The orange lily makes a rare appearance in a paramilitary mural. The hooded gunmen are from the UFF/UDA. Volunteer Stephen “Benson” Kingsberry is remembered in the panel towards the back of the house. He died from consuming tainted ecstasy (perhaps distributed by the UVF). He was included in the roll of honour in Lemberg Street. Kilburn Street, Belfast. Seen previously in 2005.
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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
M04201 M04202
“In loving memory South Belfast Brigadier John McMichael, South Belfast UFF commander Joe Bratty.” Listed on the tombstones are Steven Audley 17 Mar 91, Harry Black 30 Sep 92, Jim Kenna 25 Jul 72, Frankie Smith 31 Jan 73, William Kingsberry 13 Nov 91, Stephen Kingsberry 10 Mar 97, Ernie Dowds 10 Oct 95, Sammy Hunt 5 Sep 76, Raymie Elder 31 Jul 94, William Hamilton 9 Sep 94, Tommy Morgan 29 Aug 94.
Lemberg Street, south Belfast
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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
M04200 [M04199] [M04198] [M04197] [M04196]
The course of World War I, 1914-1918, is depicted in a series of boards along the north side of the Donegall Road bridge, with newspaper headlines from local papers and images of Belfast as troops leave and at the armistice.
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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
M04194 M04193 M04190 M04189 M04188 M04187 M04186
These five panels on the south side of the Donegall Road bridge commemorate the “Belfast Blitz” – the four occasions in April and May of 1941 on which Belfast incendiary (“fire”) and high explosive (“HE”) bombs were dropped by Nazis airplanes, killing 900 people.
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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
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A plaque is added to the Robert Dougan mural in Blythe Street, Belfast. Compare to the mural in 2007.
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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
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The UDA memorial garden is just off Sandy Row, near the John McMichael Centre.
One board (shown fourth) reproduces a mural (see 2005 M02408) from nearby Rowland Way, which was itself a repaint of an earlier (see 1995 M01183 and 2001 M01518) mural, though updated to note the “distinguished service” of Samuel Curry.
The same thirteen names also appear on the “roll of honour” plaque in the garden. The South Belfast UDA/UFF commander John McMichael was killed by an IRA car bomb in 1987. 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. Joe Bratty was killed, along with “Raymie” Elder, by the IRA in 1994 (WP).
City Way, Sandy Row, south Belfast
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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
M04172 [M04176] [M04177] M04173 M04174 M04175 M04754
The image of the McMichael board, added later, is from 2013. The same board was mounted in Lisburn: One Man, One Love, One Country.
Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
UFF graffiti on the side of the Days Hotel (later a Holiday Inn) in Sandy Row.
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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
M04171
Images from inside Kelly’s Cellars in Belfast city centre, with portraits of Henry Joy McCracken and Theobald Wolfe Tone. ‘The Man From God Knows Where’ is Thomas Russell, an Anglican from Cork who joined the British navy and then the cause of the United Irishmen and the Emmet rebellion. He was executed for treason after the rising in October, 1803 (video of the full poem by Florence Wilson | Irish News account of his death).
There is also a “blue plaque” on the exterior wall.
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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
M04169 [M04170] M04167 M04168 M04166
Cluan Place is a single street in east Belfast separated from (nationalist) Short Strand by a “peace” line. The mural features an unusual combination of Union Flag and Ulster Banner. For a history of Cluan Place, see Out Of The Ashes. “5 people shot – houses burnt – houses bombed. 20 families intimidated out by Sinn Fein/IRA. Still loyalist. No surrender.”
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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
[M04072] M04073
A banner announcing the Rising Sons Flute Band outside their practice hall in Castlereagh Street, east Belfast. (Also from 2008: Rising Sons Flute Band mural.)
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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
M04071
Peter Moloney Collection 