printed board/placard

Who Went To War And Never Returned

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It is usually the fourth verse from Laurence Binyon’s poem For The Fallen that is quoted on memorial stones to the fallen of the WWI but here we have the third verse: They went with songs to the battle, they were young/Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow/They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted/They fell with their faces to the foe. The stone commemorates “the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division who gave their lives for King and country at the Battle of the Somme 1st July – 18th November 1916”. It is in the garden adjacent to the West Kirk Presbyterian church (Fb) on the Shankill Road. As the image below shows, the garden is also host to many small boards to individual soldier (see previously Among The Fallen | XXXVI | The Sacrifice Remains The Same).

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Cease This Activity!

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The International Wall on Divis Street draws coach-loads of tourists every day (“tens of thousands” according to Sinn Féin’s Fra McCann). A new IRSP board affixed to the top of the ‘magic lantern’ mural (see Spreading The Word) warns visitors to take precautions. “Community notice: thieves are operating in this area. Please make sure your valuables are secure and out of sight. Respect our community and visitors. Cease this activity!” Here are articles about the Divis Hoods Liberation Army (DHLA) from 2017 and 2016.

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Battle Of The Markets

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Internment (imprisonment without trial) was introduced on August 9th, 1971 by NI Prime Minister Brian Faulkner, with 342 people arrested on the first day. The Bogside was “hysterical with hated”, according to Eamonn McCann (History Ireland) and of Belfast Kevin Myers wrote “Insanity seized the city.” Two dozen people would die in the rioting and gun-battles that followed, leading to the suspension of Stormont rule (WP). In the Markets area, OC Joe McCann and other (Official) IRA volunteers took over the Inglis bakery and reportedly prevented 600 British troops from entering the area – the image to the left of the board above is a Ciaran Donnelly photograph showing McCann during the battle, kneeling beneath a Starry Plough and holding an M1.

For information on his death the following year, see Joe McCann.

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X04933 soldier of the people erected by the official republican movement

Wings Appeal

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The Royal Air Forces Association’s ‘Wings Appeal’ has been raising money to support Air Force members and their families since 1951 (RAFA). This bed of flowers in the pattern of the Air Force’s red, white, and blue roundel (the reverse of the French roundel) is at the start of the Antiville Road in Larne.

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South Belfast Volunteers

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Here are five more small boards from the Village. Above is a one to the memory of soldiers from the 36th (Ulster) Division lost in WWI; the remainder refer to the modern UVF, though all of them include poppies, suggesting that they are memorial in intent and so less menacing than yesterday’s hooded gunman in Welcome To The Village.

Also, previously: Village UVF | A Hive Of Glass| For God And Ulster

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Welcome To The Village

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Small boards (the same size as the Poppy Trail individual commemorative boards, as in XXXVI) have been erected at most of the street corners along Broadway in the Village area of south Belfast. Many are UVF emblems but this one of a hooded gunman aiming at the viewer is a remarkable return to openly paramilitary imagery in the neighbourhood.

See also South Belfast Volunteers | A Hive Of Glass | Village UVF | For God And Ulster

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Larne For A Happy Holiday

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These three (reproduction) advertisements date to before partition. Thus (on the left) McNeill’s hotel of “Co Antrim, Ireland”, which also transported tourists along the Antrim coastline, promises information on “How to spend a cheap holiday in the north of Ireland”.

On the right is a poster for State Line steamships, which ran services from Glasgow to Liverpool to New Orleans and from Glasgow to Larne to New York (ShipsList).

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Sunshine Not Skyscrapers

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Residents of the Markets are challenging a planned 55 million pound high-rise office-block next to Central Station, which they say will overshadow their homes (Irish News). A decision in the case is expected by the end of the month (BelTel)

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IRPC

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The Irish Republican Prisoners Committee (IRPC) is currently without any web or social-media presence, but it recently mounted this board in Northumberland Street, Belfast. As with all post-Agreement murals for republican prisoners, it uses only barbed wire and not the lark.

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Larne Remembers Her Fallen

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History Hub Ulster and Larne Urban District Council are conducting a search for additional names of residents from the Larne area who died in WWI, to add to the 147 included on the war memorial in Inver. The dead are also remembered in this wrap-around mural in Milbrook. We will have close-ups of the different panels and plaques tomorrow. For images of the launch, see the Friends of the 36th – Cairncastle facebook page.

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