printed board/placard

Drink A Loving Toast

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
03766 2016-08-19 Kenneth Nicholl+

“Remember those not here today, And those unwell or far away, And those who never lived to see the end of the War & Victory, And every friend who’ve lost [or: passed] our way, Remember as of yesterday, It’s absent friends we miss the most, To ALL, Let’s drink a loving toast.”

William Walker’s poem Absent Friends is used as a part of UDA/UFF commemoration of various Larne men: “Ewan ‘Shug’ McPherson, Raymond ‘Toby’ Sloan, Kenneth ‘Kenny’ Nicholl (who is featured in a separate board, above; BBC-NI report of his killing), Ian ‘Big Ian’ Hamilton. Walker was a pilot during WWII who wrote poetry and returned to the brewing trade after the war; he died at age 99 in 2012 (Guardian).

Union flags with “Ulster Is British” have been added to the board seen previously in Her Majesty’s Forces In Afghanistan.

03767 2016-08-19 Drink A Loving Toast+

03774 2016-08-22 Ulster Is British+

03768 2016-08-19 Linn Rd w+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03766 X03767 X03774 X03768 Linn Road gone but not forgotten

Craigyhill Provost Team

Extramural Activity1 Comment
03765 2016-08-19 Craigyhill Provost Team+

There was some consternation (Larne Times) when the UDA/UFF board (shown above) with a silhouetted paramilitary holding a pistol was set up in late 2014, but the board remains in place in the summer of 2016. “South East Antrim 3rd Batt., D Coy.” If you know what “provost team” means, please let us know.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03765 Linn Road

The Poppy Trail 1915

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
03648 2016-07-07 Poppy Trail 1915+

The 1915 board in the ‘Poppy Trail’ series in south Belfast focuses on the Gallipoli campaign, claiming that “more men from Ireland died there than from Australia and New Zealand.” The ship on the left-hand side is the River Clyde, a converted collier, carrying men from the 1st Royal Dublin and 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers, who were decimated as they tried to reach shore — “only 372 of the original 900 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers remained”.

As with the 1914 board, the 1915 board includes the stories of men from both south and west Belfast, in this case, Joseph Wilson, who hailed from Donegall Road and died in Belgium, and Michael Magill, from the Divis area, who died at Gallipoli.

03649 2016-07-07 Poppy Trail 1915 l+

03650 2016-07-07 Poppy Trail 1915 r+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03648 X03649 X03650 daphne st UVF nursing and medical corp dardanelles turkey turks ottoman empire helles bay

This Divided Ulster Community

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
03522 2016-06-13 McMichael Memorial Garden portrait+

The South Belfast UDA/UFF commander was killed by an IRA car bomb in 1987. In addition to organising a team of assassins in the 70s and 80s, he founded a Political Research Group and wrote two documents proposing an independent Northern Ireland. The memorial garden, shown in full in the image below, is just off Sandy Row, near the John McMichael Centre. The other pieces can be seen in close-up in ‘A’ Batt. See also: We Must Share The Responsibility

“There is no section of this divided Ulster community which is totally innocent or indeed totally guilty, totally right or totally wrong. We all share the responsibility for creating the situation, either by deed or by acquiescence. Therefore, we must share the responsibility for finding a settlement and then share the responsibility of maintaining good government.” (John McMichael 1948-1987)

03521 2016-06-13 McMichael Memorial Garden w+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03522 X03521 City Way

An Staılc Ocraıs

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“An staılc ocraıs 1981 hunger strike – 35th anniversary march – Sunday 14th August – Assemble Divis tower 2pm”. With portraits of the deceased 1981 hunger strikers; Frank Stagg and Michael Gaughan are included even though they died in the 1970s.

On the site of the former Andytown RUC barracks, Falls Road/Glen Road, Belfast.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03744

The Poppy Trail 1914

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
03692 2016-07-31 The Poppy Trail+

 “The first Belfast men in action were not those who volunteered after the war’s outbreak. Instead, they were the regular soldiers already in the army, or reservists who were called up as war began. A battalion which contained a large number of Belfast regulars and reservists was the 2nd Royal Irish Rifles. Since it was not part of the 16th or 36th divisions, the battalion drew men from across Belfast’s communities.” Thus begins the 1914 board on south Belfast’s “Poppy Trail” launched on February 29th. The 1914 board, in Egeria Street, features the stories of Lance Corporal Samuel Spratt (from Lecale Street, off the Donegall Road) who died at Neuve Chappelle in August 1914 and Corporal Michael McGivern (from Merrion Street, off the Falls Road) who died at Kemmel in December.

See also: interviews from the launch on NVTv (starting at 13m44s)

03691 2016-07-31 Poppy Trail 1914+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03692 X03691 Egeria Street sharedhistoryworkshop.com housing executive signtech imperial war museum kitchener your country needs you

100 Loyal Men

Extramural Activity1 Comment
03681 2016-07-24 SE Antrim Ballyclare+

New South East Antrim UDA/UFF mural in Ballyclare, with the usual emblems and a central board featuring a photograph of a balaclava’ed volunteer: “For as long as 100 loyal men remain Ulster shall be free – Quis Separabit”.

03682 2016-07-24 SE Antrim Ballyclare Trio+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03681 X03682 Erskine Park

We Are One

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
03719 2016-08-04 LoveWins H_W+

In addition to the ‘Love Wins’ paste-up (featured yesterday), Joe Caslin and photographer Matthew Thompson (web) took photos of members of the LGBTQ community for an installation on Hill Street just below the mural. “We are one” is the theme of the festival this year, “which looks to celebrate the concept of family and the wider support network of those in the LGBTQ community.”

03718 2016-08-04 LoveWins w+

03720 2016-08-04 LoveWins info+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03719 X03718 X03720 Hill Street diversity inclusivity smirnoff

HMS Hawke

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
03700 2016-08-02 HMS Hawke+

HMS Hawke was a Royal navy WWI cruiser sunk by German U-boat on October 1st, 1914. It was a training ship, which meant that among the 542 sailors who lost their lives on the Hawke, 75 of them were 16 year-old boys.

Five of the deceased were from the Donegall Road area. This is the first mural in south Belfast’s “Poppy Trail”; in addition to the Hawke, there will be a board for each year of the first world war, and perhaps others for WWII, on the streets off Donegall Road, from Barrington Gardens westward across into the Village.

03698 2016-08-02 HMS Hawke info+

03699 2016-08-02 HMS Hawke l+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03700 X03698 X03699 Barrington Gardens crawford dawson mills molloy thompson

Le Jeu Avant Tout

Extramural Activity1 Comment
03577 2016-06-30 Frank Gillen board+

The board above, on the Frank Gillen Centre, which is in the nationalist Divis area of the lower Falls, shows the emblems not only of Cliftonville and local team Immaculata, but also the Protestand-supported Glentoran and Linfield. The flags on the building (shown below), for the Euro 2016 championships, likewise include the Northern Ireland banner along with the Irish Tricolour and the flags of the other nations.

03578 2016-06-30 Frank Gillen flags+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03577 X03578 cullingtree rd our divis our youth our future painted by sonnie boyce pierce atherton robert mcateer fra tairnan mcgreevy declan o’neill ricky quinn