This Ballee Flute Band mural (formerly for the Ballee Blues And Royals) shows the ‘lion and the unicorn’ from the UK coat of arms. The lion (England) wears a crown but the unicorn (Scotland) does not, since, as the nursery rhyme has it, “the lion beat the unicorn all around the town” (WP).
However, in place of the Royal Standard’s crest and “honi soit qui mal y pense” and “Dieu et mon droit” inscriptions, we find the Bible, “Drumtara”, and “In God we trust”.
Behind are the Union Flag and the flags of the Apprentice Boys and the Orange Order.
The Tullycarnet Flute Band mural on the electrical sub-station in Lochinver Drive, Tullycarnet, as been repainted/touched up (compare to 2013).
The plaques read: “In memory of Steven Dawson (Big Penny). Gone but not forgotten. A light shone in the night”, and “In memory of Joseph Baxter Corry (Joe). Gone but not forgotten. You’ll always be in our hearts. Farewell our absent friend.”
The [Sergeant] Lindsay Mooney Memorial Flute Band was formed in 1973 after the St. Patrick’s day death of Lindsay Mooney, a UDA member killed by the premature explosion of a bomb near Lifford, County Donegal (Sutton).
The band dissolved in 1993 but commemorative nights are still held. The board above is in the Lincoln Court area of Londonderry, from where Mooney and the band both hailed. “To those of us who criticise, to those who cannot see, just remember in a foreign land feel a better man than me.”
The Pride Of Ballybeen is a flute band formed in 2014. Their band mural features the Union Flag and Ulster Banner flanking the red hand of Ulster on a six-pointed star against an orange field, surrounded by a crown and a garland pinned by a rose; the titular banner, below, is supported by shamrock and thistle.
The main part of this installation is a large painted carving of lions rampant on either side of the emblem of the Shankill Protestant Boys flute band (Fb), named for the Shankill Boys of the original Ulster Volunteers and the Ulster Special Service Force unit within it which was designed to be a unit of “first responders”, ready to react at short notice to action by republicans or British forces anywhere in northern Ireland (historyireland).
With the outbreak of World War I, the Ulster Volunteers joined the RIR and the 36th (Ulster) Division and fought at the Battle Of The Somme in 1916: “’The Ulster Division has lost more than half the men who attacked and in doing so has sacrificed it for the Empire which has treated them none too well. The much derided Ulster Volunteer Force has won a name which equals any in history. Their devotion, which no doubt has helped the advance elsewhere, deserved the gratitude of the British Empire. It is due to the memory of these brave fellows that their beloved Province shall be fairly treated.’ Captain Wilfred [sic] Spender HQ staff 2nd July 1916″
This is the post-launch version of the Whiterock flute band’s history wall (as compared to the partially completed wall from last year, before the launch). At the top, we now have a gold disc and orange lily, and, around the doorway on the far right, a list of members, photographs from years gone by, and an account of the launch, which took place on June 14th, 2014.
The final image is from July, by which time “Whiterock F.B.” in bold, white, lettering along the top right had been added.
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”
This large electrical sub-station, painted on all four sides, is in Ballyduff, Newtownabbey.
First: David Lee was a founder, in 1985, of Pride Of The Hill Flute Band in Carnmoney/Ballyduff. Kris Muckle – now deceased – was a long-time member. (Fb)
Second: Translations of Psalm 60.4 vary, but it is something like “You (the Lord) have given those who fear you a banner so that they will not flee before your arrows”, which might work quite well alongside a Union jack. But in fact, the lines on the side of the sub-station come do not come from Psalm 60.4; they are rather the first stanza of a 1902 poem (earliest found mention), The UnionJack, by Edward Shirley, in Little Poems For Little People:
‘Tis thy flag and my flag, the best of flags on earth; Oh, cherish it my children, for ’tis yours by right of birth. Your fathers fought, your fathers died, to rear it to the skies; And we like them will never yield, but keep it flying high.
Third and fourth: “They paid the ultimate sacrifice”. WWI soldiers from the 36th (Ulster) Division in relief against an orange sky (perhaps “at the going down of the sun”), picking their way across the battlefields of Flanders. The Ulster Memorial at Thiepval, which commemorates the 5,000 lost lives and more specifically the role of Orange Order members, is shown in the top left corner of the smaller wall. The plaque commemorates members of the modern UVF “1st East Antrim Battalion, Ballyduff & Glengormley”.
Boards of the Rising Sons Of The Valley (Fb), Mourne Young Defenders (Fb), and Pride Of Ballinran (Fb) flute bands in Kilkeel, County Down.
The left part of the RSV board shows the numeral “II” on a “1912” Ulster Volunteers flag. The 2nd County Down battalion of the 1912 Ulster Volunteers became (in 1914) the 16th RIR, the pioneer (engineering) battalion for the 36th Division (Long Long Trail).
The motto on the Ballinran board is “Secundus ad nullam”, which is a word-for-word mis-translation of “second to none”; properly it would simply be “nulli secundus”.
