Their Name Liveth For Evermore

The apocryphal book of the Bible ‘Ecclesiasticus’ reads, “their bodies are buried in peace, but their name liveth for evermore” (44:14). The last clause is here applied to 910,000 “British empire casualties” from the Great War, including the Ulster Volunteers and Young Citizen Volunteers raised by “Sir Edward Carson” (here looking like Al Capone) which became the 36th (Ulster) Division and particularly the Royal Irish Rifles and fought at the Somme 1916.

Apsley Street, Donegall Pass, south Belfast.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00411 [X00412]

Welcome To Loyalist Linfield Road

“2009: Welcome To Loyalist Linfield Road. Celebrating Our Culture 1690.” The central panel is a combination Union Flag, Ulster Banner, and free-floating Northern Ireland.

The banner hung on the railings in Linfield Road from 2009 until it was stolen and placed on a 2013 Republican bonfire (see Bonfire Flags) which then elicited a comment on the wall just east of this location (see They May Have Stole Our Banner).

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X05103

Ulster Volunteers

Centre: Carson signs the Covenant – the document is top right; top left: gunrunning on the Clyde Valley; bottom left, mounted rifles; bottom right, Carson presenting colours (and the 2011 Ballyduff bonfire).

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00462 X05130

Gregg & Carson

John “Grug/Grugg” Gregg and Robert “Rab” Carson of the UDA’s Southeast Antrim brigade were killed on February 1st, 2003, on orders from Johnny Adair of the West Belfast brigade after Gregg and other brigade bosses voted to expel Adair from the UDA (October 2002).

The emblem is of the Royal Irish/Ulster Rifles/Regiment – it’s not clear if there is connection to Gregg or the UDA; the emblem is also used by the Cloughfern Young Conquerors, but again the connection to the RIR is unclear.

Replaces the Cloughfern Eddie. (See also the Visual History page on Eddie.) Gregg was known as “the grim reaper” and had a tattoo of the reaper on his back (Guardian).

The Israeli flag flies from the Watta-Chip in Knockenagh Avenue, Newtownabbey.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02889 X02890

Cloughfern Young Conquerors

The Cloughfern Young Conquerors (a UDA flute band) (Fb) was founded in 1973 in Rathfern – the same year as the UFF. Knockenagh Ave.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00430

Ship Of Dreams

The White Star Line ship Titanic sank in the Atlantic in the early morning of April 15th, 1912, a thousand miles from New York (the co-ordinates are given in the top right), having been launched from Belfast’s Harland & Wolff shipyard, which is near this mural just off the Newtownards Road in east Belfast. The portraits are of Captain Edward Smith, architect Thomas Andrews, Jack Phillips (wireless officer), and paperboy Ned Parfett.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X05096 X05097 X05098 [X05180]

The Right To Defend Yourself

“We seek nothing but the elementary right implanted in every man: the right if you are attacked, to defend yourself.” Hooded gunmen return to east Belfast at the junction of Newtownards Road and Dee Street (Bright Street), replacing a mural for the Glentoran Community Trust. It’s not clear who the UVF felt attacked by in 2011; it is possible that this mural is also about local muscle-flexing in addition to sectarian politics or attention from the police.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X05099 Dee Craig

East Belfast UVF On Parade

The mural appears to show a “show of strength” (firing into the air) rather than a parade, by hooded gunmen of the east Belfast UVF. The crowd is gathered on Newtownards Road at Dee Street, date unknown (but prior to 2008).

Newtownards Road, east Belfast.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00453

They Sleep Beyond Ulster’s Foam

Here are three details from the metalworks in the Mount Vernon WWI memorial garden, showing scenes from the conflict and a map of the area around Messines (photoshopped in red). For more, including the panels to John Cordon and William McFadzean, see M07770.

Update: As the images below from 2017 and 2018 show, the metalworks themselves have also been repainted (and replaced in a slightly different configuration), a new gate has been installed and the boards on the surrounding wall have been restored, against a freshly-painted background of green. The boards have verses from Laurence Binyon’s For The Fallen. “They mingle not with their laughing comrades again/They sit no more at familiar tables of home/They have no lot in our labour of the day-time/They sleep beyond Ulster’s [originally, England’s] foam.”

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2011/2017/2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00488 X00487 X00489 X06017 X05381
T04420 T04419 courtesy of Paddy Duffy