Mount Vernon Volunteers

These four images are all from Ross House at the entrance to Mount Vernon. They show a UVF gunman (slipping behind a security camera), a tiger mascot, YCV and UVF emblems, and graffiti at the front of the building.

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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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Prepared For Peace, Ready For War

After the row of houses on which it originally appeared was knocked down, the mural to the North Belfast UVF/YCV/PAF [Protestant Action Force] “Prepared for peace, ready for war”, with its two hooded gunmen, was moved up on the hill, at eye-level with the motorway roundabout c. 2001.

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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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100 Years Of Revolution

A Sınn Féın centenary (1905-2005) mural is added to the Éıre Nua Flute Band board (seen in 2004). Above them is a Sınn Féın board with Mao’s statement that “If there is to be a revolution, there must be a revolutionary party.” Both the flute band and Sınn Féın have internet addresses.

Whiterock Road, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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Dedicated To All The Unsung Heroes

The scale of the Ballymurphy memorial garden can be seen in the final image. The central panels (images 1 and 2) are to IRA volunteers. Jimmy Steele was OC of the IRA’s Belfast battalion and founding editor of Republican News. “The seed which on Cave Hill was sown/O’er Belfast town its fruit has grown/And they who served, suffered and died/Their blood, our cause has sanctified//Be proud of them our martyred dead/And in their footsteps let us tread/They died for us that we might see/Ireland, united, Gaelic, and free.” To the left and right are lists of civilian dead and on the far right is a brief list of activists who survived the Troubles but have died since.

For the mural, see this 2005 image.

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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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Ulster’s Defenders

Ulster’s defenders, past and present, from Cuchulainn “Ancient defender of Ulster from Gael attacks”, via the 1893 UDU and WWI soldiers memorialised in the towers at Messines and Thiepval, to the modern UDA/UFF: “In memory of the officers and volunteers of A. Coy. UDA/UFF West Belfast Brigade who unselfishly dedicated their lives in defence of their country.”

There was also a Cuchulainn mural on Newtownards Road in 1992 (updated in 2005), as well as ‘past defenders’ in the form of B Specials and UDR (1992 | 2005).

Among the volunteers listed on the stone, 19 year old Alan Simpson was shot in his home in nearby Highfield Drive.

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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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