“Welcome to Creggan – watch your back on the way out” and “Welcome to the Bogside – RUC beware”. The (anti-Agreement/perhaps “New”) IRA volunteers are shown wearing balaclavas and holding an RPG and an assault rifle.
Eastway and Westland Street, Derry
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
M11280 M11316 [M12529]
This is an interesting set of images from Main Road, Moygashel.
The first three employ familiar imagery of the UVF and the 36th Division (the Home-Rule era “Deserted! Well – I Can Stand Alone” is less familiar but goes back to at least 1988; the UVF flag also references the anti-Home Rule movement in the “1912” date of the founding of the Ulster Volunteers).
The stencil (“It is not racist to protect your own community”) and hand-painted board (“Don’t be DUPed”) indicate a recent change in attitudes.
In the May elections for the European Parliament, UKIP received the most votes and the most seats (24), campaigning on an anti-immigrant and Euro-skeptical message; this is its best electoral performance to date (WP). Perhaps in response to UKIP’s increasing popularity, Conservative leader David Cameron last year (2013) promised (gov.uk) a referendum on EU membership, should the Conservatives be elected in next year’s (2015) general election.
The source of dissatisfaction with the DUP is less clear. The party won the largest number of seats in the local elections in May (WP).
These are perhaps the first appearance in the Peter Moloney Collection of both sentiments.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
M11247 [M11248] [M11249] [M11250]
M11245 M11246
M11251
M11244
The boards on the left celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1914 Clyde Valley gun-running; material from the operation was held for the East Belfast battalion of the Ulster Volunteers at Bloomfield House (web), site of these boards. See also: John Henry Patterson’s involvement in Operation Lion.
“When the 3rd Home Rule Bill was passed by Parliament in 1912, Ulster Unionists under the leadership of Edward Carson and James Craig realised that armed resistance was the only resort left to them to remain British. The Ulster Volunteer Force was formed in January 1913 and comprised of 100,000 men. East Belfast Regiment was the largest in the UVF with over 10,000 men divided into 6 Battalions: 1st. Ballynafeigh & Newtownbreda, 2nd. Willowfield, 3rd. Mountpottinger, 4th. Victoria, 5th. Avoniel, 6th. Strandtown & Knock. Major Fred Crawford was tasked with procuring weapons and ammunition. On 24/25th April 1914 he did just this when landed 25,000 rifles and 3,000,000 rounds of ammunition from Clyde Valley at Larne and Donaghadee in Operation Lion. These munitions were taken all over the country, and a consignment was sent to East Belfast UVF. Part of this consignment was concealed in the grounds of Bloomfield House, which stood on this location.”
“This plaque marks the occasion in early May 1914 when over 2,000 men of the East Belfast Regiment, Ulster Volunteer Force paraded to the grounds of Orangefield House for an inspection to celebrate the success of Operation Lion when weapons and ammunition were landed at Larne and Donaghadee. For God and Ulster.”
The boards on the right read: “‘Tis thy flag and my flag;/The best of flags on Earth,/So cherish it my children,/It’s yours by right of birth.//Your fathers fought,/Your fathers died,/To raise it to the skies,/And we like them must never yield,/But keep it flying high.” from The Union Jack, by Edward Shirley, in Little Poems For Little People, and “In memory of the men and women from the Orangefield area, who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the defence of our freedom in all theatres of conflict, both foreign and at home.” These memorial boards are to local men who “stood to the fore to defend the Empire as the 8th Battalion (East Belfast) Royal Irish Rifles” in the 36th division, formed from formed from the “8th Battalion (Avoniel) and the 6th Battalion (Strandtown)” of the Ulster Volunteers.
Grand Parade, east Belfast.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
M11207 M11208 [M11209] [M11210] [M11211] M11212 M11213c
Footsteps through the history of Coleraine, from top to bottom: Martin Luther (c. 1521); John Knox, who led the reformation in Scotland (c. 1560); the plan of Coleraine (c. 1611); the relief of Derry (1689); the Williamite campaign (1690); (and then a jump to) WWI (“Christmas truce, western front”); WWII (“War on the home front”).
