Covenant

Wheatfield Action Project

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This is the second generation of a series of boards on Ballysilland Road depicting (as the info board states “a series of scenes from the 20th century which have strong resonance with the local community”. The first generation can be seen in 20th Century Northern Ireland. Most of the changes are at the start/left-hand side: the info board replaces the first two panels, which were of the Cavehill Road and the Clyde Valley, and (next in line) only one of the three scenes of Belfast on Ulster Day survives. Carson signing the covenant is followed by a new double-sized panel of Fernhill House, specifically of “the 2nd West Belfast Battalion of the UVF … on parade”, and then the rest as before, but with the order of the “Sunningdale Agreement of 1973” and “Ulster Workers Council’s ‘Constitutional Stoppage’ of May 1974” panels reversed (i.e. now in chronological order). “Parliament Buildings at Stormont, opened by the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII) on 16 November 1932, completes the mural.”

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
M04335 [M04336] [M04337] [M04338] [M04339] [M04340] [M04341] [M04342] [M04343] M04344 [M04345] [M04346] [M04347] [M04348] M04349 [M04350]

Rex Bar

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This is the scene in the outdoor seating to the Rex Bar on the Shankill Road. The arch is dedicated to the 36th (Ulster) Division at the Battle Of The Somme. On the side of the betting office, Carson signs the Ulster Covenant (Mo2454), Carson reviews the Ulster Volunteers (M02453), and a farmer’s wife protects the farm, both during WWI and from “sectarian attack from across the border” (M02452). The Union Flag to the left is in progress.

Shankill Road at (formerly) Moscow Street

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
M04283

Ulster Volunteers

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The Ulster Volunteers were formed in response to the Home Rule bill of April 1912 and the Covenant signed in September 1912, first by Edward Carson and then by almost half a million others. Guns were smuggled into Larne on the Clyde Valley in April 1914 but the advent of the World War saw the volunteers instead joining the British Army.

Previously seen, in better shape, in 2005.

Shankill Road, Belfast

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
M04282

The People’s Army

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This Ulster Volunteers/UVF board in Sperrin Park, Caw, Londonderry, includes familiar imagery from the Covenant to Long Kesh. The most unusual element is the inclusion of the Ulster Defence Union manifesto from St Patrick’s Day 1893 behind the hooded gunmen in the top right (for more on the UDU, see Bygone Days).

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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02619

Ulster 1912-1914

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These three murals are at the Rex Bar (Moscow Street, Belfast), celebrating resistance to Home Rule – Covenant Day September 28th 1912; the formation of the Ulster Volunteers, being reviewed at Fernhill House in Glencairn Park by Edward Carson; “Deserted! Well I can stand alone”; and (in post-partition Northern Ireland) “a [masked!] Protestant farmer’s wife guards her husband against sectarian attack from across the border”.

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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02454 M02453 M02452 [M02451] [M02450]
Copyright © 2010 Peter Moloney
[M05722] [M05723] [M05748] [M05749]
(close-ups of the small boards along the top)

Forced Upon Us

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Forced Upon Us is a play about the history of the RUC, paralleling the foundation of the state in 1922 to the situation in the 1990s. It was put on at Theatre On The Rock (St Thomas’s school on the Whiterock Road) by DubbelJoint and JustUs, written by Brenda Murphy and Christine Poland, and directed by Pam Brighton (IrishPlayography). 

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Copyright © 1999 Peter Moloney
M02063