Save The Shankill

This pair of boards is outside the Ulster Rangers Supporters Club (Fb) on the Shankill Road.

Above: The painting features a tram going under an Orange arch between the public baths on one side an Spin-A-Disc records on the other, surrounded by notable figures from the Shankill area. (Many thanks to Johnny Dougan of Shankill Area Social History (Fb) for the information below.)

Front, from left to right: Manchester United and Northern Ireland Soccer player Norman Whiteside (WP) and behind him boxer Davy Larmour and community worker Saidie Patterson (see WRDA), boxer Sammy (Cisco) Cosgrove, Senator Charlie McCullough (WP), Tommy Henderson, boxer Jimmy Warnock (original photograph here), Hugh Smyth (see previously Third Class Citizens), artist William Conor (see previously Conor’s Corner, Jack Henning (running), musician Belter Bell, writer Albert Haslett (Northern Visions interview).

Atop the tram: on the left is Jackie Redpath of the Save the Shankill Campaign (note other members of the group with placard on right; Northern Visions has a documentary about the Save The Shankill campaign) and Jack Higgins holding his book The Eagle Has Landed (WP). Up there too is Miss Sands, the music teacher in the Girls Model School, and historian Bobby Foster (Northern Visions interview). On the stairs are May Blood MBE and above her D.I. Nixon.

Below is a board highlighting the roles played by women during WWI as nurses and welders and in the Land Army. “She hasn’t a sword and she hasn’t a gun. But she’s doing her duty now fighting’s begun.”

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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Cemented With Love

This is a second repainting of the King Billy mural in Donegall Pass. The note in the corner says that this and the 2002 repainting (which added the painting of the Lindsay Street arch) were by “MW”, and the original mural painted in 1989 by “H. Gibson”.

Oak Street, Donegall Pass, south Belfast

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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McCurrie And Neill

“Jimmy McCurrie & Bobby Neill, murdered 27/28th June 1970. Still no truth – still no justice.”

The two civilians died in the course of rioting and a gun battle around St. Matthew’s that was “the first major confrontation to occur in east Belfast during the troubles” (McKittrick et al., Lost Lives, p. 50). It is not clear at what time each died. McKittrick gives the death of both as the 27th, but puts Neill’s death at 2 a.m. (and so strictly speaking on the 28th?).

Newtownards Road, east Belfast

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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Loyal Stoneyford

Here is a gallery of images from the village of Stoneyford, ten miles north of Lisburn. The view in the final image is from the cross-roads at north end of the village, with the brazier next to the WWI memorial visible on the right, and the nameplate on the fence on the left. The Orange Hall is in the middle of the village. The village was a centre for the small anti-Agreement organisation the “Orange Volunteers” (WP).

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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Balmoral Furniture Showrooms 1971

“This Poppy Cross is in memory of the two men and two babies murdered at this spot by a no-warning sectarian IRA bomb attack on the Balmoral Furniture shop on 11th December 1971”

The previous (circular) plaque reads, “Balmoral Furniture Showrooms, bombed 12.25 pm Saturday 11th December 1971, 2 adults & 2 babies killed”

Also augmented with poppy crosses: Frizzell’s Fish Shop 1993 | Mountainview Tavern 1975

Shankill Road, west Belfast – the plaque and cross are on the corner of the Shankill Leisure Centre

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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Join The UDA

This Castlemara (Carrickfergus) has been criticized by both DUP and Alliance councillors (Newsletter). The final words – “Join the UDA” – have drawn particular ire, as in other respects it is similar to other murals in featuring hooded gunmen, such as these two other Carrickfergus murals: InclusionEternal Vigilance. (Nolan Show discussion of the mural on 2015-02-11: Part 1Part 2)

The mural sports a hooded gunman facing the viewer with a slogan borrowed from Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata: “Better to die on your feet than live on your knees in an Irish republic. Join the UDA.”

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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South East Antrim UDA

“South East Antrim Ulster Defence Association” with shamrock, thistle, and rose, but not the daffodil – though the Welsh “Red Dragon” is included alongside the Scottish Saltire, the flag of Northern Ireland, and Queen Elizabeth II’s royal standard. 

The mural originally read “Ulster Defence Union” rather than “Ulster Defense Association” – see X01208.

Oakfield Drive, Carrickfergus

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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