They Live With Us

2014-02-11 QueensAve2Batt+

“They live with us/in memory still/not just today/ but always still.” Mural and memorial in Queen Street, Glengormley, to South East Antrim UFF/UDA/UYM volunteers A. Helm, G[erald] Evans, W. Gordan, J. Woods, and T. McDonald.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01673 UFF 2nd Batt. A. Coy dedicated to all our fallen comrades of south east antrim brigade

The United Nations

2014-02-10 QueensAveFlags+

In a window on Queens Avenue, Glengormley: a Union flag, an Ulster-Scots flag (a Northern Ireland shield on a St. Andrew’s saltire, with the words “Ulster-Scots” below) and the Israeli flag.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Young Conquerors

2013-07-30 EastwayCYCFB+

The Israeli flag flies on a fence (along with other flags, not in shot) outside the Eastway social club in Rathcoole. On the wall of the club is a union flag with the letters “CYCFB” standing for “Cloughfern Young Conquerors Flute Band”. The band will next parade in the area on August 17th. The “T” of “Eastway” is the Tennent’s Lager brand.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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On Her Their Lives Depend

2013-05-19 OnHerTheirLives+

Women Munition Workers during the First World War are celebrated in this 2011 mural on Inniscarn/Iniscarn Drive in Rathcoole. A ‘Canary Girl’ readies for work as a TNT shell maker. The term stems from the fact that TNT can turn the skin a yellow-orange colour.

The recruitment poster on which the mural is based is shown below. British Pathé has some footage of women working in a munitions factory, presumably in England somewhere. BBC has a page on a massive explosion at the Chilwell (Nottingham) factory. An image of workers amongst shells in 1915 can be seen at http://smnmcshannon.hubpages.com/.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Many Did Not Return

2013-05-19 15thBatt+

This mural and memorial in Rathcoole commemorates soldiers from the north Belfast area who went to France in 1915 as part of the 15th (North Belfast) Royal Irish Rifles, and in particular the five whose faces appear in the apex of the mural: Magookin, La Harpur, Forrester, Baird and Templeton.

The information board is reproduced below.

2013-05-19 15thBattInfo+

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Rathcoole UFF

2013-05-20 RathcooleUFF+

This UFF/UDA/UYM mural on Iniscairn Drive in the Rathcoole estate features a red fist (centre) and a red hand wrapped in barbed wire (apex), as well two masked figures aiming rifles.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01102 south east antrim UDA UYM terrae filius quis seperabit

Our Flag Was Still There

2013-02-05 HightownRdFlag+

A tattered Union Flag on the Hightown Road/Bóthar Bhaile na hAirde in Glengormley/Gleann Gormliath (just north of Belfast). The title comes from the U.S. anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner”: “the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there” (WP).

Previously on Extramural Activity: Shankill Rd flag and barbed wire.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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View From The North Bank

2012-12-10 ViewNorthBank+

A Union Flag flies together with an Israeli flag on O’Neill Road over the Rathcoole estate (which saw some rioting last week over the removal of the Union Flag from Belfast city hall) and a Red Hand Commando mural.

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Copyright © 2012 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00767 B coy 1st batt

Loyalist Rathcoole

Loyalist Rathcoole, and more specifically UDA Rathcoole – the upper part of the estate is a UVF stronghold. Green End, Rathcoole.

x00513-rathcooleuymd

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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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