For the centenary of the end of WWI (in November 2018) a small board was added to the UFF’s South East Antrim Brigade mural in Rathfern.
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Rathfern Remembers
funeral volley/graveside mourner
Rally Us Again
“Active service” on paramilitary plaques means death by a premature bomb explosion rather than at the hands of enemy forces. All three of the IRA volunteers named here died in this way: Paul Fox in King Street in 1975, Sean Bailey in nearby Nansen Street in 1976, and Paul Marlowe on the Ormeau Road later that same year (Sutton). The central plaque (shown below) has been in place since at least 2006 but was augmented last year with portraits. The fourth is Tony Campbell, also from the 2nd battalion, dead by natural causes in 1985.
“I ndíl [ndıl] chuımhne ar Óglach Paul Fox A-Coy 2 Batt Belfast Brigade, died on active service 1-12-1975, Óglach Sean Bailey A-Coy 2 Batt Belfast Brigade, died at this location on active service 13-2-1976, Óglach Paul Marlowe A-Coy 2 Batt Belfast Brigade, died on active service 16-10-1976, Óglach Tony Campbell died of natural causes 4-8-1985. I measc laochra na hÉıreann atá sıad. In every generation we have renewed the struggle and so it will be to the end. When England thinks she has trampled out our blood in battle, some brave men and women rise and rally us again.”
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X07305 X07306 iveagh st
Murdered By Cowards
The “cowards” in this case are the members of the UDA who killed Rockett in front of his girlfriend and 18 month old child in an attack on her house in the lower Oldpark, during the feud between the UVF and UDA, sparked by Johnny Adair’s “loyalist day of culture” and removal of the UVF from the lower Shankill.
In response to the purge (and attacks on the Rex bar), the UVF killed Jackie Coulter (UDA) and Bobby Mahood (formerly of the UVF). Rockett was killed by the UDA in retaliation for Coulter’s death; 1,000 people attended Rockett’s funeral (Irish Times). The feud continued until mid-December (Mirror).
“In proud and loving memory of Vol. Samuel Rockett, ‘B’ Coy. 1st Belfast battalion, Young Citizens Volunteers. Murdered by cowards 23rd August 2000. ‘At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember him.'”
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X07012 X07013 X07011 Disraeli St
Fallen Comrades Of The INLA
This is a new INLA board to deceased volunteers Danny Loughran and Matt McLarnon, Paul (“Bonanza”) McCann, Martin McElkerney, and Gino Gallagher. The new addition here is Martin McElkerney, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in March last year (2019) (Guardian). Shots were fired over McElkerney’s coffin (tw). He was released under the terms of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement after 12 years for his part in a booby-trap bombing of two British soldiers, one of whom died, in which two children also died.
For basic information on the deaths of the other four, see this IRSP page on the previous mural.
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McVerry & McElvanna
IRA volunteer Mickey McVerry was killed by the British Army during a bomb attack on Keady RUC station in 1973. Peadar McElvanna was killed by the British Army on June 9, 1979, outside Keady, south Armagh. The 40th anniversary commemoration this year drew criticism from the DUP as it was on the same weekend as a ‘time for truth’ rally in Belfast (BelTel). The memorial shown here is in Victoria Street.
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The Loyal 36th
“Off to France our boys were sent. All gave some, some gave all – In memory of the loyal 36th.” The first phrase might come from the Rangers’ song ‘We’re Coming Down The Road‘. The second phrase dates not to WWI but the Korean War in the 1950s (Reference). Kitchener Drive, the Village.
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Copyright © 2019 Extramural Activity
X06729 X06728 kitchener drive
One Of Ulster’s Finest
“In memory of Gary McCann (Magoo) – one of Ulster’s finest. GBNF [Gone but not forgotten].” In addition to being a Linfield supporter, McCann was also a volunteer in the Village UVF. He died in 2016. See The Battalion Of The Dead.
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X06732 X06733 [X06735] donegall ave
The Terror, Threats, And Dread
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
In The Footsteps Of Heroes
The 8th battalion of the RIR was drawn from east Belfast’s Ulster Volunteers in 1914. The board shown above, on the practice hall of Rising Sons Flute Band (Fb), shows the Thiepval Memorial to the missing of the Somme – the heroes that in whose footsteps the band claim to march.
The board replaces the tarp saying “Loyalists welcome“.
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Unfinished Revolution
When this mural was first painted in October, 2016 there were calls for its removal on account of the re-appearance of a hooded gunman with RPG (Irish News | BelTel), in the style of IRA murals from before the peace (e.g. most similar to this 1989 mural but see also these other examples). It was still present in November of 2018. The “unfinished revolution” is that of the 1916 Easter Rising, represented by the Easter lily.
The mural is next to Junior McDaid House – the offices of the IRPWA (web | Fb) and Saoradh (web) – in Chamberlain Street, Derry – see previously Victory To The Republican Prisoners.
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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Extramural Activity 