PUP East Belfast Branch

The Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) is a left-leaning unionist party founded in 1979 by Hugh Smyth, who served as Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1994. His successor as leader of the party (in 2002) was former UVF member David Ervine, who had been elected to the NI Assembly in 1998 but would die in January 2007.

Newtownards Road, Belfast

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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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British Ulster Alliance

The British Ulster Alliance is a flute band with a ‘British nationalist’ ideology that occasionally travelled to Northern Ireland to attend marches, such as one in the White City (north of Belfast) in 2006 (Mirror). There was a Rathcoole mural to the band in 2001 (see J0823).

The Union Flag is a composite of the St George’s Cross (England), St Andrew’s Saltire (Scotland), and the Order of St Patrick/St Patrick’s Saltire (Ireland). No Welsh flag is included in the Union Flag. The Northern Irish flag (Ulster Banner) is based on the flag of Ulster.

Fountain Street, Londonderry

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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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No 5 Platoon

This UVF platoon 5, A company, 1st battalion, mural is just across Conway Street from the Noel and Tombo Kinner mural, which is also a platoon 5 mural. The plaque is “in memory of a true soldier, Big Bill Campbell”; for more info on Campbell, see Loyalist Prisoners & Widow’s Welfare (from when the plaque was moved up to the Shankill Road).

The verse on the left is from Siegfried Sassoon’s Suicide In The Trenches. “At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we shall remember them” is from another WWI poem, Laurence Binyon’s For The Fallen.

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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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Lower Shankill UDA

UDA/UYM insignia and volunteers with sunglasses on the Shankill Road, Belfast. Bridgeton is a neighbourhood on the edge of Glasgow, Scotland, home to the Bridgeton flute band (Fb) and headquarters of the Grand Orange Lodge Of Scotland.

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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
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The Queen Mother

“HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.” The mural includes a portrait of Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, wife of George VI and mother of Elizabeth II, her coat of arms (see also Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense), and a verse (sightly modified) from the Orange song The Bible And The Crown: “Salute our sovereign now we part/To us our Queen was dear/Because she had a soldier’s heart/And man she did not fear.//Her soul forlorn she will not scorn,/Where her worth is known/No rebel hate will harm this state,/The bible and the crown.” She died in 2002 at age 101. The four flags are those of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Conway Street, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
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Gertrude Star Flute Band

These two murals face one another in the mouth of Martin Street at Templemore Avenue, in east Belfast. Gertrude Star flute band (Fb) was formed in 1961. The southern mural features Spike (from Tom And Jerry) dressed as a band member above an Ulster Banner in the shape of Northern Ireland. The mural on the northern side shows a coat of arms with six-pointed star and red hand, below a crown.

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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
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Freedom – Democracy

“Britannia is a female figure, usually but not always seated, wearing a helmet, and carrying a shield and trident, who is intended to be the personification of Britain. The Britannia with which we are familiar has evolved since the 17th century. Britannia axquired her trident in 1797 to symbolise British naval superiority. The panel depicts the United Kingdom and her allies fighting for freedom and democracy. The panel also highlights the composition of the Union flag, made up of. Cross of St George. Saltire of St Andrew. Cross of St Patrick. Other examples of the usage of the Cross of St Patrick include, the arms of the Queen’s University of Belfast.”

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 Peter Moloney
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United Kingdom

The central panel in Thorndyke Street, Belfast, reproduces a postcard from during the Home Rule debate: “Ulster to Britain: thou mayest find another daughter with a fairer face than mine, with a gayer voice and sweeter and a softer eye than mine; but thou canst not find another that will love thee half so well!” The Ulster Banner (a flag of Northern Ireland) is used to represent Ireland in the quartet of flags while the shamrock stands alongside daffodil, rose, and thistle. For the Anglo-Norman French around the crown’s coat of arms, see Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense.

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 Peter Moloney
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