“This is our Israel and this we shall defend.” “This” is Northern Ireland.
This is a vintage sticker (dating back to 2021) on the Shankill Road at Lawnbrook Avenue.
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This Is Our Israel
Ulster Banner
UVF English Brigade
“English Brigade Ulster Volunteer Force.” “England and Ulster – the ties that bind.” “United we stand.”
“Let our flag run out straight in the wind/The old red shall be floated again./When the ranks that are thin shall be thinned/When the names that were twenty are ten.” [from Swinburne’s A Song In Time Of Order which was also used as a socialist song]
On the left are the words from William Blake’s poem, which also serve as the lyrics to the hymn Jerusalem.
The images along the bottom illustrate the connection between Northern Ireland and England. From left to right: Edward Carson in Liverpool in 1912; 10,00 pledges from Liverpool men; Carson addressing 100,000 people in Hyde Park, London; a banner reading “City of London supports loyal Ulster”; “Field Marshall Sir Henry Wilson opens the Ulster Tower in 1921. Sir Henry was killed by the IRA in 1922 at his home in London”; GS Cather, VC winner with the Ulster Division; evacuees to Liverpool in 1973.
Spier’s Place, middle Shankill, west Belfast, to the left of A Fisherman, An Entertainer, A Shankill Road Man.
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Volunteers, Defenders, Civilians
Part of the most recent development of the upper streets in the Village was not to rebuild the two rows of houses on Ebor and Nubia/Moltke streets and in their place construct a park – the Village Green, and now officially the “Ruby Murray Village Green” – and playground. The board on the outside railings make the park a “community park of remembrance” for WWI, showing an Ulster Banner with a Union Flag in the canton. (Seen previously in The Village Green Preservation Society.)
There is also a memorial to “loved ones and friends”, “volunteers, defenders & civilians” of the South Belfast UVF (though there is 36th (Ulster) Division emblem in the corner!) who were “cruely taken away from us by republican scum”: Dinah Campbell, Francis Campbell, Alexander Scott, Frankie Smith, Stevie McCrea, John Hanna, Sammy Mehaffy, William Kingsberry, Jackie Campbell, David Poots.
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East Club
“Welcome to the loyalist East Belfast Working Men’s Club” (Fb) Chamberlain Street, east Belfast.
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Castlemara Celebrates
Castlemara residents’ various emotions are on display at the entrace to the estates: celebrating the jubilee of Elizabeth II, the coronation of Charles III, the creation of Northern Ireland in 1921, and Rangers’ 55th league title; saluting Tom Moore; commemorating Prince Philip, 1921-2021; and remembering with gratitude the “100th anniversary of the Battle Of The Somme”: “We must not forget what they gave so we may live. Let not their deaths be in vain. Lest we forget.”
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We’re From The Coole
More Sons Of Kai/KAI flute band (ig) markings in Rathcoole, Newtownabbey. See previously The Famous and Welcome To Our Homeland.
Rathcoole Drive/Rathcoole Gardens
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The Loyal Shankill
Here are a few images from the Shankill in the days following the coronation of King Charles III. For the mural in the second image, see C Coy Street.
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Silence Speaks When Words Can Not
There was previously a (painted) mural on this wall – see Passchendaele Court – but this latest display is a large printed board, with photographs blended together and framed by graveside mourners, poppies, and the emblems of the Pride Of Govan flute band and the Govan Somme Association (Fb), which also supported the previous mural.
To the left, as seen in the final images, is a smaller UVF (1st Battalion) A Company 5th Platoon board – like the other new board in the street We Will Always Be Ready (and on the other side of Conway Street – see When Needed We Shall Rise Again).
Conway Walk, Belfast
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The Great War And The Recent Conflict
“In remembrance of all those Ulster men and women from the greater Dunmurry area who died during the Great Wars 1914-18 and 1939-45. Also those men and women who died during the recent conflict. Lest we forget.” These are the same words as appeared on a plaque on the previous memorial, which included the Special Constabulary. In the background is a “Welcome to loyalist Seymour Hill” board with flags and poppies, along with a 2021 tarp reading “Seymour Hill says no to the Irish Sea border”.
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Loyalist Movilla
Here is a gallery of images from the junction of Upper Movilla Street and Georges Street in Newtownards. In the image above, a handdrawn UDA emblem can be faintly seen, behind the modern board that has fallen down (possibly off a house in Wallaces Street). In a separate post, see IRA Council Demands.
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Extramural Activity 