web or social-media presence, but it recently mounted this board in Northumberland Street, Belfast. As with all post-Agreement murals for republican prisoners, it uses only barbed wire and not the lark.

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The Strangest Victory In All History

From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, 1953: “The strangest victory in all history: Heremon [Érimón] O’Neill racing a rival chieftain for possession of Ireland became the first man to touch its soil by cutting off his own hand and hurling it ashore! His sacrifice made Heremon the first king of Ulster, 1015 B.C. The red hand of Ulster is still the provinces coat of arms thousands of years later.” Most people believe it not.

Newtownards Road, east Belfast

From left to right: For Freedom Alone | As Long As 100 Of Us Remain Alive | Loyalist East Belfast | The Strangest Victory In All History | Ulster’s Past Defenders | Nationality is included in Loyalist East Belfast | Ulster’s Present Defenders | Freedom Corner

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The Portal Opens

Friz’s (web) ‘Gatekeeper‘ in Joys Entry, painted in 2015 for Culture Night, is suffering from the decay of the boards over the windows.

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