The Belfast Blitz

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These five panels on the south side of the Donegall Road bridge commemorate the “Belfast Blitz”  – the four occasions in April and May of 1941 on which Belfast incendiary (“fire”) and high explosive (“HE”) bombs were dropped by Nazis airplanes, killing 900 people.

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
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South Belfast UDA A Battalion

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The UDA memorial garden is just off Sandy Row, near the John McMichael Centre.

One board (shown fourth) reproduces a mural (see 2005 M02408) from nearby Rowland Way, which was itself a repaint of an earlier (see 1995 M01183 and 2001 M01518) mural, though updated to note the “distinguished service” of Samuel Curry.

The same thirteen names also appear on the “roll of honour” plaque in the garden. The South Belfast UDA/UFF commander John McMichael was killed by an IRA car bomb in 1987. 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. Joe Bratty was killed, along with “Raymie” Elder, by the IRA in 1994 (WP).

City Way, Sandy Row, south Belfast

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
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The image of the McMichael board, added later, is from 2013. The same board was mounted in Lisburn: One Man, One Love, One Country.
Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney

United Irishmen 1791-1798

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Images from inside Kelly’s Cellars in Belfast city centre, with portraits of Henry Joy McCracken and Theobald Wolfe Tone. ‘The Man From God Knows Where’ is Thomas Russell, an Anglican from Cork who joined the British navy and then the cause of the United Irishmen and the Emmet rebellion. He was executed for treason after the rising in October, 1803 (video of the full poem by Florence Wilson | Irish News account of his death).

There is also a “blue plaque” on the exterior wall.

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
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Mid Ulster Brigade Ulster Volunteer Force

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This Portadown mural combines the Ulster Volunteers of 1912 with the contemporary UVF. The panels show “UVF gun-smuggler 1913”, “Firearms training 1913”, and “Sir Edward Carson about to address troops at Portadown railway station” while the roll of honour lists modern-day volutneers Joey Neill, Horace [Harris] Boyle, Wesley Summerville [Somerville], Derek McFarlane, Jackie Marshall, Wilson “Winky” [also “Winkie”] Fry, Robin Jackson, Richard Jameson, Mark “Sqid” Elliott. This is progress compared to the previous mural, shown below, which had hooded gunmen active in the centre of the mural, with the crest of the 36th (Ulster) Division on the side-wall.

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
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1912-2002 Ulster Volunteer Force

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“1912-2002 Ulster Volunteer Force – 90 years” linking the Ulster Volunteers of 1912 and WWI with the Carrickfergus company of the contemporary UVF’s 1st East Antrim Battalion.

The Larches and Blackthorn Park in Carrickfergus

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
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