cultural

To All Foreign Nationals Across The Empire

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“Are you one of Kitchener’s own?” asks a new mural in Northumberland Street: “We here pay grateful and everlasting tribute, to all foreign nationals across the empire, who courageously and passionately fought side by side with their British counterparts, for King and country, during the First World War.” The left-hand side (second image) features images of soldiers from the West Indies and India, including “The Flying Sikh”, Hardit Singh Malik and a French lady as she “pins flowers on a regiment containing Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus.” On the right, images of the “presentation of Colours to the 51st Battalion Canadian expeditionary force” and of Canadian “bluebird” nurses in the Canadian Army Medical Corps.

Replaces (part of) Welcome To The Shankill. See Belfast Live for an image from the launch.

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04199 X04201 X04202 India Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and the Union of South Africa. one million dead in the great war rest in France “A la gloire de dieu et a la memoire du million de morts de l’empire britannique tombes dans la grande guerre 191401918 et qui pour la plupart reposent en France.” Greater Shankill ACT

Continuing Conflicts

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Here are two panels and a wide shot of the memorial garden in Frenchpark Street. Above is a verse from John McCrea’s In Flanders Fields. Below is a plaque “to the memory of all those Ulster men and women from the south Belfast area who died during the great wars 1914-18 and 1939-45, and to all those who have lost their lives during the recent troubles and continuing conflicts.”

Previously: They Gave A Lifetime

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An Dream Dearg

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Another “Lá Dearg” – organised by An Dream Dearg (Fb) (the red group) takes place next Saturday with a march from An Chultúrlann to the city hall. The image above shows graffiti in Divis Street; the image below shows posters for the event on the Lıú Lúnasa mural.

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Shared Space

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Here are two final images from the memorial garden in Kilcooley. As mentioned in Tuesday’s post (To Keep Our Ulster Free), it seems that the combination of WWI imagery (today’s post and Across The Wire) and paramilitary memorials was not the plan approved by the Department of Social Development, which contributed funds to the project (Belfast Telegraph). A wide shot of the whole is included below.

According to an article in the Tele last Friday (2017-04-21), the Housing Executive has a list of over 100 memorial on Executive-owned land that it considers illegal. The list itself does not seem to be available and so it is not not known if the Kilcooley garden is one of these.

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Faugh A Ballagh

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“Faugh a ballagh” (Clear the way) was the motto of the Royal Irish Fusiliers (and then of the Royal Irish Rangers and currently of the Royal Irish Regiment). The Fusiliers served on the western front during WWI – the first and ninth battalions serving in the 36th (Ulster) Division – and the 3rd battalion helped put down the Easter Rising in 1916. Its coat of arm are one of four panels along with the 36th, the Royal Irish Rifles, and the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.

The Thiepval Memorial, the Cross of Sacrifice, and the Ulster Tower are pictured in the bottom left.

For the large upper board, see So Many; for the one in the bottom right, see Repaying Their Memory.

Close-ups of the four regimental insignia are included below. “Nec Aspera Terrant [sic, for “terrent”]”, meaning “frightened by no difficulties”, was the motto of the Inniskilling Fusiliers, who fought in both Boer Wars and both World Wars – its battalions saw action at Gallipoli and on the Western front – before being amalgamated in the Royal Irish Rangers in 1968, along with the Royal Ulster Rifles and the troop featured in the third image, the Royal Irish Fusiliers. Their arms are shown along with those of the Royal Irish Rifles and a board commemorating the charge from Thiepval Wood during the Somme

Willowfield Street, east Belfast

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X04010 X04171 X04170 X04172 X04173 “nec aspera terrent” 36th ulster division somme july 1st charge from thiepval wood willowfield charge from thiepval wood “Never before was a debt owed to so few by so many. Generation after generation owe them everything. Lest we forget.” faugh a ballagh nec aspera terrant terrent quis separabit

Across The Wire

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WWI soldiers from the 36th (Ulster) Division go over the top and make their way through the barbed wire. Not a mural but a painted sky on a memorial stone. Part of the Owenroe memorial garden in Bangor.

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Bangor Protestant Boys

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Here are two wide shots of a long wall from the Bangor Protestant Boys Flute Band (Fb). Many of the panels are related to WWI. For the Somme panel on the left, see Ulster Volunteers; for three of the flags on the right, see North Down Battalion. Right of centre is an emblem for the band itself: the lion and the unicorn on either side of cross rifles and the red hand of Ulster on an oval.

For the previous (mural) version, see Bangor Protestant Boys.

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Ulster Volunteers

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This is another part of a long ‘Bangor Protestant Boys Flute Band’ wall in Kilcooley: the shield of the 36th (Ulster) Division – the Union flag and Irish harp above a red hand on a field of shamrocks – on a garland of orange poppies and WWI battlefields on a purple ribbon – orange and purple being the colours of the Ulster Volunteers.

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X04088 somme theipval messines fricourt passchendaele st. quentin ypres flanders

Pro

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Amateur World and European champion Michael Conlan fought – and won – his first professional fight on St. Patrick’s Day, 2017 in New York. Glen Molloy (Fb | Inst) brings his distinctive style to the pugilist’s portrait.

For the mural celebrating Conlan’s 2012 Olympic medal, see Green, White And Bronze.

Previously by Molloy: Jack Nicholson | Billy Casper | Shaun of the Dead/Leo DiCaprio/Bowie | Walken/Adam Ant/Harrison Ford | Prince/George Michael | Homeless … No Less | Blackjack Tattoo

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North Down Battalion

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Recruiting for the Ulster Volunteers in Down was so successful that it was divided into four areas (North, South, East, and West), each with a battalion, and the North down battalion comprised 15 companies (History Ireland). The Down battalions became the 13th battalion of the (108th Brigade) Royal Irish Rifles in WWI. The YCV (Young Citizen Volunteers) was formed separately (in 1912) but joined the Volunteers in May 1914, before becoming the (109th Brigade) 14th battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles when the war broke out (WP). Both began their campaigns at Boulogne-Sur-Mer in October, 1915 (WP).

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X04089 owenroe dr somme thiepval beaumont hamel st quentin ypres messines arras passchendaele cambrai