The third of three figures from the Society of United Irishmen to be featured in the New Lodge is William Steel Dickson. He was adjutant-general of the County Down Irishmen (see the blue plaque in Portaferry M08948) and was arrested a few days before the insurrection (WP). Like Henry Joy and Mary Ann McCracken and William Drennan, he is buried in Clifton Street Cemetery. New Lodge Road, Belfast.

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Copyright © 1997 Peter Moloney
M01350

Portraits of, and quotes from, Mary Ann McCracken (“What a wonderful clamour is now raised at the name of union, when in reality there has always been such a union between England and this country, as there is between husband and wife by which the former has the power to oppress the latter.”) and her older brother Henry Joy McCracken (“These are the times that try men’s souls … the rich always betray the poor.”). The two – sister and brother – were Presbyterians and republicans. Henry led the Antrim uprising of the United Irishmen in 1798 and was executed for it; Mary Ann was an abolitionist and social reformer.

New Lodge Road, north Belfast

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Copyright © 1997 Peter Moloney
M01348

William Drennan, 1754-1820, was a doctor, poet, Presbyterian, one of the founders of the Society of United Irishmen, and the first person to refer to Ireland as “the Emerald Isle”, in his poem When Erin First Rose. The words in this mural are the epitaph on his stone in Clifton Street Cemetery: “Pure, just, benign. Thus filial love would trace the virtues, hollowing [sic] this narrow space. The Emerald Isle may grant a wider claim and link the patriot with his country’s name.”

Ludlow Square, New Lodge, north Belfast.

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Copyright © 1997 Peter Moloney
M01349