UDA/UFF/UYM

Armed & Ready

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Weavers Grange estate in Newtownards was back in the news this week after a car was destroyed there by petrol bomb (Belfast Live). This is the latest in a long spring season of violence between by rival gangs (North Down UFF and the “Real” UFF, which was affiliated with the South East Antrim UDA (Sunday World)) that began in March and have caused over 30 families to leave the estate (Bel Tel). (Irish News March 30th | BBC April 8th | Bel Tel May 3rd). Bangor, Ballywalter, and Donaghadee have also seen violence (Belfast Live | BBC).

The images today are of the loyalist boards in Weaver’s Grange estates before the recent disturbances, which included the removal of at least some of South East Antrim UDA boards (Bel Tel | Sunday World which includes a photo of the penultimate board shown here being torn down).

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01554 [T01555] T01551 T01552 T01556 T01553

What Answer From The North?

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

These are the board at the chip shop (formerly a Spar and before that a Mace) in the centre of the Mourneview estate, Lurgan.

Above, in Mourne Road, a gallery of photographs of the Craigavon Protestant Boys (Fb) past and present, with a plaque in memory of Victor Stewart. “Our only crime is loyalty.”

Below are the images from the front of the shop, in Pollock Drive:

First/right: “When injustice becomes law resistance becomes duty.” The same panel was seen in Ballyclare, though for the 1st East Antrim battalion rather than the Mid Ulster brigade.

Next: A company, 1st battalion, Mid Ulster brigade UVF – Lurgan as well as Broxburn (outside Edinburgh) and Thornliebank (near Glasgow).

Next: A tribute to the Ulster Volunteers from the area: the 9th battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers joined the 108th brigade in the 36th (Ulster) Division; the 5th battalion joined the 31st brigade and the 10th (Irish) Division. This board goes back to (at least) 2011.

Next: “Believe, we dare not boast,/Believe, we do not fear/We stand to pay the cost,/In all that men hold dear.//What answer from the North?/One Law, one Land, one Throne/If England drive us forth,/We shall not fall alone!” Kipling’s poem Ulster.

The first stanza also appears in a Belfast RHC mural, and other lines from the poem have been used elsewhere: We Perish If We Yield | The Terror, Threats, And Dread.

All of the preceding pieces are UVF/PAF, but the last, high up on the left, is a UDU board in the top left of the wall, to 1 company, D battalion, South Belfast.

With thanks to Jackie Findon for today’s images.

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 609)
Copyright © 2023 Jackie Findon

Click and click again to enlarge (to 900 x 571)
Copyright © 2023 Jackie Findon

Click and click again to enlarge (to 700 x 825)
Copyright © 2023 Jackie Findon

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 609)
Copyright © 2023 Jackie Findon

Click and click again to enlarge (to 700 x 984)
Copyright © 2023 Jackie Findon
X12356 X12357 X12358 X12359 X12360

John “Grugg” Gregg

Extramural Activity1 Comment

“South East Antrim Brigade UFF. In proud memory of Brig. John “Grugg” Gregg and all fallen comrades. 4th Batt. A B C Coys. Lest we forget.” Gregg is known for the attempted killing of Gerry Adams and for being killed on the orders of Johnny Adair, which led to the expulsion of Adair’s company from the lower Shankill (WP).

Orkney Drive, Ballykeel 2, Ballymena. Seen previously in 2010: M05987.

T02507

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

Harryville Says No

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a gallery of six boards from Harryville (four from Larne St/Larne Rd and two from Queen Street). The newest one is shown above; it celebrates Colonel Saunderson, a founder of the Ulster Defence Union, and organisation formed in 1893 to resist the second Home Rule bill. As mentioned on the board, the UDU initially met in Belfast in March and Saunderson was among the signatories of the UDU manifesto (see page 5 of the [Sydney] Freeman’s for 1893-04-29). For more on Saunderson, see Union Is Strength. The second bill was passed by the Commons but defeated in the Lords. The champions of resistence against the third Home Rule bill were Carson and Craig, shown in the penultimate image with the “Ulster Covenant” of September, 2012.

The name “Ulster Defence Union” is being used by some anti-Agreement factions of the UDA as a name for the organisation (starting in 2007 – see WDA on Peter’s site). The second board, just below, is a 4th Battalion South East Antrim UDA/UDU board. The UDA was formed in September 1971 and hence was 50 years old in 2021. The remaining two images show the UDA on parade at Harryville Bridge and in front of Pentagon House.

