This board on Rossville Street, Derry, originally named only “Colin Duffy”. It was then modified for Marian Price and again for Martin Corey. It now reads “End internment by remand and release the Duffy 3 now!” The “Duffy 3” are Colin’s brothers Paul and Damien and cousin Shane, who are charged with collecting information of use to terrorists (BelTel).
“Discover the past/Aimsigh an t-am atá caite, build the future/tóg an todhchaí. Derry Walls Day, National Heritage Week.” The aim of the “wave on the wall” was to have almost 2,000 participants in red t-shirts form a chain around the wall (web).
“Moss side” is probably Scots, with “moss” meaning “marsh” or “(peat) bog” (DSL) and this mural is appropriately on Ballybog Road (in Dunmurry), “bog(ach)” in Irish meaning “soft (ground)..
In the mural, “QFB” is Queensway Flute Band – they used to have a mural in Seymour Hill – and “LOL 136” is a lodge in the Derriaghy District (Fb). It’s not clear if there is a specific referent for the dolmen in the centre.
The South Belfast UDA/UFF commander John McMichael (1948-1987) was killed by an IRA car bomb. 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, 1979’s Beyond the Religious Divide and 1987’s Common Sense (available at CAIN), promoting the philosophy of ‘Ulster nationalism’. The quote on the board comes from the end of the Introduction to Common Sense:
“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.”
“One man, one love, one country. Commonsense. In loving memory. Quis separabit.” “A Coy” “Old Warren”
The Smallwoods plaque is the same but the trio of boards is new, as compared to 2010.
This small board is not far from the upper entrance to Old Warren in Lisburn. There’s no trace on-line of a ‘Moira Road Young Loyalists’. So, it might have been painted by an individual or family along the road. Neither the old UDA A Coy or B Coy boards mention a youth division.
“Release Martin Corey, political prisoner. End internment now” with an unusual use of a dove rather than a lark. For background, see Release Martin Corey. With various other anti-Agreement graffiti and stencils in the area, including a “Join RSF [Republican Sınn Féın] – Éıre Nua” stencil, “SF” in a cross-hairs, and a “CIRA” “RIRA” cross-word.
On the evening of November 21, 1982, the car in which IRA volunteers Eugene Toman, Sean Burns, and Gervaise [also spelled “Gervase” and “Gervais”] McKerr were travelling was hit by 109 bullets and all three were killed. They were perhaps the first victims of the “shoot to kill” policy. The first of the five panels in this Kilwilkie mural shows the bullet-holes in the driver’s side of the car, pointing out an inconsistency with the RUC’s statement that the car had run an RUC checkpoint and was fired at only from behind. (An Phoblacht)
“Lurgan town was rocked with sorrow/On that bleak November day/Hushed tones and tears were mingled/When great numbers stopped to pray” – these are the opening lines of Ida Green’s poem ‘The Lurgan Ambush’ (sung by Bo Loughran on youtube)
“Cumann Thomáıs Uí Chléırıgh, An Lorgaın” – Clarke was raised in Dungannon, where is a cumann and GAA club in his name.
The 1916 Societies board is on top of a long-standing “H” (going back to 2009, if not before).
Perpendicular to the road are small boards calling for the release of Martin Corey and political status, and a large board commemorating the hunger strikers: “H-Block martyrs – remember them always – the struggle for political status – Republican Sınn Féın”
The small framed board to the left of “Free Kilwilkie” gives a line from James Connolly’s Last Statement prior to his execution in 1916: “The British government has no right in Ireland, never had any right in Ireland, never can have any right in Ireland”.
“1st July Battle Of Somme 1916”. The mural began with the single panel on the left (2004 D01505) and there was a red hand in the final panel (2010 C01914).
This is the scene at the junction of Pollock Drive and Mourne Road in Mourneview, Lurgan. The images, in order, show the top level of boards (including some on the sides of the building) and then the four along the bottom.
Top: (on side) Inniskilling Dragoon Guards | South Belfast UDA, B battalion, 1 company | Ancre Somme Association | 9th battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers | Craigavon Protestant Boys flute band (Fb) | Carson signing the Covenant in 1912 | (on side, above Mourneview Youth) Upper Bann Fusiliers flute band (Fb) | Upper Bann Fusiliers
Bottom: No Home Rule including the unfurling of “The Largest Union Jack In The Empire” | The Covenant | The Relief Of Ulster including the Ulster Volunteers and the Larne gun-running | The Great War including the VC won by William MacFadzean – “To them, bravery was without limit; to us, memory is without end”.