printed board/placard

Ulster’s American Connection

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The United States Of America celebrates the 250th anniversary of its adoption of the Declaration Of Independence today, July 4th, 2026. In the Declaration, delegates from the thirteen (former) colonies set out their reasons for voting to overthrow British rule on July 2nd, noting twenty-seven grievances against the reigning monarch, George III of Great Britain And Ireland. At the time, the American Revolution was ongoing, and the Continental Congress meeting this time in Philadelphia was soon compelled to move to Baltimore, Maryland; the permanent Congress was not established until 1781.

On the left of the board, various symbols of the eventual United States Of America – John Trumbull’s painting ‘Declaration Of Independence’ (image at WP) and a bald eagle upon a Stars And Stripes formed by an outline of the eastern sea-board (which for an unknown reason lists New Castle (not “Newcastle”) alongside Philadelphia), the Liberty Bell, an “America 250 years” pin, the Seal, the Declaration, and a trapper or frontiersman who represents the westward expansion of European Americans – including the Scotch-Irish (Ulster Sails West) – across the continent.

The “liberty and law” emblem, with the red hand against the stars and stripes, surrounded by a garland of thistle and shamrock, is unknown.

The seated gentleman is James Hoban, a Catholic from Co Kilkenny, who studied architecture in Dublin and (after emigrating in 1878) designed the White House – a three-storey model (later reduced to two) is on the desk behind his quill – and (in the framed picture behind him) the Charleston (South Carolina) court-house.

In the centre is a quote attributed to James Buchanan, “My Ulster blood is my most priceless heritage”; for confusion over the quote see James Buchanan. Buchanan is also pictured (next to the word “Donegal”). The Great Seal was designed by Charles Thomson, originally from Maghera. He was also a signatory to the Declaration.

The crown above the red hand is probably the Tudor Crown, destroyed in 1649 (WP). A bed of shamrock supports the title banner.

The Ulster-Scots lineage of seventeen presidents (plus vice-president Andrew Calhoun) is presented along the bottom between the mottos “E pluribus unum” and “In God we trust”. (The Ulster-Scots Agency has a pdf of the Presidents.)

On the right, the poster marked “Eagle’s Wings”, under the Buchanan quote, also appears to come from the Ulster-Scots Agency. It is actually about the Eagle Wing, the ship pictured to the poster’s left (as imagined by water-colour painter Dan Parsons) that undertook the first voyage of Scots-Irish to North America in 1636. The journey was not a success: the roughly 140 dissenters returned to Ireland and some went to Scotland to avoid continued persecution (Presbyterian History.)

The ‘Blue Plaques’ of various notable figures are superimposed upon a period map: John Wallace Crawford, Francis Makemie, James McGregor, Charles Thomson, John Dunlap, Ezekiel Donnell, James Buchanan, Oliver Pollock, Thomas J ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, Robert Adrain, James Holmes. The portraits are of James Buchanan, Teddy Roosevelt (above Andrew Jackson’s ancestral cottage in Carrickfergus), Davey Crockett, and an unknown female figure (comment/get in touch if you can identify her).

The gravestone is to the Rev William Martin, a Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) minister, who led a contingent of 1,000 people in five ships in 1772 to Charlestown, South Carolina (Reformation History | History Ireland). The flag is the flag of the Covenanters (WP).

See also the Visual History page on Ulster-Scots Murals. 

Lawnbrook Avenue, upper Shankill, west Belfast. “Shankill Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Twinned with Nashville, Tennessee.”

For Jayden in the adjacent yard, see Leader Of The Band.

For two other celebrations of USA 250, see the Visual History page on Ulster-Scots Murals.

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Shankill Community Festival

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“Celebrating our heritage, inspiring tomorrow.” This year’s Greater Shankill Community Festival began on June 30th with the launch of Ulster’s American Connection and will end with a Siege Of Derry re-enactment on July 11th – the full programme can be found on Fb.

Shankill Road at Iceland, replacing the Stewart’s Yard sign.

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Shore Crescent Bonfire

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Shore Crescent prepares for Eleventh Night with a bonfire and a large sign explaining the positive impact of the tradition:

“Shore Crescent bonfire – a proud loyalist tradition. Standing firm in our heritage, our loyalty & our values. Faith – loyalty – respect – heritage. [The bonfire …] Celebrates our heritage – honours our history, culture and the sacrifices made by those who went before us; strengthens our community – brings families, friends and neighbours together, building unity, pride and a sense of belonging; affirms our loyalty – a clear and proud expression of our loyalty to the Crown and the United Kingdom; educates & remembers – teaches future generations the importance of our traditions and the true meaning behind them; promotes respect & pride – shows respect for our values and beliefs and promotes pride in being Loyalist; supports local [groups] & raises funds – helps support local groups, charities and initiatives that make a real difference; secures our future – by standing together today, we protect our identity, freedom and way of life for tomorrow. One tradition. One community. One loyal people. Shore Crescent loyal.”

