Easter 1916

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Light through prison bars illuminates a prostrate hunger striker attended by two women, one of whom wears a headscarf in the tricolours – this board is from 1986. Below it (visible in the wide shot) is an earlier Easter Rising commemoration mural (from 1991) with portraits of the seven signatories to the proclamation arranged around a large lily.

Berwick Road, Ardoyne, north Belfast

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Copyright © 1993 Peter Moloney
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Nationality

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Wide shot showing the low wall between the two “Ulster’s defenders” murals: “Our message to the Irish is simple: Hands off Ulster; Irish out; The Ulster conflict is about nationality”, and “We will maintain our faith and our nationality” above images of the Bible. Newtownards Road, Belfast.

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Copyright © 1992 Alan Gallery, All rights reserved alan@alangallery.com
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Defender Of Ulster From Irish Attacks

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Cú Chulaınn (Visual History) – the “ancient defender of Ulster from Irish attacks over 2000 years ago” with Ulster banner shield – is made a precursor of the UDA’s East Belfast Brigade – “Ulsters present day defenders”. The volunteer is – unusually – unmasked; it might be Ian Adamson (a civilian, but here given paramilitary gear) the UUP politician and proponent of the hypothesis that north-east Ulster was settled by settlers from Scotland – the Cruthin – who were at war with the Irish Gaels and that the Táın describes part of this conflict, with Cú Chulaınn the hero of Ulster single-handedly holding off the invaders from Connacht (WP).

Newtownards Road, Belfast.

This is the third gable on the so-called “Freedom Corner” (though it is not clear that it bore this name at the time of this image); here is the second gable (which in turn links to the first). A fourth gable was painted in 1993.

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Copyright © 1992 Alan Gallery, All rights reserved alan@alangallery.com
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Who Will Defend Ulster Now?

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In 1992 the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) – which itself replaced the B Specials in 1970 – was amalgamated with the Royal Irish Rangers to become the Royal Irish Regiment. Although seven battalions of the new RIR were permanently based in Northern Ireland, the mural above describes the two organisations as “Ulster’s Past Defenders” and asks “Who will defend Ulster now?”

This is the second gable on the so-called “Freedom Corner” (though it is not clear if it bore this name at the time of this image); here is the first gable | the low wall between the second and third gable can be seen in D00391 | here is the third gable.

Newtownards Road, Belfast

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Copyright © 1992 Alan Gallery, All rights reserved alan@alangallery.com
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Their Only Crime Is Loyalty

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UFF and LPA/LPOW mural on Newtownards Road with masked volunteer and rifle, with the “U” in barbed wire. (The words “East Belfast Brigade” would later be added in the middle.) With a quote modelled on the Declaration of Arbroath: “For as long as one hundred of us remain alive we shall never in any way consent to submit to the rule of the Irish, for it is not for glory we fight but for freedom alone which no man loses but with his life.” (Originally, “for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.”)

This is the first gable on the so-called “Freedom Corner” (though it is not clear if it bore this name at the time of this image); here is the next gable.

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Copyright © 1991 Peter Moloney
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