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

T02543 T02544
T02493 [T02494] T02495

Welcome To Craigyhill

Extramural Activity1 Comment

Bullets versus bonfires in Craigyhill, Larne: the hooded gunman shown above is next to the boards shown in The Loyalist Executioner in Glenfarne Place, Craigyhill (Larne). Both it and the second image (from the top of Cairngorm Drive) have been added since we photographed the record-breaking bonfire in July, 2022. The third image is of the board that (in 2019?) replaced the controversial Craigyhill Provost Team board that showed a hooded gunman with a pistol. The final image, showing a pair of assault rifles, is in Fanad Drive.

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 800)
Copyright © 2022 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f6.3, 1/320, ISO 100, full size 5616 x 3744

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02342 T02356 X10544 [X10545] [X10546] T02357

Conflict To Peace

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Memorial boards to Queen Elizabethe have been added to the ‘our community transformation’ board and community garden in Old Warren.

An image of the old “You are now entering loyalist Old Warren” display that is shown in the ‘before’ side of the board above is included below. On the ‘after’ side are the youth centre, the new houses at the top of Drumbeg Drive, and the Lagan View enterprise centre. For a brief history of the area, see Through Your Eyes.

The previous board on this wall – a UDA B Company board – can be seen in C02674 and its predecessor in M05916.

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

Click and click again to enlarge (to 718 x 534)
Copyright © 2000 squire93@hotmail.com
T02323 D01246

Your Country Needs You

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“The UDA formed in 1971 as an umbrella for Loyalist Vigilante groups being formed. There [sic] role to defend the Protestant community from IRA violence. They remain today. Ask yourself this question: When the battle has been finally won, will I be able to stand and be counted amongst the men won it? Make sure the answer is yes – join your local unit of the UDA. Your country needs you.” This is an addition to the panels shown in Show No Mercy, Expect None Back.

And (on the other side of the street) the tarp is an addition to the slogans shown in 2016’s We Will Never Accept A United Ireland. “We remember our culture, from the siege of Derry to the battle of the Boyne. ‘No Surrender’.”

For the Varadkar poster, A Return To Violence.

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01823 T01820 T01821 T01822 T01819

Parkhall UDA Remembers

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“South East Antrim UDA UYM. In proud memory of Brig John Gregg, CO Gerry Evans, Andrew Gillespie, Billy Graham, Jamie Penny, Ken Thursby, T. Daly, J. McClure, B. Hobbs, B. Smyth”. Graham replaces William Hutchings, and Thursby is a new addition. The original version of the mural, dating back to 2004, included J. Kelly, W. Gordon, G. Fittis, A. Helm (M05230) – these are perhaps below the fence-line.

Gregg was a hero to loyalists for seriously injuring Gerry Adams in 1984; he was killed in the Adair feud in 2003 (Guardian). Evans was killed by the INLA in Glengormley in April, 1994 (Sutton). He was remembered long ago (1996) in a Cloughfern mural – see T00217.

Compare to the similar SEA UDA murals in Ballymena and (formerly) Glengormley.

Kilgreel Road (and Donegore Drive for the small 90th anniversary board) in Parkhall, Antrim.

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01983 [T01984] T01981

Welcome To The Grange Estate

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

An explicitly UDA mural returns to the Grange estate (Ballyclare); the previous Young Guns board fell down. Two men were imprisoned in October (2022) (Belfast Live) and November (4NI), the former from the estate, in connection with investigations into the Ballyclare UDA in February, 2021. Two others were arrested in Larne and Ballyclare in September (BelTel).

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01798 [T01799]

In Glorious Memory

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“S.L.M.M.F.B.” [Sergent Lindsay Mooney Memorial flute band] “In glorious memory: Lindsay Mooney, Ben Redfern, Cecil mcKnight, Gary Lynch, Ray Smallwoods, William Campbell. ‘At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.'”

The flute band was formed in 1973 after the St. Patrick’s day death of Lindsay Mooney, a UDA member killed by the premature explosion of a bomb near Lifford, County Donegal (Sutton). The band’s 50th anniversary march takes place on the 18th (Bands Forum), though it was not in operation between 1993 and 2013 (NI World).

For the dates of death of the other five, see The Terror, Threats, And Dread in Ballymoney; the six are also named in a Waterside mural to Cecil McKnight; Gary Lynch has a solo mural in the Waterside. William Campbell is remembered in Coleraine.

The mural was erected in 2021 in Lincoln Court, Londonderry, on the same wall as a former UDA memorial mural to the six but which had been blank since 2011.

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1000 x 750)
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Camera Settings: f4, 1/320, ISO 100, full size 2049 x 1537
T02046 [T02045]