cultural

Ballybeen Remembers Its Fallen

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“Ballybeen remembers it’s [sic] fallen – to the memory and sacrifice of the brave young men from East Belfast who gave their lives with countless others at the Somme and other battles during the Great War 1914-18.” The Union flag and the Thiepval memorials serve as a backdrop for images of individual soldier and photographs of soldiers and nurses at work.

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04079 morven pk 1st july 1916 36th ulster division their name liveth for evermore 8th battalion royal irish rifles volunteers albert messines cambrai thiepval passchendaele ooteghem bailleul picardy st quentin ypres somme courtrai kemel ridge arras rossieres langemarck

Ballybeen Dream

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Teenagers at Dundonald High “dream, believe, achieve” success on a par with their “Ballybeen sporting hero[e]s”, such as IBO super bantamweight boxer John Lowey and footballers Noel Brotherson (Blackburn Rovers), Glenn “Spike” Ferguson (Glenavon and Linfield), and Chris Walker (Glentoran).

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X04080

In All Theatres Of Conflict

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The boards on the right read: “‘Tis thy flag and my flag;/The best of flags on Earth,/So cherish it my children,/It’s yours by right of birth.//Your fathers fought,/Your fathers died,/To raise it to the skies,/And we like them must never yield,/But keep it flying high.” from The Union Jack, by Edward Shirley, in Little Poems For Little People, and “In memory of the men and women from the Orangefield area, who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the defence of our freedom in all theatres of conflict, both foreign and at home.” These memorial boards are to local men who “stood to the fore to defend the Empire as the 8th Battalion (East Belfast) Royal Irish Rifles” in the 36th division, formed from formed from the “8th Battalion (Avoniel) and the 6th Battalion (Strandtown)” of the Ulster Volunteers.

For the Clyde Valley boards on the left, see Bloomfield House.

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X04053

The Sacrifice Remains The Same

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Poppy Trail boards have been added below the 2013 Time Changes board commemorating the sacrifice of the 36th (Ulster) Division – in black-and-white on the left – and the Royal Irish Rifles – in colour on the right.

Previously from the Poppy Trail: Among The Fallen | Poppy Trail 1914 | Poppy Trail 1915 | Poppy Trail 1916 | HMS Hawke | XXXVI

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X04045 ogilvie st

XXXVI

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The main battles of the 36th (Ulster) Division (“XXXVI”) are listed – Somme, Thiepval, Messines, Ypres, Cambrai, Somme (1918), St. Quintin [St. Quentin], Lys, Courtrai – and those who died are commemorated on this new board. The main board is surrounded by smaller boards, part of the Poppy Trail, bearing the names, ages, addresses, ranks, and units of deceased soldiers. For example: William Lyttle, aged 18, 16 Tenth Street, 9th batt. Royal Irish Rifles, Rifleman 13044.

The same (main) board has also been mounted on the Shankill: see Improving Your Environment.

Replaces: They Haven’t Gone Away and Welcome To The Shankill.

Update: info board added “Thousands of brave Shankill men marched down our road and off to war, over 1500 of them never returned, with over 150 losing their lives on the 1st day of July 1916.”

X11327 2022-08-06 Divisions info+

X11328 2022-08-06 XXXVI ACT info+

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X04049 X11327 X11328 northumberland st

In Flanders’ Fields

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04046-2017-02-21-peppercorn

A Somme/WWI soldier contemplates a grave next to a hill of poppies. Mural on the shutters of the Peppercorn café in east Belfast.

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X04046 Woodstock Rd

Culture Amid Commerce

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03985-2017-01-06-welcome-to-york-st-10scottish

“The Belfast Scottish Association was founded in 1888 and headed by prominent businessmen, including Sir George Clark of Workman Clark and Andrew Gibson (pictured) whose Robert Burns collection is now housed in the Linenhall Library.”

This is the final entry in a series from discoverulsterscots.com about York Street businesses and Ulster Scots businessmen: Shipbuilding | London, Midland and Scottish | Workman Clark’s | Belfast Goods

03988-2017-01-06-welcome-to-york-st-13learn-more

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X03985 X03988

Belfast Goods

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03984-2017-01-06-welcome-to-york-st-9goods

Among the Belfast goods “exported around the world from York Street by rail and sea” were Gallaher’s Blues (cigarettes), Irish linens, Davidson & Co (Samuel Davidson, born in County Down to an Ulster-Scots family, was the inventor of the Sirocco centrifugal fan “for mine ventilation, dust removal, induced draft, forge fires”), and linen carpet thread from York Street (Threads) Ltd. Robinson & Cleaver’s department store is now out of business. Gallaher’s is now the multinational Gallaher Group, but its factories in Belfast and Ballymena have closed. And Davidson’s company was bought by Howden UK in 1988.

Previously in the series: Shipbuilding | London, Midland and Scottish | Workman Clark’s

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X03984

Stormont Must Go

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04032-2017-02-12-stormont-must-go

New political party Saoradh (Fb) is advocating a boycott of the upcoming (March 2nd) Stormont election, claiming that Stormont espouses “the co-dependent ideologies of imperialism, sectarianism and capitalism”. The tarp shown above lists various problems and scandals (“Nepostism, fraud, corruption, phantom community groups, NAMA, sectarianism, jobs for the boys, Red Sky, RHI scandal”) and evokes the spirit of 1981 hunger striker Bobby Sands: “Everyone Republican or otherwise has their Part to Play.” Also visible are a board celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising (see versions in Andersonstown | Ardoyne | St James), an éırígí mural featuring Patrick Pearse, and a call for the release of the Craigavon Two (previously featured).

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X04032 tír gan teanga tír gan anam athshealbhaıgí an phoblacht

So Many

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04012-2017-01-22-somme-casualties

Winston Churchill’s line about the British Air Force in WWII, that “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few“, is echoed in this WWI board about the battles at the Somme between July 1st and November 18th, 1916. “The few” in this case, however, number nearly half a million dead and more than 72,000 missing. “Never before was a debt owed to so few by so many. Generation after generation owe them everything. Lest we forget.”

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04012 Willowfield