industry/H&W/flax/rope

The Uncrowned King Of Ulster

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Text above: “Sir Edward Carson 1854 – 1935 “Uncrowned King of Ulster” Founding member and leader of the Ulster Volunteers. Carson led Ulster Unionist resistance to the British Government’s attempts to introduce Home Rule for the whole of Ireland.”

The epithet “uncrowned King” seems to be generally used of Carson and not attributable to any one source. Here is a September 1912 newspaper article that calls Carson the “uncrowned King of the North” and relays criticisms of a Carson reception in Portadown as “a parody upon a royal reception” and “an insult to the King”. A May 1914 review of (the book) The Reign Of Edward Carson refers to “King Carson”. (Here is a postcard depicting Carson as a king upon a throne – Postcards Ireland.)

The phrase is an echo of and response to the phrase “uncrowned king of Ireland”, which was used of both O’Connell and Parnell. Here is an 1847 article describing both O’Connell and the Napoleonic Governor-General of Algeria (WP) as “uncrowned monarch[s]”. According to WP, the epithet was first applied to Parnell in 1880, because he was so popular during a tour of the United States and Canada. At the end of James Joyce’s story ‘Ivy Day In The Committee Room’ a character recites a poem about Parnell, beginning “He is dead. Our uncrowned king is dead” (archive.com).

The wording “the British government’s attempts to introduce Home Rule” is more forthright than we are used to. Typically the resistance is simply to “Home Rule”. This wording makes clear that the Ulster Volunteers were a private militia preparing for the possibility of fighting the regular British Army and Navy. By being so explicit, this wording suggests that we are currently living through a time in which loyalists consider the “British government” to be insufficiently British, just as was the case in 1912.

Text below: “Sir Edward Carson being escorted by members of the Ulster Special Service Force on the Newtownards Road passing the Belvoir Bar in the company of Captain James Craig and the Officer Commanding of the Ulster Volunteer Force Sir George Richardson.”

According to a Regimental Band Fb post, “Sir Edward Carson was speaking at the Reform Club in Royal Avenue. There was an opinion that the British Government were going to try and arrest him so he was escorted to the safety of Craigavon House [shown on the right of the mural]. This photo was taken on the 20th March, 1914.” This October 1913 article, in addition to calling Carson “Ulster’s Uncrowned King”, notes that he travelled with a detective and carried a revolver.

By Dee Craig (Fb), presumably, replacing his hooded gunmen mural The Right To Defend Yourself, on the Newtownards Road at (the former) Bright Street.

The other two murals (visible in the wide shot) are We Are The Pilgrims and Nearer My God To Thee. The “UVF on parade” board next to the taxi office was previously across the street. For the banner above the Mace, see Henry Nowak.

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Copyright © 2026 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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When All That Was Solid Melted Into Air

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At its peak, the Harland & Wolff shipyard employed 35,000 people (IndustriAll) and the flat-capped worker became a symbol of east Belfast, along – much later – with Samson and Goliath, the two gantry cranes at the shipyard that were raised in 1974 and 1969 (WP) and which have become the symbol of Belfast.

The title of this entry is the first line of Martin Mooney’s poem ‘Launching The Whaler Juan Peron‘.

The silhouetted workers and cranes are on a mobile office in Fraser Pass, Newtownards Road, Belfast, at the end of the Pitt Stop next to the Belfast Bikes racks.

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Copyright © 2026 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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In Memory Of The Lost

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“In memory of the lost, 15 April, 1912.” The majority lifeboats on the RMS (not “SS”) Titanic were made of wood, constructed at Harland & Wolff at the same time that Titanic was built. Of the 2,209 people on board the ship at the time of her collision with an iceberg late in the evening of April 14th, 706 people survived in lifeboats that could have carried 1,178 people. (WP)

This tribute to those who died in on a short section of pedestrian railings on the Cupar Way “peace” line (Visual History). In the background are the specially designated spots for tourists to sign the wall (see Collecting Signatures in the Paddy Duffy Collection).

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Copyright © 2026 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Factory Girls

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Tillie & Henderson’s shirt factory opened in 1856 at the junction of Abercorn Road and Foyle Road, Derry (next to the ‘Hands Across The Divide’ statue) and survived until 2003 when it was demolished after a fire (BBC); an apartment block is currently planned for the site (Derry Journal | BBC). It was the largest such factory in the world and one of 44 shirt factories in the city in 1900, all of which employed women, many starting in their teens.

