printed board/placard – Page 55 – Extramural Activity

Faugh A Ballagh

2017-04-262025-12-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“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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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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

Bangor Protestant Boys

2017-04-172024-12-26Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

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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X04087 X04086

Ulster Volunteers

2017-04-122024-12-26Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

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

North Down Battalion

2017-04-072024-12-26Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

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

Ballybeen Remembers Its Fallen

2017-04-062024-12-26Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“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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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

North Down Defenders

2017-04-052024-12-26Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a small board in Bangor from the North Down Defenders flute band (Tw | Fb), unusual due to the modified Ulster banner with clenched red hand in the centre. Surrounding it are the flags of the LPA, UDA, UFF, and UYM.

Kearney Gardens, Kilcooley, Bangor.

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X04085 est 2004 quis separabit

Ballybeen Dream

2017-04-032024-12-26Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

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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Joe McCann

2017-03-282024-12-26Extramural Activity2 Comments

Joe McCann was (Official) IRA OC in the Markets area of south Belfast, where he was shot by paratroopers in 1972. The HET in 2013 found that the killing was unjustified, as McCann was unarmed and shot multiple times at close range; the DPP announced in December 2016 that two soldiers – now in their 60s – are to stand trial for the shooting. (WP | Irish Times | Telegraph which also includes the photograph used as a background, which shows McCann, with MI, during the occupation of the Inglis bakery in the Markets on August 9th, 1971 – Internment Day.)

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X04072 X04074 soldier of the people staff captain executed by british crown forces shoot to kill erected by the official republican movement

In All Theatres Of Conflict

2017-03-272024-12-26Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

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.

Ulster Defenders Of The Realm

2017-03-232024-12-26Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Privates Fred Starrett and James Cummings died in an IRA bombing on Belfast’s Royal Avenue on February 24th, 1988. Both Orangemen, their deaths are commemorated every year by a parade from east Belfast to the city centre. Shown in today’s post are the panels from a new UDR commemorative wall in east Belfast.

The fourth panel is a collage of UDR activities (on the streets, on base, manning check-points, in boats, helicopters, with dogs) with a few pieces of republican signs as backdrop (Free Derry Corner, “Provies rule”, “Such is British justice – remember 9th August”) and the fifth shows soldiers searching for arms near some outbuildings.