Graffiti in Stanfield Place, the Markets, Belfast, for the 2003 march to highlight collusion between security forces and loyalist paramilitaries. See previously: Collusion Is State Murder.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02392
INLA plaque in Friendly Street, Belfast. In proud memory of our fallen comrades: brothers James ‘Jim’ and Thomas ‘Ta’ Power – the former killed by a premature explosion in Friendly Street, site of this plaque, the latter killed alongside John O’Reilly in Dublin by the IPLO, and Emanuel Gargan, who was also killed in the feud. “When the freedom of our country and class has been won let us guard it well remembering it was paid for by the blood and lives of those now dead. Erected by the Irish Republican Socialist Ex-Prisoners Memorial Committee.”
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02390 [M02961]
Glasgow Celtic football club (in Scotland/Albain) celebrated its centenary in 1988 and to celebrate the occasion it switched its badge for a season from the familiar four-leaf clover (shown in the second image) to a celtic cross, based on the club’s original badge, which was a cross against a red background (which can be seen at Re-brand Celtic).
Friendly Street, the Markets, south Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02389 M02391
Young Newton branch of the Ulster Young Militants, 1st Battalion, East Belfast Brigade. “Simply the best.”
Previously: Young Newton Says No | Young Newton at Freedom Corner.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02386
Michael Stone is removed from the central circle (see T00637) and replaced by an UYM fist. Jonathan “JJ” Gray – son of Jim Gray – died on holiday in Thailand in 2002. Jim Gray, who once owned the pub at the top of the street (Avenue One), himself would be shot in October 2005 after being expelled from the UDA in March. Rab Brown is perhaps the UVF commander – it’s not clear why he’s on a UDA mural. The flag of the ‘Ulster nation’/independent Northern Ireland is retained alongside the Ulster Banner.
Templemore Avenue, east Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02385 M02384 M02383
“Release east Belfast’s loyalist prisoners”. This mural of Maze/Long Kesh watchtowers and barbed wire dates back to at least 1997, during the peace process.
Harvey Court, east Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02381 [M05383] [M05384] [M05385]
These two murals face one another in the mouth of Martin Street at Templemore Avenue, in east Belfast. Gertrude Star flute band (Fb) was formed in 1961. The southern mural features Spike (from Tom And Jerry) dressed as a band member above an Ulster Banner in the shape of Northern Ireland. The mural on the northern side shows a coat of arms with six-pointed star and red hand, below a crown.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02379
This is a complete set of images of the UDA’s “Freedom Corner” along Newtownards Road, Belfast. The use of Cuchulainn as a loyalist icon (the mural is in its second incarnation – for the first, see Defender Of Ulster From Irish Attacks) rests on the theory that the people of mythical Ulster are different from those in the rest of Ireland and are related to ancient Scots: Dalaradia was “was a kingdom of the Cruthin in the north-east of Ireland and parts of Scotland in the first millennium.” The “Ulster Nation” flag/shield (which also appears in the final image) is a St Patrick’s cross on a blue background with six-pointed star and red hand, the flag of the Ulster (Northern Ireland) independence movement.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02370 M02371 M02372 M02373 M02374 M02376 M02377 M02378 M02387
Were it not for the Red Hand Commando emblem to the right (second image) this could be a strictly WWI mural, with the crest of the 36th (Ulster) Division and flags of the Ulster Volunteers and battle honours of the YCV/Royal Irish Rifles 14th battalion. The RHC were formed in 1972. Newtownards Road, Belfast.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02367 M02369
“James McCurrie – Robert Neill memorial garden – commissioned by East Belfast Historical and Cultural Society 2003.” “Murder Most Foul – 27th/28th June 1970. As I look back in my mind’s eye/I see a night that makes me cry/That Saturday started like any day/People shopping and children at play//Later that night at darkness fell/PIRA opened up like something from hell/Man, woman and child had to dive/It’s a wonder so ma[n]y escaped alive//A woman was shot at Wolff Street/Blood on the ground, all around her feet/As the ambulance arrived to take her away/A wounded man inside was heard to pray//From St. Matthew’s Chapel with murderous intent/PIRA kept firing till every bullet was spent/From the tower where the bells kept their silent peel/It’s from here PIRA shot dead Bobby Neill//Making his way home in a hurry/PIRA shot dead Jimmy McCurrie/As he lay at the Beechfield School Gate/The wounded kept rising till it reached twenty-eight//When I look back in the light of day/There can be no compromise with the IRA/The date should be burned in our brain/East Belfast cannot let this happen again – W. J. Magee – 2002”. This is a poetic account of the Battle Of St Matthew’s, in which three people died, including James McCurrie and Robert Neill. Tommy Reid (in the plaque on the left) was hit by a projectile earlier in the day on the Springfield Road and died six days later. Loughins, Gould, and Kincaid (in the plaque on the right) were killed by the Provisionals on the Crumlin Road that same afternoon.
Newtownards Road, east Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02366 M02365 M02364 M02363
Copyright © 2009 Peter Moloney
M04858 (exterior plaque) [M04857]
Peter Moloney Collection 