physical force

Have They Gone Away?

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
03089 2015-10-04 Welcome To Loyalist Lower Shankill+

The South Belfast UDA this week issued a statement that they “won’t be leaving any stage whilst republicans of any faction still exist”. As the Newsletter article notes, the South Belfast branch of the UDA does not speak for the whole organization. Until confirmed, then, the new mural above – “Welcome to the loyalist Lower Shankill – UDA 2nd Batt. C. Coy” – provides only circumstantial evidence …

Elsewhere: Join the South East Antrim UDA: Glenfield Community Association.

Update (2015-10-16): Similar statement from “IRA commanders” BelfastLive | Irish Mirror

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
quis separabit UFF UYM X03089

Always Remembered

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
02773 2015-08-17 NorthDownUFF+

UFF/UDA/UYM (North Down, 2nd battalion, D company) memorial mural in Bloomfield estate, Bangor, to Andrew McIlvenny and Roy Officer, with hooded gunmen on a bed of poppies flanking the UFF clenched fist.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02773 terrae filius quis separabit

Three-In-One

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
02792 2015-08-20 HolywoodUDAUFFUYM+

This trio of Ulster Defence Association, Ulster Freedom Fighters, and Ulster Young Militants boards are in Holywood, County Down. The overtly paramilitary UFF acts as the link between the others, in that the UDA and UYM emblems appear in miniature alongside its own. The UFF slogan “Ferriens tego” is missing from its board. The local troop is the North Down 2nd Batt. D Coy.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02792 quis separabit terrae filius

Foyle Daycare

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
02825 2015-08-24 OrangeSeigeFoyleDaycare+

The “Little Blooms” receive a lecture in history and politics each day as they mount the painted kerb-stones and take in a mural of Orange Order flag-bearers and a scene from the Siege of Derry, perhaps of James II demanding the city and being rebuffed with cries of “No surrender”.

02824 2015-08-24 OrangeSeige+

02826 2015-08-24 OrangeSeigeWide+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02825 X02824 X02826 painted 2015-06 walls gate Londonderry siege william union jack ulster banner bishop’s gate 18 april 1869 west bank loyalists still under siege

Markers

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
02775 2015-08-18 BloomfieldUFF+

Here are three images of small boards in the Bloomfield and Whitehill estates in Bangor, Co. Down: above, one from the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF); below, from the Red Hand Commandos (RHC); and finally, the Ulster Volunteer Force and Young Citizen Volunteers.

02788 2015-08-20 BangorWhitehill+

02789 2015-08-20 BangorWhitehillYCV+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02775 X02788 X02789 for god and ulster shamrock red hand

Past Present

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
2015-08-17 BangorUVF+

The eagle (of the Red Hand Commando?) pulls back one UVF flag to reveal … an earlier UVF mural. Close-up below.

2015-08-17 BangorUVFDetail+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02767 X02768 ulster for all a. company 1st battalion 1912 YCV for god and ulster ballyree ballyminetragh

On Wings Of Eagles

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
2015-08-18 BloomfieldRHCFlag+

Here are three images of Red Hand Commando boards and flags in the Bloomfield estate. They both feature a red hand with eagle’s wings over a six-pointed star and on the flag, the motto (in crude Gaelic) “Lamh Derg Abu” – “Onward, Red Hand” or “Red Hand To Victory”. The loyalist paramilitary group declared an official end to activities in 2007 (BBC-NI) and decommissioned its weapons by 2009.

2015-08-18 BloomfieldRHC+

2015-08-18 BloomfieldRHCWide+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02777 X02776 X02778 lámh dhearg abú

Boundary Stone Of The Temenos

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
2015-09-01 UVFBoxAlonecrop+

“UVF” on a red-white-and blue-painted electrical box, the only thing standing in the razed ground where Soudan Street used to be.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02908c

Collusion Untried

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
02902-2015-09-02-beechm-11

Two boards about collusion in Beechmount Avenue. The first chronicles (both in words and images) alleged instances of collusion between the RUC and loyalist paramilitaries, citing John Stevens, Peter Cory, and Nuala O’Loan – pages from the 2007 O’Loan report are shown in the second, below.

02892-2015-09-02-beechm-01

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02902 X02892

The Truth Costs Nothing

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
02901-2015-09-02-beechm-10

The British soldiers on the right of the board above are given red berets to indicate the Paratroop Regiment, which was the regiment involved in Derry’s Bloody Sunday.

“Springhill–Westrock massacre. Belfast’s Bloody Sunday. Time for truth! On the 9th July 1972 a team of British Army snipers took up firing positions in Corry’s timber yard overlooking the nationalist Springhill/Westrock estates. Within less than an hour five civilians lay dead and two critically wounded. Among the dead were three teenagers, a father of six and a priest on his way to administer the last rites to the dead and injured. There has never been a proper police investigation, and not one solider has spent a single day in prison in connection with their deaths. The families deserve, and demand the comprehensive facts be told by the British establishment. The truth costs nothing.”

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02901 Beechmount Ave John Dougal, Margaret Gargan, Fr Noel Fitzpatrick, David McCafferty, Patrick Butler