Belfast west

Victoria Crosses Of The 36th (Ulster) Division

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Nine Victoria Cross recipients from the 36th (Ulster) Division in World War I are honoured in this board on the Shankill at the Co-Op (which was previously across the road in Crimea Street). The nine are (from 1917 and 1918) E[dmund] De Wind, E[rnest] Seaman, C[ecil] L[eonard] Knox, N[orman] Harvey, (from 1916) G[eoffrey] St. G[eorge] S[hillington] Cather, W[illiam] F[rederick] MacFadzean, E[ric] N[orman] F[rankland] Bell, R[obert] Quigg, and J[ames] S[amuel] Emerson. “Only by remembering these men, and others like them, can we ever repay their memory.” The poem In Flanders’ Fields is by Canadian John McCrea.

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
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Shankill Atrocities

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“30 years of indiscriminate slaughter by so-called non-sectarian Irish freedom fighters. No military targets! No economic targets! No legitimate targets! Where are our inquiries? Where is our truth? Where is our justice?” The bombings listed are: Fourstep Inn, bombed 29th Sept. 1971, 2 innocents killed; Bayardo Bar, bombed 13th August 1975, 5 innocents killed; Balmoral Showroom, bombed 11th December 1971, 2 adults and 2 babies killed; Mountainview Tavern, bombed 5th April 1975, 5 innocents killed; Frizzell’s Fish Shop, bombed 23rd October 1993, 9 innocents killed. The plaque to the right (“donated by the Kinner family”) gives the names of those killed. It was previously beside the painted version of this mural in Bellevue Street.

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
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Sleeping Where No Shadows Fall

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“In loving memory of military commander Stevie ‘Top Gun’ McKeag, born 1970, died 2000. Sleeping where no shadows fall.” The plaques and the photograph in the centre are new (see previously 2007). The upper plaque [M04257] reads “This mural is dedicated to the memory of Stevie (Top Gun) McKeag from the officers & members of C Company 2nd Battalion UFF. Gone but not forgotten. Quis separabit.” The lower plaque [M04256] reads “In loving memory of our big brother Steven McKeag from jackie, Mary & Melissa. Simply the best.”

Hopewell Crescent, lower Shankill, Belfast

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
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Tar Anall

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These three images from around Conway Mill are from 2008, before the mill was renovated. At the time, the mill was home to Tar Anall ex-prisoners’ centre and the Eileen Hickey Irish republican History Museum, as well as a print-shop and mattress store.

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
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Gibraltar/Milltown Martyrs

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2008 was the twentieth anniversary of the killing of IRA members Seán Savage, Danny McCann, and Maıréad Farrell in Gibraltar on March 6th, and the subsequent deaths related to their funerals: IRA volunteer Kevin McCracken was shot on the 14th near the Savage family home on the night the coffins arrived in Belfast and, at the funeral, Thomas McErlean, John Murray, and IRA volunteer Caoımhín Mac Bradaıgh were killed by the UDA’s Michael Stone. The Ballyseedy Memorial was used in the mural painted at the time.

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
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