The West Belfast Ulster Special Service Force (USSF) was a local Shankill unit within the West Belfast regiment of the Ulster Volunteers. It lost 90% of its men at the battle of Albert on July 1st, 1916. For more of its history see BygoneDays.
Craven Street, lower Shankill, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1988 LC
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On the left of the lightning bolt are the soldiers of the 36th Ulster division (U.V.F.) R.I.R (Royal Irish Rifles) on the western front in 1916; on the right are “UVF prisoners of war, Long Kesh”.
A similar board was painted in the UVF compounds of Long Kesh. Of it, Billy Hutchinson (in his 2011 piece “Transcendental Art“) said, “My favourite mural was one inspired by the British anti-war poet, Siegfried Sassoon. Suicide In The Trenches depicts a UVF volunteer split down the middle by a bolt of lightning. Half of him depicts a 36th Ulster Division soldier under heavy fire in a rainsoaked WW1 trench. The other half shows a ’70s volunteer incarcerated behind barbed wire and over-shadowed by watch towers.” (The piece – W2021.1.8 in the Ulster Museum collection – includes the last verse from Sassoon’s Suicide In The Trenches.)
Hutchinson also describes the importance of the Orange Cross welfare organisation in selling prisoner art produced inside the prison. Stevie McCrea of the RHC was killed in the Orange Cross in 1989 – see Stevie McCrea.
Craven Street, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1988 LC
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These two murals are side-by-side in Craven Street. On the right, a farmer’s wife defends the farm (the stone wall) in order to preserve it as part of the UK (the Union Flag) despite the threat of Home Rule; on the left, “in proud and loving memory” of three UVF volunteers assassinated by the IRA: Shankill Butcher Lenny Murphy, John Bingham, and William “Frenchie” Marchant. “Lest we forget.”
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UFF/UDA/LPA/UDF emblems in the four fields of an Ulster banner on a shield, flanked by Union flag and Saltire, with gunmen on manoeuvres in the countryside.
Crumlin Road, Belfast. To the left, and out of view to the left, are a pair of UVF murals.
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Copyright © 1988 LC
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The Ulster Banner, Union flag, St Andrew’s Saltire and the UVF’s own flag stand around the UVF red hand emblem (For God and Ulster, 1912), next to an LPOW hand in barbed wire.
The wide shot shows the accompanying YCV shamrock and an in-progress painting of the emblem of the 36th (Ulster) Division. For the completed version, see 1993.
Crumlin Road, Belfast, at Queensland and Tasmania streets.
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Three loyalist murals side-by-side: the Union jack in the shape of Northern Ireland, a red hand of Ulster and crown on the six-pointed star, between St Andrew’s Saltire and the Union flag, and a (UDA?) volunteer with rifle.
Location unknown — perhaps the old Shankill Parade?
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The yellow triangle of the PAF (Protestant Action Force, a cover for the UVF) with the words”The UVF reserve the right to strike at republican targets where and when the opportunity arises.” with adjacent UVF/YCV hooded gunmen mural in Ohio Street, Belfast.
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Copyright © 1988 LC
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Loyalist prisoners of war (LPOW) mural in Rosebank Street, Belfast, with red hands wrapped in barbed wire, the Union flag and Ulster banner, under an assault rifle.
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Copyright © 1988 LC
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Loyalist volunteers armed with rifles wave an Ulster banner. A two-colour mural on a white background in Rosebank Street, Belfast.
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Copyright © 1988 LC
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UDA/UFF/WDA (Woodvale Defence Association) and William “Bucky” McCullough Memorial Flute Band mural, with silhouetted volunteers, images of various weapons (held in red hands), and barbed wire.
Heather Street, west Belfast.
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Dates back to at least 1987.
Peter Moloney Collection 