This board at the junction of the Falls and Glen roads (on the site of the former Andersonstown RUC station) commemorates the death of Pat Finucane (on February 12th, 1989), alleging collusion between the MI5, the UDA, the UDR, and the RUC, and asking for an inquiry.
“25 years on & no truth. Why no public inquiry? Time for justice, time for truth!”
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 refreshed Eddie The Trooper in Ebrington Terrace, Waterside, Londonderry, with solid black border and UFF red fist in yellow six-pointed star above. Here is the previous version.
The first panel of “Freedom Corner” on the Newtownards Road, is repainted for the 40th anniversary of the UFF [Ulster Freedom Fighters], 1973-2013. For the previous (or at least, a 2005) version, see M02370. “Feriens tego” is Latin for “In striking, I defend”.
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.
This is the scene at the junction of Pollock Drive and Mourne Road in Mourneview, Lurgan. The images, in order, show the top level of boards (including some on the sides of the building) and then the four along the bottom.
Top: (on side) Inniskilling Dragoon Guards | South Belfast UDA, B battalion, 1 company | Ancre Somme Association | 9th battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers | Craigavon Protestant Boys flute band (Fb) | Carson signing the Covenant in 1912 | (on side, above Mourneview Youth) Upper Bann Fusiliers flute band (Fb) | Upper Bann Fusiliers
Bottom: No Home Rule including the unfurling of “The Largest Union Jack In The Empire” | The Covenant | The Relief Of Ulster including the Ulster Volunteers and the Larne gun-running | The Great War including the VC won by William MacFadzean – “To them, bravery was without limit; to us, memory is without end”.