This is the updated version of a mural seen previously in 2007. The main panels remain the same, but the apex has been changed from Orange Order flag and St Andrew’s Saltire to a ribbon read “Fight to a finish”, with shamrocks.
… or “LCDA” for short. There’s no information about the group on-line, so it’s not clear if it is/was a predecessor to the UDA (as e.g. with the WDA) or the local battalion of the UDA. Feedback is welcomed.
On the columns are the names of volunteers Cecil McKnight, Lindsay Mooney, Ray Smallwoods, Gary Lynch, Ben Redfern, and William Campbell.
“Ní thıg leat Éıre a chloígh, ní thıg leat fonn saoırse mhuıntır na hÉıreann a mhúc[h]adh.” [You cannot subdue Ireland; you cannot extinguish the desire for the freedom of the Irish people.]
Shown in the distance below Cú Chulaınn are (left and middle) the mural of McCrudden-O’Rawe–Jordan and memorial garden on Divismore Way and (on the right) the Springhill shops.
The male figures in the foreground are unnamed but the four in jackets are presumably Stone, McWilliams, McCracken, and Dougal after their mural in Springhill Drive was blanked; the female activists on the left of Cú Chulaınn are Mary Austin, Kathleen Clarke, Annie McWilliams. “This mural was unveiled by Gerry Adams MP 2nd May 2010.” “Vote Sınn Féın Vote Adams“
Abolitionist mural with quotes from Douglass (“It is easier build strong children than to repair broken adults.”), Abraham Lincoln (“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.”, Angela Davis (“We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society.”), Muhammad Ali (“Why should I drop bombs on brown people in Vietnam while so-called negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs …”), Steven Biko (“The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”), MLK (“I have a dream … black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last, free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.””), Bob Marley (“Until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race.”), Nelson Mandela (“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”), Paul Robeson “The artist must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I made made [sic] my choice. I had no alternative”, and (without attribution) James Connolly (“The worker is the slave capitalist society, the woman [female worker] is the slave of that slave.”) Also portrayed are Harriett Tubman, Barack Obama, Betty Sinclair, Mary Ann McCracken, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Haitian Revolution, Chief Joseph, El Salvador, CoMadres.
The mural in the Mount Vernon/Tigers Bay memorial garden remains the same as before (seen previously in 2006) but there is a brick surrounding wall with a plaque on the gatepost to five members – Shaw, Frame, Irvine, Caldwell, Rice, Quail – of the 3rd Belfast Battalion, Ulster Volunteer Force. “We salute also, all volunteers at home and on the mainland who served with dignity and pride.”
“It is our firm conviction that the vast majority of both religious communities long for peace, reconciliation and the chance to create a better future for their children.” UFF volunteers in the previous mural on this wall turn their back on violence and look towards Stormont for a political solution. The side wall is dedicated to the UDA’s Stephen “Benson” Kingsberry, who died from consuming tainted ecstasy (perhaps distributed by the UVF) – an early use of the poppy to commemorate a UDA (rather than a UVF) member.