Next to Loughside Playground, Shore Road, north Belfast

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Times Bar Bombing

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A memorial service was held at the Times Bar on Friday June 5th (News Letter) to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the attack on the Times Bar in 1976, in which Edward McMurray and Robert Groves were killed by a republican bomb. (An image of the bombed bar can be found on Xitter.)

Three plaques were added to the memorial garden where the service took place, to William Haddock, James Smyth, and William Flynn. (Compare to 2019.)

As the images from May 10th in the Paddy Duffy Collection show, a painted mural was originally planned for the spot.

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The Fallen Comrades Of The INLA

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Christopher “Crip” McWilliams has been added this new version of the INLA memorial on Northumberland Street (Visual History). McWilliams was a long-time member of the IPLO and was present at the Lenadoon shout-out with the RUC in Lenadoon in which Bonanza McCann died. He joined the INLA while in prison for the 1991 killing of a snooker-hall manager (Independent) and in 1987 was the gunman in a team of three that killed the LVF’s Billy Wright in the H-Blocks (IRSN | Cory Report (pdf) | MacLean Report (pdf)).

The info board in the final image was originally mounted in 2014 to accompany the version painted on a board which featured Loughran, McLarnon, McCann, and Gallagher, and updated in 2019 for the printed version which added McElkerney.

For images and video from the launch on May 17th, see El Norte De Irlanda.

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Union Is Strength

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“Colonel Edward Saunderson MP, UDU founder, leader of the Irish Unionist Party. 1837-1906. Union is strength. ‘We must be prepared for every possible eventuality’ – on the issue of Home Rule 1893.”

The dates given are the span of Saunderson’s life, not his political career, which began in 1865 as MP for his home county of Cavan.

The bill under consideration in 1893 was the second Home Rule bill, which the UDU was formed to resist. The UDU initially met in Belfast in March; the manifesto of the meeting can be read on page 5 of the [Sydney] Freeman’s for 1893-04-29.

On June 8th, 1893, the Westminster government asked the police for a report on the Union, fearing its goal was armed resistance to Home Rule, and considering declaring it an illegal organisation ([Sydney] Daily Telegraph, 1893-06-10 page 5).

In September, the bill was passed in the Commons but defeated in the Lords. An account of the October meeting quotes Saunderson saying that the organisation should maintain itself by “if the necessity arose” “proving – not by words, but by deeds – that they meant what they said.” (Gympie Times & Mary River Mining Gazette, 1893-12-07 page 3).

Saunderson at the time was (also) leader of the Irish Unionist Alliance (here called the “Irish Unionist Party”) and he went on to be the first leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, from 1905 to 1906 (WP), when he died of pneumonia (WP).

The Ulster Defence Union is employed as an origin-story by the Troubles-era UDA as the UDU formed an ‘Ulster Defence Association’ – see UDU-UFF-UDA and UDU-WDA-UDA-UFF – and the name is used by the post-Agreement UDA – see Daffodil Days.

Next to Saunderson are boards mounted to celebrate the seventieth (platinum) jubilee of Queen Elizabeth in June 2022. Similar paintings were produced by schoolchildren in west Belfast – see The People’s Monarch.

“This artwork was designed and created by pupils from Abbots Cross Primary School in partnership with the local children from Rathcoole Community Hub to commemorate the platinum jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.”

“From Rathcoole to the house of Windsor – happy platinum jubilee 1952-2022. God save the Queen.”

Owenreagh Drive, Newtownabbey

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A New Evil

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“”Islam is heathen, Islam is satanic”, “Islam is a doctrine spawned in hell”, “A new evil has arisen”. Churchill was right in 1899, Enoch Powell was right in 1968, Pastor McConnell was right in 2014.”

The quotations above the AI-generated image come from a sermon by Pastor James McConnell in May, 2014, at the Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle on the Shore Road. The sermon was alleged to be “grossly offensive” and McConnell was charged. The key portion of the sermon read, “Today we see powerful evidence that more and more Moslems are putting the Koran’s hatred of Christians and Jews alike into practice. Now, people say there are good Moslems in Britain; that may be so but I don’t trust them, Enoch Powell was right and he lost his career because of it; Enoch Powell was a prophet and he told us that blood would flow in the streets and it has happened. … Islam’s ideas about God about humanity, about salvation, are vastly different from the teaching of the Holy Scriptures. Islam is heathen, Islam is satanic, Islam is a doctrine spawned in hell.”

