The new Museum of Orange Heritage in Schomberg House opened at the end of June. It features a stained glass window with the words “faithful unto death”, commemorating the 330+ (counts differ) members of the Orange Order who were killed during the Troubles.
The museum is at the south end of Cregagh Road; the advertising hoarding is on the Upper Newtownards Road, east Belfast
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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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“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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July 6th and Cluan Place is festooned with bunting and flags (including Israeli flags) in preparation for the Twelfth. Along the side of the entryway sit discarded pieces of furniture that (hopefully) won’t be going on the small bonfire – here is the 2009 version.
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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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A Somme/WWI soldier contemplates a grave next to a hill of poppies. The art is on the shutters of the Peppercorn café on the Woodstock Road, east Belfast.
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And the PSNI (in the shuttered windows)!
Templemore Street, east Belfast.
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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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“Short Strand supports Gaza – tacaíonn An Trá Ghearr le Gaza”. The centre of this mural is Carlos Latuff’s cartoon Do Not Disturb – War Criminals Working. Israel, in the form of an aproned Benjamin Netanyahu, is butchering the people of Gaza. The world watches with some concern, Ban Ki-Moon and the UN look away, and the Arab League is asleep. The United States, in the form of Barack Obama, prevents any intervention.
The second image gives a wide shot of the long wall on Mountpottinger Road, which has its own Visual History page.
Short Strand, east Belfast.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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The boards on the left celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1914 Clyde Valley gun-running; material from the operation was held for the East Belfast battalion of the Ulster Volunteers at Bloomfield House (web), site of these boards. See also: John Henry Patterson’s involvement in Operation Lion.
“When the 3rd Home Rule Bill was passed by Parliament in 1912, Ulster Unionists under the leadership of Edward Carson and James Craig realised that armed resistance was the only resort left to them to remain British. The Ulster Volunteer Force was formed in January 1913 and comprised of 100,000 men. East Belfast Regiment was the largest in the UVF with over 10,000 men divided into 6 Battalions: 1st. Ballynafeigh & Newtownbreda, 2nd. Willowfield, 3rd. Mountpottinger, 4th. Victoria, 5th. Avoniel, 6th. Strandtown & Knock. Major Fred Crawford was tasked with procuring weapons and ammunition. On 24/25th April 1914 he did just this when landed 25,000 rifles and 3,000,000 rounds of ammunition from Clyde Valley at Larne and Donaghadee in Operation Lion. These munitions were taken all over the country, and a consignment was sent to East Belfast UVF. Part of this consignment was concealed in the grounds of Bloomfield House, which stood on this location.”
“This plaque marks the occasion in early May 1914 when over 2,000 men of the East Belfast Regiment, Ulster Volunteer Force paraded to the grounds of Orangefield House for an inspection to celebrate the success of Operation Lion when weapons and ammunition were landed at Larne and Donaghadee. For God and Ulster.”
The boards on the right read: “‘Tis thy flag and my flag;/The best of flags on Earth,/So cherish it my children,/It’s yours by right of birth.//Your fathers fought,/Your fathers died,/To raise it to the skies,/And we like them must never yield,/But keep it flying high.” from The Union Jack, by Edward Shirley, in Little Poems For Little People, and “In memory of the men and women from the Orangefield area, who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the defence of our freedom in all theatres of conflict, both foreign and at home.” These memorial boards are to local men who “stood to the fore to defend the Empire as the 8th Battalion (East Belfast) Royal Irish Rifles” in the 36th division, formed from formed from the “8th Battalion (Avoniel) and the 6th Battalion (Strandtown)” of the Ulster Volunteers.
Grand Parade, east Belfast.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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“Pitt Park” in red-white-and-blue in Pitt Park, Newtownards Road, east Belfast
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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“Young Newton – in memory of our fallen comrades [centre:] Volunteer R. Warnock, W. Warnock, A. Petherbridge, K. Watters, G. Reid” [left:] “R. McCreery, V. Dougherty, J. Moore”, [right:] “R. Algie snr, T. W. Black snr, P. McCreery”. The “P. McCreery” name, “Always remembered”, and the border of poppies are new compared to the 2009 image of this memorial garden.
Newtownards Road, east Belfast.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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The UFF mural on the first gable of (so-called) Freedom Corner in east Belfast has been repainted many times since the first one took over – in 1991 – from a Gertrude Star mural (D00388). Repaints followed in roughly 2001, 2008, and 2011, now followed by the image shown above. The elements remain as before: a balaclava’d volunteer with assault rifle, the UFF emblem, a pistol, and a modified version of the Declaration of Arbroath: “For as long as one hundred of us remain alive we shall never in anyway consent to submit to the Irish [instead of “English”] for it’s not for glory, honour or riches we fight but for freedom alone which no man loses but with his life – U.D.A./U.F.F”
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