plaque – Page 3 – Peter Moloney Collection

No 4 Platoon

2013-11-252024-06-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“This memorial is dedicated to the memory of the fallen Officers, NCOs and Volunteers of Number 4 Platoon, A Company, 1st Belfast Battalion, Ulster Volunteer Force. It serves as a tribute to those who fell while actively engaging the enemy from service having fulfilled their duties to the end. Their names and deeds are eternally venerated by their comrades in arms who continue to serve humbly in their honour. ‘They went with songs to battle, they were young,/Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow,/They remained staunch to the end against odds uncounted,/They fell with their faces to the foe.’ [Binyon’s ‘For The Fallen’]”

In the top left Carson is shown reviewing the Ulster Volunteers (and on top of the weapons beneath it, a cloth cap and WWI helmet) and in the top right are an old show of strength photograph and the former mural in this spot (with paramilitary cap and balaclava beneath).

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
[M10587] M10588 [M10589] [M10590] [M10591] [M10592] [M10593] [M10594] [M10595] [M10596] [M10597] [M10598] [M10599]

Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori

2013-11-212024-06-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Ballybeen memorial garden contains stones/plaques to 36th (Ulster) Division (WWI), Ballybeen Red Hand Commando, Dundonald UVF, East Belfast UVF, East Belfast Red Hand Commando.

UVF: “This memorial is dedicated to all the brave men who lost their lives fighting militant republicanism. Their courage and sacrifice will be remembered for evermore. ‘At the going down of the sun/And in the morning/We will remember them’ For God and Ulster.”

RHC: “This memorial is dedicated to the memory of the brave men who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. We will remember them. ‘Glorious on the graves of heroes/Kindly upon all those who have suffered for the cause/Thus will shine the dawn.’ [Winston Churchill, radio broadcast on October 21, 1940, entitled Dieu Protège La France.] ‘They gave their tomorrow for our today.’ [John Maxwell Edmonds’s memorial epitaph] Lahm [sic] derg [sic] abu [sic]. Lest we forget. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.” (Wilfred Owen)

Davarr Avenue, Ballybeen.

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
M10558 [M10559] [M10560] [M10561] [M10562] [M10563] [M10564] [M10565] [M10566] M10567 [M10568] M10569 [M10570] [M10571]

The Derrys

2013-11-192024-06-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“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.” The words in italics are from a Winston Churchill radio broadcast on October 21, 1940, entitled Dieu Protège La France. The final, more familiar, phrase is John Maxwell Edmonds’s memorial epitaph. The 10th battalion of the Inniskilling Fusiliers, in the 109th brigade of the 36th (Ulster) Division, was called “The Derrys” (web).

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
M10534 [M10535] [M10536] [M10537] M10538 [M10539] [M10540]

Rot In Hell, Thatcher

2013-11-162024-06-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Reaction to the death (on Monday, April 8th) of Margaret Thatcher, U.K. Prime Minister 1979-1990 (WP), in an alley below Divis tower, between Divis Street and Clonfaddan Crescent.

Also in Clonfadden Crescent can be seen a plaque commemorating the opening of “Divis Development Phase 1” by “Gerry Adams M.P” on May 16th, 1991. “Bua an phobıal” [“Bua an phobaıl”, “The community’s victory”] It took thirteen years of campaigning before the Executive agreed to knock down the old flats in 1986 (Alfaro & Roulston 2021).

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
M10528 M10529

Joe Cahill Perpetual Cup

2013-11-162025-07-14Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Mol an óıge agus tıocfaıdh sí” – “youth responds to praise”, such as when playing in the annual Easter Gaelic games tournament, now in its eighth year. Joe Cahill (WP) holds the cup aloft.

The group in the bottom left corner are Pat O’Hare, Frank Cahill, Tom Cahill, (the three Cahills were featured in the previous mural) Ned Maguire, Jr., Ned Maguire, Sr., Alec Crowe, Paddy Meenan, Tommy Crowe, Dal Delaney, and Hugh Elliot.

In the crook of Cahill’s arm are Rita McParland, Sean Wallace, Paddy Corrigan, John Pettigrew, and John Stone. None of these adults is still alive; all were from the local area.

The chalet bungalows in the background on the left are gone, but you can see images of them on the Belfast Forum.

The plaque on the left names others in addition “who assisted, resourced and gave selflessly to the republican cause”: Billy Kelly, Alice Cush, Kate Campbell, John Mulligan, Mary Mulligan, David Mulhern, Margaret Mulhern, John Clarke, Margaret Farrelly, Marie Williams, Kevin Sullivan, Michael Rock, John McColgan, Bridget Maguire, Martin Maguire, Sally Corrigan, Sonny O’Reilly, Maggie McArdle, Jimmy McArdle, Kathleen Wallace, Maragret McGuinness, John Flanagan, Maisie McGuckian, Charlie McGuckian, Anthony Muldoon, Jim Logue, Ellen Weir, Liam Mackie, Oliver McParland, Sadie McMahon, Tommy Crowe, Maddie Holden, Sarah Doyle, Jimmy Doyle, Kathleen Pettigrew, Mary Cushnihan, Bell Cosgrove, Gerry Campbell.

