Dungannon/Coalisland

How Real Men ‘Take A Knee’

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Here is a survey of PUL boards (from left to right) at the shops in the centre of the village of Moygashel, just south of Dungannon.

First is a British Army soldier in a firing position. Compare this board to Now Is The Time To Kneel in Clonduff, Castlereagh, which suggested that the time for soldiers to kneel was in mourning for Queen Elizabeth.

The subject of the second image is obscure. Vanguard as a political and activist group dissolved in 1977 (WP) and the name and emblem have been taken up by the Vanguard Bears, a Rangers supporters’ club (see e.g. Defending Our Traditions).

Third is a children’s mural, produced (in part) by children from Howard primary school.

The ‘Time To Decide’ and UDR 8th (Co. Tyrone) battalion roll of honour were seen previously, alongside two others which are now absent, in Belfast Agreement Null & Void.

Beyond those is a tarp celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee, in 2022.

Finally, a Moygashel Youth Club (Fb) mural in disrepair.

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Ireland’s Hunger Strike Martyrs

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Two Saoradh (web) boards in Dungannon. The first (above) commemorates republican hunger strikers beginning with Thomas Ashe in 1917 and the Cork trio of Terrence McSwiney, Michael Fitzgerald, and Joe Murphy in 1920. (For a list of all 22, see RSF.) The second (below) calls on local people not to co-operate with the police or with British military or intelligence: “People Should Not Inform”.

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If Our Shores Are Threatened

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“If our shores are threatened/We will take up arms/To defend our loyal cause/Our culture and our heritage/Our freedoms and our laws.” Moygashel’s own (William) Wesley Somerville, a member of both the UVF and UDR, was killed by a bomb prematurely exploding as he placed it on the minibus of the Miami Showband in July of 1975. Three members of the band died, one of them Protestant, along with volunteers Somerville and Harris Boyle from Portadown (WP). “He died for Ulster” (on the plaque).

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Still Anti-GFA

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More anti-Good Friday/Belfast Agreement sentiment, this time from Dungannon, and this time claiming not that support has been withdrawn from the Agreement but that it was not supported in the first place: “Loyalist Eastvale Avenue says ‘No’ to Irish Sea border – Anti-GF 1998, still anfi-GFA 2021”.

Also in this street: memorial plaque to LVF leader Billy Wright.

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Belfast Agreement Null & Void

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On Thursday of last week the Loyalist Communities Council, which represents the various loyalist paramilitary groups – all of which are proscribed organisations – in a letter sent to both Micheál Martin and Boris Johnson temporarily withdrew their support for the Good Friday or Belfast Agreement in protest over the NI Protocol that is part of Brexit (Guardian | BBC). These Moygashel UVF boards go further, threatening violence in response to a law seen as unjust.

From left to right: “Ulster 1912 2021 – compare with Deserted, Well I Can Stand Alone which shows the date as 1914. Time to decide!” “Our forefathers fought for our freedom and rights. No border in the sea or we continue the fight.” “Belfast Agreement null & void”, “UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade – when injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.”

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