WWI

A Company 1st Battalion No 4 Platoon

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“This mural is dedicated to the fallen volunteers of No 4 Pltn A Coy, 1st Belfast Battn, Ulster Volunteer Force who dutifully served this community in the years of conflict. It pays tribute to those who died in active engagement and to the many who passed peacefully from service having fulfilled their duties. Their names and deeds are eternally venerated by their comrades in arms who humbly serve in their honour. They remained staunch to the end against odds uncounted, they fell with their faces to the foe, their name liveth forevermore.“

Glenwood Street, Belfast

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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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2013-04-07 GlenwoodOld+

A close-up from Seosamh Mac Coılle (2013 X01044).

Their Name Liveth For Evermore

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The 36th (Ulster) Division included men from the Ulster Volunteers and Young Citizen Volunteers, raised by Sir Edward Carson (depicted at the bottom). The south Belfast areas listed under each poppy are Donegall Road, Lisburn Road, Village, Ormeau Road, Donegall Road, Sandy Row. For the biblical quotation, see the original (2001) post on this Apsley Street, Belfast, board.

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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
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Ulsters Peoples Soldiers

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Were it not for the Red Hand Commando emblem to the right (second image) this could be a strictly WWI mural, with the crest of the 36th (Ulster) Division and flags of the Ulster Volunteers and battle honours of the YCV/Royal Irish Rifles 14th battalion. The RHC were formed in 1972. Newtownards Road, Belfast.

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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
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East Belfast Cultural And Historical Society

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This entry features the final (side) wall to the right of the series of murals in Thorndyke Street. (For a list of entries for each panel, see East Belfast Historical And Cultural Society.) The various small panels thank a number of agencies, leading with the Ulster Scots Agency, and claim a copyright over the murals – which is something unusual with public art. There is also a verse from Romans (10v13) and Canadian physician John McCrae’s (1872-1918) poem In Flanders’ Fields:

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow/Between the crosses, row on row/That mark our place; and in the sky/The larks, still bravely singing, fly/Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago/We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,/Loved and were loved, and now we lie/In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:/To you from failing hands we throw/The torch; be yours to hold it high./If ye break faith with us who die/We shall not sleep/Though poppies grow/In Flanders fields.”

With the emblems of Ballymacarrett LOL N0.6, Ballymacarrett Royal Black No. 4, the East Belfast Concerned Womens Group, and a grid of Commonwealth countries’ flags.

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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
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Their Sacrifice, Our Freedom

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“At the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914, when Lord Kitchener, the War Minister, was desperately looking for men, he had asked Sir Edward Carson for a brigade consisting of four battalions. Carson offered him a division consisting of twelve battalions, uniformed and equipped at Ulster’s expense. The UVF was transformed rapidly into the 36th (Ulster) Division. On the 1st July 1916 the 36 (Ulster) Division took part in the Somme Offensive. Nine Victoria Crosses were awarded for acts of valour on that day. Men of the 36th (Ulster) Division won four of these. Of those, three were awarded posthumously. Of the 9,000 men of the Division who took part in the attack scarcely 2,500 answered roll call on the 3 July; while of 400 officers, more than 250 were killed or wounded. The Division lost 5,500 officers and other ranks killed, wounded and missing as a result of the first two days of the Somme offensive. The illustration depicted is derived from a drawing by Jim Maultsaid, an American citizen. He joined the 14th Royal Irish Rifles, which was drawn from members of an organisation called the Young Citizens Volunteers.” “As we scrambled over the trench the YCV flag appeared.” Thorndyke Street, Belfast. For more, see the Extramural Activity post on this panel.

One of fourteen panels in Thorndyke Street, east Belfast. For a list of entries for each panel, see East Belfast Historical And Cultural Society.

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Copyright © 2005/2007 Peter Moloney
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1st July 1916

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The Battle of the Somme began on July 1st, 1916, which was also the date (in the Julian calendar) of the Battle of the Boyne. The 36th (Ulster) Division of the British Army lost more than 5,000 men in the initial attack and counter-attack. The battle lasted until November 18th.

Parkhall Road, Antrim

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Copyright © 2003 Peter Moloney
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Denver Smith

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“In memory of a dear friend.” UVF volunteer Denver Smith was killed in the early morning of January 1st, 2000 by a gang of six men with machetes and pikes; the incident was perhaps drugs-related (Guardian | BBC-NI. For the wider picture An Phoblacht | Irish Times).

Parkhall Road, Antrim with kerbstones in the colours of the UVF.

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Copyright © 2003 Peter Moloney
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