Shankill Protestant Boys

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The main part of this installation is a large painted carving of lions rampant on either side of the emblem of the Shankill Protestant Boys flute band (Fb), named for the Shankill Boys of the original Ulster Volunteers and the Ulster Special Service Force unit within it which was designed to be a unit of “first responders”, ready to react at short notice to action by republicans or British forces anywhere in northern Ireland (historyireland).

With the outbreak of World War I, the Ulster Volunteers joined the RIR and the 36th (Ulster) Division and fought at the Battle Of The Somme in 1916: “’The Ulster Division has lost more than half the men who attacked and in doing so has sacrificed it for the Empire which has treated them none too well. The much derided Ulster Volunteer Force has won a name which equals any in history. Their devotion, which no doubt has helped the advance elsewhere, deserved the gratitude of the British Empire. It is due to the memory of these brave fellows that their beloved Province shall be fairly treated.’ Captain Wilfred [sic] Spender HQ staff 2nd July 1916″

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M11941 [M11942] M11943 M11944 M11945 [M12209]

Save The Shankill

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This pair of boards is outside the Ulster Rangers Supporters Club (Fb) on the Shankill Road.

Above: The painting features a tram going under an Orange arch between the public baths on one side an Spin-A-Disc records on the other, surrounded by notable figures from the Shankill area. (Many thanks to Johnny Dougan of Shankill Area Social History (Fb) for the information below.)

Front, from left to right: Manchester United and Northern Ireland Soccer player Norman Whiteside (WP) and behind him boxer Davy Larmour and community worker Saidie Patterson (see WRDA), boxer Sammy (Cisco) Cosgrove, Senator Charlie McCullough (WP), Tommy Henderson, boxer Jimmy Warnock (original photograph here), Hugh Smyth (see previously Third Class Citizens), artist William Conor (see previously Conor’s Corner, Jack Henning (running), musician Belter Bell, writer Albert Haslett (Northern Visions interview).

Atop the tram: on the left is Jackie Redpath of the Save the Shankill Campaign (note other members of the group with placard on right; Northern Visions has a documentary about the Save The Shankill campaign) and Jack Higgins holding his book The Eagle Has Landed (WP). Up there too is Miss Sands, the music teacher in the Girls Model School, and historian Bobby Foster (Northern Visions interview). On the stairs are May Blood MBE and above her D.I. Nixon.

Below is a board highlighting the roles played by women during WWI as nurses and welders and in the Land Army. “She hasn’t a sword and she hasn’t a gun. But she’s doing her duty now fighting’s begun.”

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M11939 M11940

Cemented With Love

Extramural Activity1 Comment

This is a second repainting of the King Billy mural in Donegall Pass. The note in the corner says that this and the 2002 repainting (which added the painting of the Lindsay Street arch) were by “MW”, and the original mural painted in 1989 by “H. Gibson”.

Oak Street, Donegall Pass, south Belfast

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M11922c [M11923] [M11924]

McCurrie And Neill

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“Jimmy McCurrie & Bobby Neill, murdered 27/28th June 1970. Still no truth – still no justice.”

The two civilians died in the course of rioting and a gun battle around St. Matthew’s that was “the first major confrontation to occur in east Belfast during the troubles” (McKittrick et al., Lost Lives, p. 50). It is not clear at what time each died. McKittrick gives the death of both as the 27th, but puts Neill’s death at 2 a.m. (and so strictly speaking on the 28th?).

Newtownards Road, east Belfast

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M11921

Loyal Stoneyford

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Here is a gallery of images from the village of Stoneyford, ten miles north of Lisburn. The view in the final image is from the cross-roads at north end of the village, with the brazier next to the WWI memorial visible on the right, and the nameplate on the fence on the left. The Orange Hall is in the middle of the village. The village was a centre for the small anti-Agreement organisation the “Orange Volunteers” (WP).

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M11859
M11853 M11855 [M11856] M11857 M11858 M11860 M11861 M11862 [M11863] M11864 M11865 M11866 M11867 M11868 M11869
M11854

Balmoral Furniture Showrooms 1971

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“This Poppy Cross is in memory of the two men and two babies murdered at this spot by a no-warning sectarian IRA bomb attack on the Balmoral Furniture shop on 11th December 1971”

The previous (circular) plaque reads, “Balmoral Furniture Showrooms, bombed 12.25 pm Saturday 11th December 1971, 2 adults & 2 babies killed”

Also augmented with poppy crosses: Frizzell’s Fish Shop 1993 | Mountainview Tavern 1975

Shankill Road, west Belfast – the plaque and cross are on the corner of the Shankill Leisure Centre

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M11848 M11849 M11850

36th (Ulster) Division

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The part of Black Mountain used to display the lettering “36th Ulster [sic] Div.” is further north (and so around towards Highfield and Glencairn) than the site of republican “messages on the mountain“. The lettering was mounted ahead of a parade celebrating the 99th anniversary of the Somme (and the creation of the Ulster Volunteers in 1912).

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M11847
M11840 M11841 M11842 M11843 M11844 M11845 M11846