“We support all Ulster’s soldiers.” The UDA and the UDR brought under the same umbrella of “Ulster’s defenders” in Charles Drive, Ballyclare. The UDR was established in 1970 to relieve the RUC and B Specials of military operations and was disbanded in 1992, in part because it was only 3% Catholic and 5-15% of members had links to loyalist paramilitaries (Irish News).
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Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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UDA volunteers in balaclavas stand ready to defend Erskine Park (Ballyclare) against forces from the south. “South East Antrim Brigade – “Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees in an Irish republic.” (A slogan from Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata.)
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X06940 X06939 [X06938] X06937 John Stewart
Tommy Herron was kidnapped and executed in September 1973, perhaps by members of his own East Belfast UDA brigade in a dispute over money from a robbery (Holland | BelTel | Irish Times | Lost Lives 938) though others allege it was by the security forces (BelTel), perhaps the SAS or MI5. These BBC News videos (one | two) give a sense of the perplexity of the case; a HET inquiry years later was inconclusive (Irish Times). His 18-year-old brother-in-law, Michael Wilson, had been killed by the UDA at their shared house in June, perhaps in a case of mistaken identity, perhaps as an informer (WP | Lost Lives 877).
Despite the internal conflict over Herron’s position and profiteering, 25,000 people attended his funeral and hearkened to the words of the Reverend Ian Paisley (AP video | Patterson images). The AP video shows ranks of UDA volunteers marching in the procession; the mural was launched with (two) masked UDA volunteers flanking speaker Dee Stitt (for whom see previously Welcome To The Jungle) (BelTel).
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X06858 X06856 [X06857] kilcooley estate 1937-1973
The plaque shown above sits in a memorial garden at the northern end of Disraeli Street, which in 1969 ran out onto the Crumlin Road between Hooker and Brookfield streets on the nationalist side, which saw intense rioting in August 1969 (see 90 Years Of Resistance; also Can It Change? for the lower Shankill). The UVF was founded in 1966 in response to the Civil Rights campaign and an IRA attack on Nelson’s statue in Dublin, and the WDA in June 1970 in response to escalating tensions along the upper Crumlin.
“The officers and volunteers “B” company Ulster Volunteer Force and the officers and volunteers “B” company Woodvale Defence Association remember with pride the people of the Woodvale area killed during the conflict. This plaque stands in the area which bore witness to the first outbreak of the troubles and is a symbol of the solidarity shown by the people of this community.
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UDA 3rd battalion [North Antrim & Londonderry brigade] in Carnany estate, Ballymoney.
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Kipling’s 1912 poem Ulster is not often quoted in loyalist muraling, despite it being an angry denunciation of Home Rule and the sacrifice of loyalists, as in the lines quote here: “The blood our fathers spilt/Our love, our toils, our pains/Are counted us for guilt/And only bind our chains./Before an Empire’s eyes/The traitor claims his price./What need of further lies?/We are the sacrifice. … The terror, threats, and dread/In market, hearth, and field/We know, when all is said./We perish if we yield.” Specifically, the sacrifice is six North Antrim/Londonderry UDA volunteers: Lindsay Mooney, Cecil McKnight, Ray Smallwoods, Benny Redfern, Gary Lynch, William Campbell. (See also: a RHC mural in the Shankill with a few lines from the poem.)
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X06660 X06659 Carnany estate, Ballymoney
The North Antrim/Londonderry UDA has existed in the “Past, present, for all time”, or at least from 1972 to 2016 (and into 2019). “The blood our comrades shed shall not have been in vain. We honour Ulster’s dead and staunch we will remain.” The same quotation was used in Cloughfern.
Carnany estate, Ballymoney
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This is the matching pair to Ulster’s Past Defenders from last week, which featured the B Specials and UDR. Ulster’s Present Defenders are the “undefeated” (“invicta”) UFF, who are shown here taking a sledgehammer to someone’s front door. The quotation on the rights is a modified version of the Declaration of Arbroath: “For as long as one hundred of us remain alive we shall never in anyway consent to submit to the Irish. For it’s not for glory, honour or riches we fight but for freedom alone which no man loses but with his life.” The gunman in the lower right is famous from a mural (M02474) – now gone – in the lower Shankill. Carnany estate, Ballymoney.
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South East Antrim UDA, 1st battalion, mural, complete with assault rifle, next to the Youth & Community Centre at the Diamond in Rathcoole. Two men from the area were convicted in December (2018) for attempting to purchase Glock pistols from PSNI officers posing as ‘dark web’ sellers (BelTel). Fears of a feud continue (Belfast Live).
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2nd battalion, D company, North Down UDA/UYM board in Inisharoan Court, Newtownards. For other North Down UDA boards, see North Down West Belfast.
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Extramural Activity 