This pair of boards in Irvine Crescent, Enniskillen, is notable for their construction out of pieces of board that have been cut/carved before being layered onto a background board.
They both present the Ulster Volunteers/YCV of 1912 and WWI – in the first, two soldiers are placed alongside the Ulster Tower at Thiepval, France.
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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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The central image of soldiers at the battle of the Somme is surrounded by images of various occupations: shipyard workers and miners (perhaps), along with images of women welding, carrying coke, and nursing. It’s not clear what the “fair wartime wage” refers to: there was a general strike at the shipyards in 1919 (The Great Unrest | Workers’ Liberty).
The nurse is apparently the Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia (WP). The image of a person carrying a sack of coke is from the Imperial War Museum’s collection.
The lower wall is intended to be full, but painting has ceased indefinitely.
Artist Jonny McKerr (Fb) also did a similarly-styled piece on The Belfast Blitz.
Edlingham Street, Tiger’s Bay, north Belfast
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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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The Somme memorial Garden Of Reflection (between the Shankill graveyard and the Mountainview Tavern) has two new pieces. The first places two headstones (both reading “A soldier of the great war”) in a flower-bed in front of the mural, which shows a soldier, presumably from the Ulster division, on the fields of Flanders: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 1914-2014”
In the second, three wraiths of dead WWI soldiers – one with its head wrapped in a bandage – rise from the grave to issue a final edict: “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.”
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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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There is a new ‘Young Conquerors flute band’ mural in Pine Street, south Belfast, connecting the band to local soldiers who died in WWI. (Previous mural.)
The photograph on the left of the main panel is of the original Donegall Pass Defenders flute band, which lasted a short time in the 1970s before the formation of the Conquerors in 1977 (Fb). On the right is the patch of the band.
The small board reads “DPYM” – perhaps “Donegall Pass Young Militia”
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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This is an interesting set of images from Main Road, Moygashel.
The first three employ familiar imagery of the UVF and the 36th Division (the Home-Rule era “Deserted! Well – I Can Stand Alone” is less familiar but goes back to at least 1988; the UVF flag also references the anti-Home Rule movement in the “1912” date of the founding of the Ulster Volunteers).
The stencil (“It is not racist to protect your own community”) and hand-painted board (“Don’t be DUPed”) indicate a recent change in attitudes.
In the May elections for the European Parliament, UKIP received the most votes and the most seats (24), campaigning on an anti-immigrant and Euro-skeptical message; this is its best electoral performance to date (WP). Perhaps in response to UKIP’s increasing popularity, Conservative leader David Cameron last year (2013) promised (gov.uk) a referendum on EU membership, should the Conservatives be elected in next year’s (2015) general election.
The source of dissatisfaction with the DUP is less clear. The party won the largest number of seats in the local elections in May (WP).
These are perhaps the first appearance in the Peter Moloney Collection of both sentiments.
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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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HMS Caroline’s connection to Belfast is that she served as the headquarters for the Royal Naval Reserve in Alexandra Dock. Originally built in 1914, she served in the Grand Fleet and took part in the battle of Jutland on May 31st, 1916, as shown in the image above. She was decommissioned in 2011; it is hoped to open her as a museum and visitor attraction by the time of the centenary of the battle (WP). The Daily Mail has a gallery of images of the ship in its current state. Also present at the battle of Jutland, as captain of HMS Nestor, was Commander (later Sir) Edward Bingham.
By Jim Russell in St. Aubyn’s Street, north Belfast
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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Footsteps through the history of Coleraine, from top to bottom: Martin Luther (c. 1521); John Knox, who led the reformation in Scotland (c. 1560); the plan of Coleraine (c. 1611); the relief of Derry (1689); the Williamite campaign (1690); (and then a jump to) WWI (“Christmas truce, western front”); WWII (“War on the home front”).
These boards replaced a UDA mural in March, 2014 (see Loyalist Ballysally).
Daneshill Road, Coleraine.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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Here are two new boards in the courtyard of the Rex Bar on the Shankill Road, describing the formation of the Ulster Volunteers (‘A Force For Ulster’) and commemorating the losses suffered by the 36th (Ulster) Division of the British Army, which the Volunteers became, at the Somme and in other battles, mowed down by “the Hun machine guns” (‘The Great War’).
‘A Force For Ulster’ includes photographs of the recent centenary re-enactments of the Balmoral Review, the Ulster Covenant, the formation of the Volunteers (“east” and “west”) and “Operation Lion” – more commonly known as the Larne Gun-Running.
According to the ‘The Great War’ board, 32,186 men from west Belfast were killed, wounded, or missing in the effort to “restore peace in Europe”. “To them bravery was without limit, to us memory is without end”. The board shows the Thiepval Memorial To The Missing Of The Somme against a background of portraits.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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Here are three boards in Lindsay Street, south Belfast, chronicling the 1912 Covenant and the lives lost (by the 36th Division) in the Great War 1914-1918.
“It is needful that we knit together as one man, each strengthening the other, and not holding back of counting the cost” – Ulster [Unionist] Council Resolution 1912.” “Ulster’s solemn league and covenant. Ulster Day 28th September 1912.” The Council met on September 23rd and 471,000 people signed the covenant (figures here) on or around the 28th – Ulster Day – led by Sir Edward Carson.
“Donegall Pass remembers 1914-1918 – the great sacrifice. Lest we forget. Here are commemorated the many local men who during the Great War of 1914-1918 gave the most that man can give: life itself for God for King and Country.” With a map of the northern end of the Western Front and images of soldiers marching, on horseback, and in the trenches.
“The war is over. Armistice Day 1918. 11th month, 11th day, 11th, hour.” “But in their eyes shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes … Their flower the tenderness of patient minds, and each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds.” Lines from Wilfred Owens’ (1893-1918) ‘Anthem For Doomed Youth‘.
At the bottom: “The last three months of WWI became known as the hundred days. Realising they were defeated an armistice was signed by the Germans. Germany finally surrendered and WWI ended on November 11th 1918. The terms of the agreement called for the end of fighting along the entire Western Front to begin a precisely 11 am that morning. Records show that the last British soldier killed in WWI was Private George Edwin Allison of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers. He was killed at Mons at 09:30 am, just 90 minutes before the ceasefire.”
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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Peter Moloney Collection 