UVF/YCV/RHC/PAF

Brian Robinson

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“1st Batt B Coy Vol Brian Robinson killed in action 2nd Sept 1989. For his country and people he took up the gun a volunteer to the end and a true Ulster son robbed of his life’s blood in Sept 89 but the name Brian Robinson will live for all time.” Robinson was killed by an army undercover unit moments after he had shot and killed a Catholic named Patrick McKenna (WP). As the plaque notes, his mother died at the same time – she reportedly had a heart-attack when she heard of his death.

Disraeli Street, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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Lt Col Trevor King

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Trevor “Kingso” King served time for his part in the Battle At Springmartin in 1972, in which seven people, including a British soldier, died. In 1994, having been shot by the INLA and paralysed from the neck down, King took the decision to remove his own life-support (WP).

The words on the left are from Suicide In The Trenches by WWI poet Siegfried Sassoon:

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads pass by
Sneak home and pray you’ll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go

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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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2012 repaint [M08244] [M08245] [M08246] [M08247]

No 5 Platoon

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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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They Gave Their Tomorrow For Our Today

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Information about the people named in this mural is patchy.

UVF volunteer Noel Kinner was imprisoned for the killing of Brendan McLaughlin in 1980 (politics.ie); he died of a heart attack on 4th November, 1996, two years after his release; there is a ballad describing his life (youtube).

Thomas “Tombo” Kinner was a YCV volunteer of the same unit: platoon 5, A company, 1st battalion.

Volunteer Noel Shaw is described by Sutton as dying in a UVF feud.

Most/All of the people mentioned were members of the Sons Of Ulster flute band (Fb).

“When you go home/Tell them of us/And say for your tomorrow/We gave our today.” is a WWII epitaph by John Maxwell Edmonds in Kohima Cemetery.

Conway Walk, Belfast

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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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Glorious On The Graves Of Heroes

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“In proud memory of our fallen comrades from the Nelson Drive Flute Band. Glorious on the graves of heroes, kindly upon all those who have suffered for the cause. Thus will shine the dawn. They gave their tomorrow for our today.” “In loving memory of David Swanson, Geoffrey Freeman, Aubrey Reid, Mark Dodds, killed on active service 2nd October 1975. Lest we forget. Ulster Volunteer Force.” The four volunteers died when the car bomb they were carrying exploded prematurely.

Sperrin Park, Caw, Londonderry

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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
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