WWI

For King And Country

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“In honoured memory of the offices, NCOs and volunteers of the 36th (Ulster) Division, who selflessly gave their lives for King and country at the battle of the Somme, and other campaigns, throughout the Great War 1914-1918. ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15 Verse 13′”

The ‘No surrender’ photograph montage shows images of life on the Shankill, from the Home-Rule period onward. It includes various old murals (see Visual History 01) and a photo of Hugh Smyth (see Third-Class Citizens).

Moscow Street/Rex Bar, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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Memorial To The Missing

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Canadian physician John McCrae’s poem In Flanders Fields and the triple arches of the Thiepval memorial to the missing are featured in this Monkstown mural. It is McCrae’s poem that is thought to have given rise to the use of the poppy as a symbol of military remembrance (WP). The names of over 72,000 dead are inscribed on the memorial (WP| travelfranceonline).

“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.”

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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Rifleman Robert King

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Robert King, of the 12th Royal Irish Rifles, who joined the army from the Ulster Volunteers, was “awarded the Military Medal for gallantry in action on 1st July 1916” at the Somme. The two sides of the medal are shown in the top right, with George V on one side and “for bravery in the field”. The 12th Rifles were drawn from the Central Antrim regiment of the Ulster Volunteers including the Newington area of Larne; King, however, was from Ship Street.

Wellington Green, Larne

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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Our Heritage In Your Hands

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The Ulster Tower at Thiepval, France, is a replica of Helen’s Tower in Clandeboye, around which the 36th (Ulster) Brigade, which formed in August 1914 from the Ulster Volunteers and Young Citizen Volunteers, began their training (see this gallery of images from North Down Museum at BBC-NI). After a year of training in Ireland and England, the Division was deployed to France in September 1915.

In the top corners are two views of the local Scrabo Tower. Produced by muraltec.

Ilex Avenue, Newtownards

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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For These Things Do I Weep

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“1st July 1916. Somme soldiers killed, wounded, missing, 36th (Ulster) Division, 32,186. To the memory and sacrifice of the brave young men from North Antrim who gave their lives with countless others at the Somme and other battles during the Great War 1914-18, to restore peace in Europe. To them bravery was without limit; to us memory is without end.”

With the three verses of John McCrae’s poem ‘In Flanders Fields’.

“”For these things do I weep; my eyes flow with tears.” Lamentations 1 Vs. 16“

Castlecat Road, Dervock

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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Loyalist Liscolman

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The main panel reads: “Liscolman Protestant Boys remember 1914-1918. 36th (Ulster) Division. Robert Quigg, VC. Sons of Ulster, Somme 1916. When you go home, tell them of us and say,/for their tomorrow, we gave our today.”

On the left: 1914-1918. Private Charles Allen, Rifleman Robert Moore, Rifleman William Moore, Lieuftenant Thomas Patrick Craig, Private Archibald Nicholl, Sergeant Samuel James Holmes, Rifleman James Laverty. Without limit.”

On the right: “Heart and hame” and what is perhaps a mill chimney.

Toberdoney Road, Liscolman. With red-white-and-blue kerb-stones in Carnbore Road, and coping- and kerb-stones in Toberdoney Road.

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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What Do We Forget When We Remember

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Two poems are featured prominently and another two alluded to in this Newtownards mural and memorial garden to WWI soldiers. The central panel features part of an anti-war work by by Owen Griffiths, Lest We Forget. Robert Laurence Binyon’s For The Fallen is featured on the stone, above a line of Latin from Horace’s Odes (III.2) – On Virtue (which most famously re-appears in Owen’s Dulce Et Decorum Est). On the left and right there appear the mottos of the Royal Irish Rifles – ‘Quis separabit’, which comes from Romans 8:35 – and the Royal Artillery – ‘Ubique – Quo Fas Et Gloria Ducunt’, which comes from Kipling’s Ubique.

For the (WWI) 13th battalion RIR, see Regimental List and similarly for the 16th (rather than the 17th) “Pioneers”. For the (WWII) 5th Anti-Aircraft battery, see Newtownards History.

Tower Court, Newtownards

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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I Am Not An Ulsterman

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“I am not an Ulsterman [but] yesterday, the 1st of July 1916, as I followed their amazing attack, I felt I would rather be an Ulsterman than anything else in the world.” The words of Captain Wilfrid (here given as “Wilfred”) Spender replace a Steeple Defenders board that has presumably fallen into disrepair alongside a board showing a soldier from the 36th Division running through no-man’s land (both seen previously in 2003 and 2009).

For a fuller quote, see X04435 from south Belfast.

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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Volunteer Denver Smith

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“In memory of Vol. Denver Smith, murdered by cowards 1st January 2000. Here lies a soldier. He gave his life whilst serving his community. Lest we forget.” Smith was killed 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).

The mural originally appeared with seven plaques, then with three plaques, and now with graveside mourners on either side of a single stone, and a bench and three flag-poles to the right.

The UVF flag is between the the Denver Smith and All Gave Some gables.

Parkhall Road, Antrim

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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All Gave Some, Some Gave All

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This trio of boards in memory of WWI dead from the Ulster Volunteers replaces the single black board first seen in 2003 in Steeple Defenders.

On the left: “Pass not this spot in sorrow but in pride/That you may live as nobly as they died.” These lines are also used in a WWI memorial mural in Carlingford Street, Belfast.

On the right: “They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old./Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn./At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.” from Binyon’s For The Fallen.

Parkhall Road, Antrim

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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