The gable wall at the end of Columbia Street (on Ohio Street) has been rebuilt and the old WDA/Duke Elliott mural has been replaced. The right side of the piece describes the transition from the Woodvale Defence Association to the Ulster Defence Association to the Ulster Freedom Fighters, and grounds all three in the Ulster Defence union of 1893. Ernie “Duke” Elliott was killed in 1972, at age 28, in a dispute with other UDA members; he lived one street over from the site of these new boards, in Leopold Street (WP).
This is a repainted version of the Canada Street mural about Protestant refugees to Liverpool in 1971. The text on the right of the previous version began “In August 1971 many Protestants fled their homes as the IRA launched a bitter sectarian attack on Protestant communities throughout Belfast” but now does not mention the IRA.
To the mural has been added a laminated letter of thanks to Elsie (Allen) Doyle, one of the organisers in Liverpool
Edward Carson with the emblem of the 36th Division and James Craig with the Ulster Banner. Both were founders of the Ulster Volunteers and leaders of the Ulster Unionist Party.
These three pairs of UK shields (Ulster Banner, St Andrew’s Saltire, Union Flag) are in Lindsay Street, south Belfast. There was also a fourth one, with the shield of the 36th Division. The were mounted in the four spaces (and in two cases, on the backing boards) used for a set of older boards, and the old title strip is still visible in the first two images: “Relief Of Londonderry” can be seen in the first image, while “Williamite cavalry charge, Aughrim” is visible in the second.
(The other two were “Jacobites fleeing at Enniskillen” and “Battle Of The Boyne”. For the four previous pieces, from left to right, see D00353, D00355, D00354, and D00356.)
The South Belfast UDA/UFF commander John McMichael (1948-1987) was killed by an IRA car bomb. In addition to organising a team of assassins in the 70s and 80s, he founded a Political Research Group and wrote two documents proposing an independent Northern Ireland, 1979’s Beyond the Religious Divide and 1987’s Common Sense (available at CAIN), promoting the philosophy of ‘Ulster nationalism’. The quote on the board comes from the end of the Introduction to Common Sense:
“There is no section of this divided Ulster community which is totally innocent or indeed totally guilty, totally right or totally wrong. We all share the responsibility for creating the situation, either by deed or by acquiescence. Therefore we must share the responsibility for finding a settlement and then share the responsibility of maintaining good government.”
“One man, one love, one country. Commonsense. In loving memory. Quis separabit.” “A Coy” “Old Warren”
The Smallwoods plaque is the same but the trio of boards is new, as compared to 2010.
“1st July Battle Of Somme 1916”. The mural began with the single panel on the left (2004 D01505) and there was a red hand in the final panel (2010 C01914).
Two PUL banners are added to the internment bonfire in Divis: the upper one says “East Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force”, while the latter reads “Shankill Protestant Boys [Fb] USSF Ulsters No 1 flute band.” On the top is a Drumcree Orange Order flag: “Civil and religious liberty”; “Here we stand, we can do no other”.