In May we reported that the RHC mural in Hunt Street had been replaced by a Ballymacarrett Somme Society mural, though the side wall remained a memorial to C Coy RHC. Now the side wall has also been turned into a Somme memorial, with John McCrae’s poem In Flanders Fields and an image of the Cross of Sacrifice in front of the Thiepval memorial. The larger of the two plaques has been moved to the nearby RHC memorial garden.
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The bus turnaround at the entrance to Taughmonagh estate has been turned into a Somme Garden (see the third image, below). The “Welcome to Taughmonagh” sign at entrance has been covered over with a Union flag board with “Taughmonagh remembers” and the three figures in the sculpture in the middle have each been given a union jack cap.
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X03922 X03920 X03921 Taughmonagh heritage and culture society the bulbs for this somme garden were bought with donations by from the estate planted by the children to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the battle of the somme and in the morning we will remember them
On the side of the hair salon on the lower Shankill: an array of flags and a board “in glorious memory” to the 36th (XXVI) Ulster division: Somme, Messines, ypres, Cambrai, Thiepval, Somme (1918), St Quentin, Lys, Courtrai
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“The Memorial Plaque (Death Penny [or Dead Man’s Penny]) was issued after the First World War to the next of kin of all British and Empire Service personnel who were killed as a result of the war.” The “penny” was in fact five inches in diameter and cast in bronze. It showed Britannia with a trident and two dolphins swimming around her, and a lion on oak, along with the name of the deceased (here, Ronald Mitchison) without indication of rank. (Here is a close-up of a plaque from WP.) The board shown above contains other information about WWI, centrally including the statement that “The 16th Irish Division, the Connaught Rangers [7th battalion] and the Irish Rifles [7th battalion], all fought side-by-side throughout World War I.”
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Secret army silhouettes of the UDA’s 3rd Battalion, D Company from Antiville, Larne.
The first wide shot, below, shows the complete line-up of UDA/UFF/UYM boards, including Eddie acting as a UDA flag-bearer. The second shows the royal family boards on the north side of the wall.
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The Martin Meehan tarp in Ardoyne Avenue has been removed and the wall whitewashed. At the moment, all there is to be seen is the plaque shown above – Show Me The Man, Martin Meehan 1945 – 2007 – and a Cogús board – “End strip searching in Maghaberry now”.
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X03867 X03866 Ardoyne Ave erected by 32 county sovereignty movement and republican network for unity claddagh ring
Carrickfergus United Loyalists portray Peter Robinson, Mike Nesbitt, and Theresa Villiers as the three monkeys who “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil”. The evil that they fail to recognize is the oppression of Orange culture in the form of the blocked 2013 parade at the Ardoyne shops. The march was completed and the protest camp dismantled on October 1st. (NewsLetter) The phrase “graduated response” comes from the Unionist response to the collapse of 2014 talks. (Irish News)
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IRPWA board (and stencil) in Shantallow, Derry, articulating the forms of torture of Irish republicans in “British gaols in Ireland”: isolation, internment, strip searching, and controlled movement.
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The town of Armoy, County Antrim, hosts an annual motorcycling road race, the Race Of Legends. The windows of the (closed) Victory Bar is filled with images of motorcyclists. Robert Dunlop is shown above and brother Joey is two windows to the left. Both brothers died as a result of racing accidents. Sons William and Michael are also featured.
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X03812 X03813 hillside rd mervyn robinson frank kennedy
The experts’ best guess is that the gentleman on the white horse (on the right of the painting) is James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, at the siege of Maastricht in 1673. Scott was commander of the English forces fighting with the French during the Franco-Dutch war. It’s not clear, thus, what the connection is to the Antiville area of Larne or the wars fought in Ireland over the English crown. It was painted by Jan Wyck, who also did a painting of the Battle of the Boyne. On either side (as shown below) are a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and the English version of the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom.
This trio of boards has been added to a wall behind the Antiville community centre, softening (somewhat) a very aggressive set of six UDA boards (seen in UDA Flag Bearer and Secret Army Silhouettes.)
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Extramural Activity 