These boards replaced a UDA mural in March, 2014 (see Loyalist Ballysally).
Daneshill Road, Coleraine.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
M11152 M11153 [M11154] [M11155] [M11156] [M11157] [M11158] [M11159] [M11160]
Here are two Sınn Féın boards on contemporary social issues, at the old Andersonstown RUC barracks. First is “Stand together against racism”; second is support for an Irish Language Act “Sınn Féın ag tacú le Lá Dearg Na Gaeılge, 12 Aıbreán – ag teacht le chéıle ag An Chultúrlann, Bóthar na bhFál, Béal Feırste, 2.00 in.”
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
M11137 M11139
The house bedecked with bunting, UFF flags, and a circular UFF board is on Shankill Terrace (on Peter’s Hill); the UDA board is on a gable around the corner, next to California Close; the three individual UFF/UDA/UYM boards are on gables along Hopewell Avenue.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
M11133 M11132 M11134
M11127 M11128 M11129
A new (photographic) portrait and large “UFF” and “UDA” side-walls have been added to the 2011 version (which contains links to prior versions) of the Stevie McKeag mural in the lower Shankill estate.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
M11093
Here are two new boards in the courtyard of the Rex Bar on the Shankill Road, describing the formation of the Ulster Volunteers (‘A Force For Ulster’) and commemorating the losses suffered by the 36th (Ulster) Division of the British Army, which the Volunteers became, at the Somme and in other battles, mowed down by “the Hun machine guns” (‘The Great War’).
‘A Force For Ulster’ includes photographs of the recent centenary re-enactments of the Balmoral Review, the Ulster Covenant, the formation of the Volunteers (“east” and “west”) and “Operation Lion” – more commonly known as the Larne Gun-Running.
According to the ‘The Great War’ board, 32,186 men from west Belfast were killed, wounded, or missing in the effort to “restore peace in Europe”. “To them bravery was without limit, to us memory is without end”. The board shows the Thiepval Memorial To The Missing Of The Somme against a background of portraits.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
M11093 [M11094] [M11095] [M11096] [M11097] [M11098] [M11099] [M11100] [M11101] [M11102] [M11103] [M11104] [M11105] [M11106] [M11008] [M11009] [M11010] [M11011] [M11012] [M11013] [M11014] [M11015] [M11016] [M11017] [M11118]
M11007 [M11317] [M11318]
Hugh Smyth OBE was born in the Woodvale area and represented the upper Shankill as an Independent Unionist and then a Progressive Unionist in Belfast City Council for forty-one years, until the year before his death in May 2014, including a term as Lord mayor in 1994-1995 – he is pictured in his mayoral robes.
The portrait on the right was taken by Bobbie Hanvey and is kept in a Boston College archive; more from the archive can be seen at BC.edu.
As the quote indicates, his politics were oriented towards the working class: “Historically, Unionist politicians fed their electorate the myth that they were first class citizens … and without question people believed them. Historically, Republican/Nationalist politicians fed their electorate the myth that they were second class citizens… and without question the people believed them. In reality, the truth of the matter was that we all, Protestant and Catholic, were third class citizens, and none of us realised it!”
The board was officially launched on June 19th.
Replaces 90 Years Of Resistance in Canmore Street, Shankill, west Belfast.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
M11088 [M11089] [M11090] [M11091] M11092
“Died before surrender – 5th May – 20th August 1981. 30th anniversary. Erected by Newry Independent Republican 1981 Committee.”
“Stormont facilitates internment” replaces “End Israeli terror in Palestine” on top of the hunger striker commemoration board (erected in 2011) at the junction of Camlough and Carnagat roads at Derrybeg.
Camlough Road, Newry
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
M10972 [M10973] [M07436]
