These graffiti are at the western edge of the Village, south Belfast, at the waste-ground over the Blackstaff and next to the Balls On The Falls, a.k.a Rise (on the Broadway roundabout).
“B Coy UFV Village”, Monarch UVF VTOT [Village team on tour]”, “Taigs enter at own risk”, “ATAT [All Taigs are target]”, “Welcome to loyalist Village”, “Taigs will be crucified”, “Welcome to hell!!”
The Craigavon Two – John-Paul Wootton and Brendan McConville – were convicted in 2012 of the 2009 murder of PSNI Constable Steven Carroll (BBC) and sentenced to 18- and 25-year minimums, respectively. The case is under review (Guardian) and a campaign for their release – using the hashtag “#JFTC2” – is under way (Fb).
This is a new UDA mural in memory of John Gregg, “The Reaper”, who waged a campaign of terror against Catholics in south-east Antrim and was reputedly associated with British neo-Nazi groups. Gregg was gunned down in 2003, while returning from a Rangers match, as part of the power struggle with Johnny Adair.
Nearby red-white-and-blue poles on Knockenagh Ave, Newtownabbey, are also shown.
The murals along east Belfast’s “Freedom Corner” (on the Newtownards Road) were repainted over the course of several months in 2015. These images are from a variety of dates in July and August; the ‘red hand’ piece is incomplete – for the finished work, see The Strangest Victory In All History.
The new pieces reproduce the previous ones in terms of theme: UFF/Young Newton at the ends, with the Past (Specials and UDR) and Present Defenders (UDA) in the middle – compare with the 2009 entries Freedom Corner | Ulster’s Present Day Defenders | Young Newton.
“1973-2013” Jake McGerrigan and Tony Hughes of the OIRA were both shot and killed by British forces in the Windmill Hill area of Armagh in a 48-hour period spanning April 7th and 9th, 1973. (Lost Lives #791 incorrectly gives March 7th for McGerrigan.) The board shown above was mounted in Navan Street for the 40th anniversary of their deaths, in 2013. The larger portraits on either side are of McGerrigan and Hughes; between them are (left) Peadar McElvanna, Roddy Carroll, Gerard Mallon, Martin Corrigan, (middle) Peter Corrigan, (right) Tony McClelland, Seamus Grew, Sean McIlvanna [McIlvenna], Dessie Grew.
There is an individual plaque to Hughes at the spot where he was shot, at the bottom of the second image below a board listing the same names (seen previously in 2012). “Thug sıad a raıbh acú [sic] ar son saoırse na hEırınn [sic].” “From death springs life and from the graves of patriots springs a great nation. [from Pearse’s oration at O’Donovan Rossa’s funeral].” There is stone to both McGerrigan and Hughes in the same alley (see McGerrigan – Hughes); there is also a stone to McGerrigan in Windmill Avenue.
Navan Street/Ogle Street, and Emania Terrace, Armagh
Tommy Crossan, a former leader of the CIRA, was shot and killed, perhaps by former comrades, on Friday (April 18th, 2014 – Good Friday) (Guardian | BBC).
The QR code in the second image takes one to an interactive walking tour (“Walk Of Truth”) of sites associated with the Ballymurphy Massacre; the walk was launched on August 8th, one of a number of Féile 2015 events (web) which included a photographic exhibition in St Mary’s and the march announced in the first image, from Springfield Park to O’Donnell’s GAA club.
“In memory of Topper Thompson, murdered by British death squads, 27th April 1994 aged 25. Deeply missed by never forgotten. Erected by his friends.” Paul Thompson was shot by a UDA gunman through a hole that had been cut in the security fence and about which the RUC had been notified earlier in the day (Relatives For Justice).
This is a new info board at the bottom of the steps leading up to the IRA memorial dolmen first seen in 1999. It features portraits of 16 volunteers from Derry’s 1st battalion and a quotation from Pearse at the funeral of O’Donovan Rossa in 1915: “Life springs from death, and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations. The Defenders of this Realm have worked well in secret and in the open. They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools! They have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.”
Peter Moloney Collection 