Besties Barbers stands in the centre of Newtownards and the mural above is on the side wall (in Gibson Lane). It features footballer George Best in Northern Ireland strip and sponsorship by local taxi company, Kare Kabs. The interior of the shop is decorated with more Northern Ireland football heroes.
Elsewhere: Squinter critiques the mural.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“Welcome [to the] loyalist Westwinds estate U.V.F.” – mural a little way down Blenheim Drive from the entrance to the Westwinds estate, Newtownards.
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Here are two more pieces of loyalist graffiti, possibly by the same hand.
The first – “Flag protesters jailed, terrorists bailed” – is in Glenvale Street, just off the Woodvale Road.
The second – “PSNI women beaters” – is further along Woodvale Road at Enfield Street.
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Robert Blair “Paddy” Mayne was a rugby player, boxer, golfer, and solicitor, and in WWII a commando and one of the first members of the SAS (Special Air Service), participating in raids behind enemy lines in Egypt and Libya (depicted in the board above), and later, as SAS commander, in France, Belgium and other countries. His many decorations, including the DSO (four times) and French Croix De Guerre and Legion D’Honneur, are pictured below. (His WP page includes an explanation of the ribbon bars.)
Mayne was born in Newtownards and returned there at the end of the war. His statue stands in the town’s Conway Square and this board can be found in Queen Street.
Previously: From The Boyne To Afghanistan
Painted by muraltec.
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X01622 X01625 X01624 X01623 X01626 north africa 1942 palm other honours and citations distinguished service order Lieutenant Colonel
Armed masked men, shotgun, automatic weapon, sledgehammer, hand grenade and two pistols, with the flags of Northern Ireland, the UK and the UVF in the background. The plaque reads, “Dedicated to the memory of our lost volunteers who made the supreme sacrifice. Gone but not forgotten”. “Lest we forget” at the bottom. The full mural (below) shows (clockwise from top left) YCV, PAF (Protestant Action Force), UVF (on an Ulster shield), and 36th (Ulster) Division insignia.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01620 X01621 shackleton walk west winds east belfast 1912 2012 newtownards for god and ulster
“No vote, no voice” and “Vote Unionist”. Here are two pieces of loyalist graffiti concerned with (as they see it) under-representation in the political process. The first is at the corner of Springmartin Road and Ballygomartin Road (“Bobby Sands died 4 fuck all” can be seen underneath). The second is on the Forthriver Road at the Glencairn Day Centre.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“As we scrambled over the trench ladders the Y.C.V. flag appeared.” One of the many panels in an extended mural in Thorndyke Street, this one inspired by a drawing by Jim Maultsaid, who joined the YCV in 1914 and kept a diary and sketch-book. More of his sketches can be found as part of the Friends Of The Somme’s account of the war in 1916. His portrait is included below.
The plaque reads: At the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914, when Lord Kitchener, the War Minister, was desperately looking for men, he had asked Sir Edward Carson for a brigade consisting of four battalions. Carson offered him a division consisting of twelve battalions, uniformed and equipped at Ulster’s expense. The UVF was transformed rapidly into the 36th (Ulster) Division. On the 1st July 1916 the 26 (Ulster) Division took part in the Somme Offensive. Nine Victoria Crosses were awarded for acts of valour on that day. Men of the 36th (Ulster) Division won four of these. Of those, three were awarded posthumously. Of the 9,000 men of the Division who took part in the attack, scarcely 2,500 answered roll call on 3 July; while of 400 officers, more than 250 were killed or wounded. The Division lost 5,500 officers and other ranks killed, wounded and missing as a result of the first two days of the Somme offensive. The illustration depicted is derived from a drawing by Jim Maultsaid, an American citizen. He joined the 14th Royal Irish Rifles, which was drawn from members of an organisation called the Young Citizen Volunteers (YCV).
One of fourteen panels in Thorndyke Street, east Belfast. For a list of entries for each panel, see East Belfast Historical And Cultural Society.
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X01521 X01608 east belfast historical and cultural society
Another UVF mural in the Westwinds estate (Newtownards) in which the traditional motto of “For God and Ulster” has been replaced by “Armed And Ready”. As can be seen in the shot of the whole just below, there are two masked figures, both armed, and one points his weapon directly at the viewer and at pedestrians walking up the footpath, as can be seen in the final shot.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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A message from the local UVF in the Westwinds estate: “Our only crime was to serve you the COMMUNITY and protest ‘OUR COUNTRY.’ Now times have changed. As FORCE our belief is not only FOR GOD AND ULSTER but to you the COMMUNITY, HELP US TO HELP YOU.”
A close-up of the flags and emblem on the right hand side can be found below. There’s a flag of the 1912 UVF and YCV, and a rose and thistles and shamrock in the background, in addition to a poppy.
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X01618 X01619 1912 ycv rose thistle shamrock
The union flag “flies” every second of every day in this painted version in the Westwinds estate in Newtownards. Ards Borough council also flies the flag every day (source), unlike Belfast city council which now follows the ‘designated days‘ policy: see previously Union Jack – Donegall pass | And So This Is Christmas | Imagine | Banned | The Essentials and various posts about the Twaddell Protest Camp).
The central (St. George’s) cross widens as it rises, which makes the flag seem to loom over the viewer.
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Extramural Activity 