Spike the bulldog wears a bandsman’s uniform but carries an assault rifle. The South East Antrim Defenders flute band seems to have disintegrated after 2011. There was an almost identical board in Carrick.
“Fuck U Geordie Clarke – this is our town – up the SEA!” “SEA” = the South East Antrim brigade of the UDA, which split from the UDA in 2007. See NewsLetter, BBC-NI and An Phoblacht.
From left to right: a Union Flag, the emblem of the USSF [Ulster Special Service Force, elite units within the Ulster Volunteers], Carson and the Covenant, the gunrunning ship Clyde Valley, a red hand in a garland, crossed “1914” rifles, the memorial to the gunrunning near Chaine Memorial, soldiers going over the top, Ulster Tower, and a cross marking a grave.
Cluan Place is a single street in east Belfast separated from (nationalist) Short Strand by a “peace” line. The mural features an unusual combination of Union Flag and Ulster Banner. For a history of Cluan Place, see Out Of The Ashes. “5 people shot – houses burnt – houses bombed. 20 families intimidated out by Sinn Fein/IRA. Still loyalist. No surrender.”
A banner announcing the Rising Sons Flute Band outside their practice hall in Castlereagh Street, east Belfast. (Also from 2008: Rising Sons Flute Band mural.)
“Lest we forget. This memorial is dedicated to the men of the Willowfield Battalion, East Belfast regiment, Ulster Volunteer Force, who made the supreme sacrifice in the Great War 1914-1918. It stands on the site of the old Willowfield unionist hall, opened by Sir Edward Carson on May 16th 1913, as a drill hall and rifle range for Willowfield UVF. It was from this hall volunteers marched to Balmoral, from there to the green fields of France, some never to return. Sleep on, dear sons of Ulster, ’til the trumpet sounds again.”
“In memory of our fallen comrades Ulster Volunteer Force East Belfast.”
“In solemn remembrance we salute the brave men of Ulster. Without favour or reward they fought militant republicanism on its own terms. Their courage, dedication and sacrifice we will remember for evermore. Joe Long, Robert (Squeak) Seymour, Charlie Logan, Trevor King, Billy Miller, Tommy McDowell, Joe Shaw, Colin Caldwell, Harris Boyle, Wesley Somerville, Geoffrey Freeman, David Swanson, Sinclair Jonhston, Robin Jackson. This is a few of the many. For God and Ulster.”
“In August 1971 many Protestants fled their homes as the IRA launched a bitter sectarian attack on Protestant communities throughout Belfast. The loyal people of Liverpool held out the hand of friendship in our hour of need up to 2000 terrified women and children escaped from burning homes to live in the safety of Liverpool. That act of friendship by the people of Liverpool will never be forgotten. Liverpool – Belfast a bond never broken. No surrender ” With newspaper reports by the Belfast Telegraph and Liverpool Echo. Sponsored by the East Belfast Historical And Cultural Society.