The mural was painted by Lucas Quigley and unveiled on September 2nd by Annie Cahill. (Images of the unveiling from An Phoblacht.)

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
M10523 [M10524] [M10525] [M10526] M10527
[M12613] [M12614]

Robert McCrudden

2013-11-152024-06-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“In proud and loving memory of Vol. Robert McCrudden, Belfast Brigade, murdered by British Crown Forces, 3rd August 1972, aged 19 years. Ní dhéanfaıdh muıd dearmad [gur] fuaır sé bás ar son saoırse na hÉıreann. Remember Our Volunteers Committee 19th August 2012”

649 Springfield Road, west Belfast. McCrudden is also included in a mural in the nearby Divismore Way.

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
M10521

Ardoyne Republican Memorials

2013-11-152024-10-01Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Memorials in Ardoyne Martin Meehan, Sammy McLarnon, Thomas ‘Bootsey’ Begley, Seamus Morris and Peter Dolan.

Martin Meehan joined the IRA in 1966 and was one of a few IRA volunteers defending Catholics in Ardoyne (Ard Eoın) in August 1969. Rioting did not cease there until the 16th, when British troops were finally deployed to the Crumlin Road to block mobs coming from the Woodvale and Shankill. Meehan resigned after the failure of the IRA to defend Ardoyne, Clonard, and Divis. This Magill article from the time summarises the IRA’s actions as “late, amateur and uncertain”. (Meehan would later rejoin the IRA and PIRA.)

“This memorable [sic] plague [sic] is dedicated to the 1st victim of the present troubles, Sammy McLarnon, RIP, who was brutally murdered in his own home at 37 Herbert St by the RUC on 15th Aug., 1969.” For more, see this Irish Times article about a 1999 community inquest.

Thomas “Bootsey” Begley died when a bomb he was carrying into a fish shop on the Shankill Road exploded. The bomb killed Begley and nine others [plaque]. The plaque above was unveiled in Ardoyne on October 20th, 2013 – twenty years after the event – to protests from relatives of the deceased (BBC-NI).

“Justice for the Craigavon 2” – this is the first piece in the Peter Moloney Collection about the campaign to release the pair convicted for their part in the murder of Stephen Carroll (BBC).

Finally, the Morris-Dolan plaque is brand new, unveiled August 11, 2013, in Etna Drive/Corán An Ardghleanna (in Ard Eoın). Seamus Morris and Peter Nolan were shot by the Protestant Action Force (UVF) twenty-five years ago, in August 1988. It reads “Brutally murdered for their faith … by loyalist death squad aided by British crown forces. Never forgotten by family and friends.”

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
M10512 M10510 M10511 M10513 M10514

They Will Never Steal Our Culture

2013-11-142024-06-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“They may have stole our banner but they will never steal our culture.” The banner in question was on the fencing in the street (see Welcome To Loyalist Linfield Road) but wound up on a CNR bonfire in Divis; the wider context is the on-going disputes over the routes established by the Parades Commission for Orange Order marches.

Linfield Gardens, south Belfast.

O’Neill & Beattie

2013-11-122024-06-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Anti-Racism World Cup. In memory of Dick O’Neill, Springfield Road, who fell [in the Spanish Civil War] at Jarama 14th February 1937, and, William Beattie, Wilton Street, Shankill Road, who fell at Brunete 23rd July 1937. No Pasarán!” Both towns are near Madrid. The flags are those of the International Brigade and the Irish Citizen Army.

See also the other tribute to the cross-community draw of International Brigade: Break The Connection With Capitalism.

The Anti-Racism World Cup is a soccer tournament held at the grounds of Donegal Celtic. See East Meets West.

One Man, One Love, One Country

2013-08-242025-02-05Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The South Belfast UDA/UFF commander John McMichael (1948-1987) was killed by an IRA car bomb. In addition to organising a team of assassins in the 70s and 80s, he founded a Political Research Group and wrote two documents proposing an independent Northern Ireland, 1979’s Beyond the Religious Divide and 1987’s Common Sense (available at CAIN), promoting the philosophy of ‘Ulster nationalism’. The quote on the board comes from the end of the Introduction to Common Sense:

“There is no section of this divided Ulster community which is totally innocent or indeed totally guilty, totally right or totally wrong. We all share the responsibility for creating the situation, either by deed or by acquiescence. Therefore we must share the responsibility for finding a settlement and then share the responsibility of maintaining good government.”

“One man, one love, one country. Commonsense. In loving memory. Quis separabit.” “A Coy” “Old Warren”

The Smallwoods plaque is the same but the trio of boards is new, as compared to 2010.

Drumbeg Drive, Lisburn.

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Thanks, Jon – the correction has been made