Derry Of The Past has a gallery of historical images.

The murals are in the courtyard of the Craft Village in Shipquay Street; they were designed by Joe Campbell and painted by UVArts (web).

(BBC | BBC | DEPOT | BelTel)

See also: Derry Women Make Communities

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Copyright © 2022 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
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Fryday

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It’s been a long time since workers walked en masse from east Belfast to the shipyard, but fish and chips remain popular, though the number of chippies has fallen from about 35,000 in 1920 to 10,500 today (BBC | Dockside). This mural is on the side of the ‘Chipyard’ in Strandtown.

See also in the Woodvale: The Chipyard.

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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Sailortown Dockers

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This is a mural of a painting of a mural of a mural. The original is the piece by Terry Bradley (web) and Friz (web) at the Titanic museum’s pub (see Dockers’ Rest), which was then reproduced in a different colour for the opening montage of the Kenneth Branagh film Belfast. The success of the film prompted the Department Of Justice to commission Bradley for a painting that could be turned into a mural and he reproduced the film version (BelTel). The mural that enlarges that painting was painted by DMC on Lanark Way, just above the security gates (Belfast Live).

“The dockers who feature in the painting are inspired by real characters and men Terry remembers walking home from the shipyard when he was a child. These hardworking men from Sailortown, Belfast, show a glimpse into the past of the shipyard pubs, where the men congregated after a hard day’s work.”

With support from R-City (web).

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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Flax And The Lily

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The orange lily and the (pale blue) flax flower take their place around the Ulster Banner alongside the English rose and Scottish thistle, and the Irish shamrock is retained even in the presence of the lily. The flax is perhaps included because we are in the Factory area of Larne, near the site of a (former) linen mill. The Welsh daffodil is excluded. The detail above is part of a wider board “Boyne Square celebrates 100 years of Northern Ireland”; the flanking emblems of the Boyne Defenders (LOL 1297), Rangers Supporters club (Larne Branch) – which also uses the shamrock – Boyne Square Bonfire Forum, and Larne & District Great War Society and included below; the emblems of three flute bands can be seen in Norman Anderson and The Gunrunners.

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Copyright © 2022 Extramural Activity
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H&W Welders

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Titanic was built at Harland & Wolff shipyard in east Belfast; it took more than three years to build but was in service for only five days, as it famously hit an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic ocean. The welders formed their own football club, in 1965. The football and hockey players on the right are perhaps associated with Ledley Hall.

The final image is of the piece in 2014.

Cluan Place, east Belfast.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Ghosts Of The Supermarket

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Earl Street and Sussex Street used to be sandwiched between wings of the largest tobacco factory in the world, Gallahers, which took up seven acres between York Street and North Queen Street. The factory was partially demolished in 1990 and became Yorkgate shopping centre and the two streets are roughly now the back and front entrances to the Tesco supermarket. These two plaques (both on North Queen Street) are to former residents. William Campbell, a H&W joiner, might have witnessed the construction of Gallahers (in 1897 – Look Again) before dying on Titanic in 1914. Francis Liggett, an IRA volunteer, was shot and killed by British forces during an attempted robbery of the Royal. (He is also remembered in a mural in St James’s near the site of his death and home – see Liggett & Brady.)

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Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06907 X06908 “William Campbell, an Apprentic Joiner at Harland & Wolff, lived in Earl Street, a site now occupied by the shopping centre. He was a member of the company’s Guarantee Group for RMS Titanic and lost his life on the voyage.” “Francis died on 18th January 1973 on IRA active service on the grounds of RVH hospital. Francis was shot dead dead by undercover British soldiers after an exchange of gun fire. 27th January 1948 – 18th January 1973. Francis family home was close to this spot.”

Over The Bridge

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The large mural of H&W shipyard workers at the turn of the century has been restored by Dee Craig (Fb). The mural is on the footbridge linking Dee Street and Queen’s Island. Inspired by paintings of William Conor such as Shipyard Workers Crossing Queen’s Bridge and Over The Bridge. For images of the previous version, see Titanic Workers.

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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