In the penultimate paragraph of the ruling (pdf), Judge McNally concluded, “Having considered all these matters and the particular facts of this case I have come to the conclusion that the words upon which the charges are based, whilst offensive, do not reach the high threshold required of being “grossly offensive”. I find myself in agreement with Lord Justice Laws in the “Chambers” case when he said that the courts need to be very careful not to criminalise speech which, however contemptible, is no more than offensive. It is not the task of the criminal law to censor offensive utterances. Accordingly I find Pastor McConnell not guilty of both charges.” (In the ultimate paragraph, the judge cited the poet Rumi: “Silence is the language of God; all else is poor translation”.) A small board on the fence below presents this judgment.

The reference to “Churchill in 1899” is probably to volume 2 of The River War, in which Churchill wrote, “Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen – all know how to die – but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.

The reference to “Powell in 1968” is to Powell’s infamous “Rivers of blood” speech (pdf) against immigration to the UK from the Commonwealth. As McConnell notes, Powell was dismissed from Ted Heath’s shadow cabinet the following day.

The PSNI is investigating the display as a “hate incident” rather than a “hate crime”, as there is no underlying crime if the home-owner agrees to the board being mounted. The relevant statute deems it a crime “to use, or to display in writing, words that are threatening, abusive or insulting, where the intention or likely effect is to stir up hatred or arouse fear”. (Slugger) 

The piece is at the highly-visible junction of O’Neill Road and Knocknenagh Avenue, Rathfern, Newtownabbey, and part of the fence has been cut away in order to afford a better view.

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Sorry It Was All For Nothing

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“Sorry it was all for nothing – It’s on each and every one of us to save what our forefathers fought and died for.”

According to this Facebook post, the perceived threat being warned against here is “Communistic Islamification”. The “Islamification” is represented by a partial flag of Pakistan (an Islamic republic) being carried by yelling Caucasian figures in long black robes, advancing through a graveyard, in which an elderly man – perhaps King Charles – kneels in front of a headstone bearing a red Christian cross. That the cemetery is a military one is indicated by the medals on the mourner’s chest and the line from Binyon’s ‘For The Fallen’, which provides a referent for the apology and the word “forefathers”.

How the “communistic” threat is conveyed is less clear.

Two men were cautioned by the police for displaying offensive material (Sunday Life). The Cloughfern Young Conquerors declined to play at the launch and family fun-day (Sunday Life), but the event went ahead (on May 8th) (youtube).

Doagh Road, Cloughfern, Newtownabbey

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Remembering Is Not So Easy

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On the anniversary of David Ervine’s death, January 8th, a new board was launched in his memory, with images of Ervine “yearning for peace” in the cages of Long Kesh, where he met Gusty Spence (the pair can be seen together in the middle of the first column of photographs).

After his release, Ervine turned to politics, running unsuccessfully as a PUP candidate for Pottinger in the Belfast City Council elections of 1985 (WP); he would eventually be successful in 1997. In 1998 he was returned by Belfast East in the Assembly election (ARK). He helped bring about the loyalist ceasefire in 1994 – which was read aloud by Spence (youtube) – and was pro-Agreement in 1998 (DIB | Guardian | Slugger).

The information about the Memory Chair sculpture makes mention of Ervine’s boots but it seems they have not survived the mothballing of the sculpture which was last seen on site – boots included – in 2014.

Montrose Street South, replacing the various pieces seen in late 2024’s Today, Everyday, And Always.

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Fulton & Goatley

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“In loving memory of John Fulton [and] Stephen Goatley, died 15th March 1975. Will always be remembered by their family and friends. Quis separabit.” UDA members John Fulton and were Stephen Goatley were killed together in the Alexandra Bar on York Road (close to the Mervue Street location of this memorial) in revenge for the stabbing of the UVF’s Joe Shaw in the North Star Bar by the UVF as part of the UDA-UVF feud in 1975.

The two men named on the other board were also killed in a feud between the UDA and UVF, in 2000 – see Inky & Candy. “In loving memory Thomas (Inky) English & David (Candy) Greer Annesley. Together in the same old way/would be our dearest wish today./Silent memories true and tender/just to show we still remember.”

Mervue Street, Tiger’s Bay, north Belfast. The small plaque was previously seen in 2017.

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