printed board/placard

Have They Gone Away?

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03089 2015-10-04 Welcome To Loyalist Lower Shankill+

The South Belfast UDA this week issued a statement that they “won’t be leaving any stage whilst republicans of any faction still exist”. As the Newsletter article notes, the South Belfast branch of the UDA does not speak for the whole organization. Until confirmed, then, the new mural above – “Welcome to the loyalist Lower Shankill – UDA 2nd Batt. C. Coy” – provides only circumstantial evidence …

Elsewhere: Join the South East Antrim UDA: Glenfield Community Association.

Update (2015-10-16): Similar statement from “IRA commanders” BelfastLive | Irish Mirror

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quis separabit UFF UYM X03089

That Faraway Look

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03056 2015-09-23 Irony CNB15 Earring+

Realistic image of a female face in profile by Irony (Fb | Tumblr) for CNB15 just off Berry Street towards the Royal Avenue end. You can see the image he was working from at deviantart. The earring is borrowed from the piece next door, which we’ll feature tomorrow.

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X03056 belfast reform club

Three-In-One

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02792 2015-08-20 HolywoodUDAUFFUYM+

This trio of Ulster Defence Association, Ulster Freedom Fighters, and Ulster Young Militants boards are in Holywood, County Down. The overtly paramilitary UFF acts as the link between the others, in that the UDA and UYM emblems appear in miniature alongside its own. The UFF slogan “Ferriens tego” is missing from its board. The local troop is the North Down 2nd Batt. D Coy.

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X02792 quis separabit terrae filius

Many Suffer

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02823 2015-08-24 MandelaSands+

“Many suffer so that someday future generations may live in justice and peace.”

Portraits of Nelson Mandela and Bobby Sands are presented side by side, both smiling, in front of the flags of (post-apartheid) South Africa and the Republic of Ireland.

Bogside, Derry.

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X02823

In A Foreign Land

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02865 2015-08-26 LindsayMooneyMem+

The [Sergeant] Lindsay Mooney Memorial Flute Band was formed in 1973 after the St. Patrick’s day death of Lindsay Mooney, a UDA member killed by the premature explosion of a bomb near Lifford, County Donegal (Sutton). The band dissolved in 1993 but commemorative nights are still held (NI World).

The board above is in the Lincoln Court area of Londonderry, from where Mooney and the band both hailed. “To those of us who criticise, to those who cannot see, just remember in a foreign land fell a better man than me.”

The Ballad Of Lindsay Mooney: youtube | lyrics

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X02865 sergeant

On Wings Of Eagles

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2015-08-18 BloomfieldRHCFlag+

Here are three images of Red Hand Commando boards and flags in the Bloomfield estate. They both feature a red hand with eagle’s wings over a six-pointed star and on the flag, the motto (in crude Gaelic) “Lamh Derg Abu” – “Onward, Red Hand” or “Red Hand To Victory”. The loyalist paramilitary group declared an official end to activities in 2007 (BBC-NI) and decommissioned its weapons by 2009.

2015-08-18 BloomfieldRHC+

2015-08-18 BloomfieldRHCWide+

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X02777 X02776 X02778 lámh dhearg abú

Alternative Transport

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02905 2015-09-02 Beechm 14+

Black taxis were first brought from England to Belfast in 1970 by locals who wanted to provide an alternative, and locally-based, transport system to augment the Citybuses which were sometimes cancelled and sometimes burned out. The board above commemorates eight drivers who were killed during the troubles: Michael Duggan, Jim Green, Harry Muldoon, Paddy McAllister, Caoimhín Mac Brádaigh, Thomas Hughes, Hugh Magee, and Paddy Clarke.

French documentary about black taxi drivers.

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02905 west belfast taxi association community interest company dedicated to the memory of murdered in the service of their community providing belfast with a public transport system for over 40 years a dhia deán trocaire ar a nanamacha may god have mercy on their souls WBTA divis flats st peters  12/11/75 5/5/77 31/10/84 26/8/86 16/3/88 19/7/91 10/10/91 2/2/92

The Truth Will Out

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Calls for “truth” and “justice” concerning the killing in August, 1971, of 11 people from Ballymurphy, by the 1st Parachute Regiment during Operation Demetrius, the beginning of internment.

The final three panels (panels 16-18) of the ‘murdered’ follows to the right of the Ballymurphy board. (These are new additions, as compared with 2011.) They are then followed by the final board, to the WBTA.

X02904 2015-09-02 Beechm 13+

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X02903 X02904 beechmount ave

“11 people in west Belfast from the Greater Ballymurphy neighbourhood were murdered by the British Army as internment without trial was violently carried out on August 9th, 1971. Proper police investigations were never undertaken and one has served a day in prison for causing these deaths. The familys of those murdered deserve and demand the truth be told by the state about its policies and actions of those who carried them out.”

Collusion Untried

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02902-2015-09-02-beechm-11

Two boards about collusion in Beechmount Avenue. The first chronicles (both in words and images) alleged instances of collusion between the RUC and loyalist paramilitaries, citing John Stevens, Peter Cory, and Nuala O’Loan – pages from the 2007 O’Loan report are shown in the second, below.

02892-2015-09-02-beechm-01

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The Truth Costs Nothing

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02901-2015-09-02-beechm-10

The British soldiers on the right of the board above are given red berets to indicate the Paratroop Regiment, which was the regiment involved in Derry’s Bloody Sunday.

“Springhill–Westrock massacre. Belfast’s Bloody Sunday. Time for truth! On the 9th July 1972 a team of British Army snipers took up firing positions in Corry’s timber yard overlooking the nationalist Springhill/Westrock estates. Within less than an hour five civilians lay dead and two critically wounded. Among the dead were three teenagers, a father of six and a priest on his way to administer the last rites to the dead and injured. There has never been a proper police investigation, and not one solider has spent a single day in prison in connection with their deaths. The families deserve, and demand the comprehensive facts be told by the British establishment. The truth costs nothing.”

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X02901 Beechmount Ave John Dougal, Margaret Gargan, Fr Noel Fitzpatrick, David McCafferty, Patrick Butler