This two-part mural shows (left) Orange Order flag-bearers and (right) a scene from the Siege of Derry, perhaps of James II demanding the city and being rebuffed with cries of “No surrender”.
The Fountain, Londonderry, replacing Eddie Rides.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M11851 [M11851a]
“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
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M11848 M11849 M11850
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: Inclusion | Eternal Vigilance. (Nolan Show discussion of the mural on 2015-02-11: Part 1 | Part 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.”
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M11832 [M11833] [M11834] [M11835]
M11836 [M11837] [M11838]
M11839
“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
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M11831
A statement from the UDA/UFF in Castlemara (Carrickfergus): “Glenfield UDA will not tolerate anti-social behaviour”.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M11829 M11830
This is a vintage cut-out in the Sunnylands estate (visible in 2008 Google Street View). The central board – a RHC emblem – had a plastic or paper layer between the star/wings and the circular back-board with red-white-and-blue colours and the words “Red Hand Commando” in a circle. The hooded gunmen on either side each appear to be a single, painted, carving.
Salia Avenue, Sunnylands, Carrickfergus
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M11825 [M11826] [M11827]
This is a very aggressive set of boards, in Hampton Crescent behind the Antiville (Larne) community centre: two of them show silhouetted UDA (3rd battalion, D company) gunmen in active poses, and another deploys the fearsome figure of Eddie The Head. Rather than the Union flag that he carries in other murals and on the original Iron Maiden album cover (see Eddie’s Visual History page), in this version “The Trooper” carries a UDA flag (with the UFF symbol also shown). “AYM” is presumably “Antiville Young Militants”.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M11811 M11819 M11816 [M11817] [M11818] M11812 [M11813] [M11814] [M11815]
M11806 M11810 M11808 [M11809] M11807
“Remember those not here today, And those unwell or far away, And those who never lived to see the end of the War & Victory, And every friend who’ve lost [or: passed] our way, Remember as of yesterday, It’s absent friends we miss the most, To ALL, Let’s drink a loving toast.”
William Walker’s poem Absent Friends is used as a part of UDA/UFF commemoration of various Larne men: “Ewan ‘Shug’ McPherson, Raymond ‘Toby’ Sloan, Kenneth ‘Kenny’ Nicholl (who is featured in a separate board; BBC-NI report of his killing), Ian ‘Big Ian’ Hamilton. Walker was a pilot during WWII who wrote poetry and returned to the brewing trade after the war; he died at age 99 in 2012 (Guardian).
Linn Road, Antiville, Larne
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M11820 [M11821] [M11822] [M11823] M11824
“Fuck da IRA” and “KAT” [kill all Taigs] – simple graffiti in the Steeple estate, Antrim
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M11800 M11801 M11802
A plan for a “peace and conflict resolution” centre at HMP Maze was approved in April 2013 (Guardian) but the plans were scuppered before the end of the year (BBC) thanks in part to unionist objections that it would focus on prisoners rather than victims (BBC).
The other placard also refers to another controversy from 2013, the flying of the Union Flag at Belfast City Hall, which began with the December 2012 decision to fly the flag on 18 days a year, but which petered out the following spring.
Steeple Road, Antrim
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M11798 M11799
