PUL

The Last Post

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This post updates a 2018 post The Menin Gates with the addition of the side-wall shown above – which is still incomplete – and the two plaques shown in the middle image.

“The Menin Gate And Last Post Ceremony: Every night at 8.00pm (20:00 hours) a moving ceremony takes place under the Menin Gate in Ieper – Ypres. The Last Post Ceremony has become part of the daily life in Ieper (Ypres) and the local people are proud of this simple but moving tribute to the courage and self-sacrifice of those who fell in defence of their town. At 7.30pm the police arrive, and all traffic is stopped from driving through the Menin Gate until 8.30pm. For one hour the noise of traffic echoing around the Menin Gate from the cobbled road ceases. The crowd is hushed. A stillness descends over the memorial. Buglers of the local volunteer Fire Brigade arrive and stand ready at the eastern entrance of the Menin Gate Memorial. At 8.00pm The Last Post is sounded, and a moments [sic] silence is observed. “Réveille” [sic] signifies the end of the ceremony.” “Sponsored by East Bank Rangers Supporters Club“

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11048 X11049 X11047

We Are Victorious

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Campsie Club (of Londonderry) is the youngest of the eight parent clubs of the Apprentice Boys “founded 1950” and is the only one named after one of the apprentice boys who shut the gates against the forces of James II in 1688 – Henry Campsie (web).

This Irish Street board puts the “Bro. Scott Goligher Memorial, Londonderry, Loyal Orange Lodge No. 461” (history of the lodge at Grand City Lodge) and the Campsie Club on either side of the “Protestant Boys flute band” (Fb).

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11027 X11028 X11029 X11030 strule gdns via veritas victoria

Ulster Democratic Party

Extramural Activity2 Comments

The mural above commemorates the 30th anniversary of the death of Gary ‘Lofty’ Lynch on August 9th, 1991. Lynch was an election worker for the Ulster Democratic Party, whose Ken Kerr held a seat on Derry City Council from 1989 to 1993, representing the Waterside (WP). Lynch was shot and killed by the IRA outside Foyle Meats where he worked, only a few months after UDA commander and UDP party leader Cecil McKnight was killed (UPI).

The UDP was founded as the UDLP (“L” for “loyalist’) in 1981 and was dissolved in 2001 when the UDA rejected the Belfast Agreement (Guardian | Irish Times). It proposed an independent Northern Ireland within the Commonwealth and Europe.

McKnight is shown (below) in front of an old Londonderry coat-of-arms mural in Bond’s Place. See also: the UDA memorial mural in Lincoln Court.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11037 X11040 X06330 [X11038] X11039 X11041 X11036 Roulston St Emerson St

Bond’s Field

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Although only Bond’s Place now retains the apostrophe, all of the “Bond” placenames in the Waterside (Bond’s Place, Bonds/Bond’s Street and Bonds/Bond’s Hill) are named after the Bond family, one of whom – William – was a United Irishman (Derry Journal). Bond’s Field is the site of the former Ebrington factory – home to Young & Rochesters shirt factory (Smart Tour) – and now part of the Ebrington complex (Scrivener). Four other Ebrington institutions are included in this Ebrington Street mural: Ebrington Primary school (web) which was originally at the end of Roulston Avenue, Ebrington Presbyterian (web), the Waterside branch of the Royal British Legion (Fb), and (in the centre) Pages bakery, which is now the Ebrington Bake House (Fb).

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11045

Undefeated

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“We have given much, we have much to give”. Earlier murals on this wall in the Caw (2015 | 2011) were similarly divided into Ulster Volunteers/Ulster Division on the left and the modern UVF on the right. But this version shows a UVF “hooded gunman” whereas before on both sides there were graveside mourners. There is also a very rare (and possibly unique) reference to the H-Blocks, rather than the Long Kesh cages – a watchtower and walls are included above Carson’s portrait.

On the left are the Union Flag, Covenant, the Clyde Valley, graveside mourner in WWI, and Carson. On the right a UVF hooded gunman, the PUP emblem and slogan “Country Before Party”, and the flag of the UVF (Londonderry company).

The plaque, which has been retained from previously, reads “In proud memory of our fallen comrades from the Nelson Drive flute band. Glorious on the graves of heroes, kindly on all those who have suffered for the cause. Thus will shine the dawn. They gave their tomorrow for our today.”

Kinsale Park, Caw, Londonderry

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11010 X11008 X11009 X11007

The Global Order

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

There are Orange Order lodges in Ghana and Togo and there were previously lodges in South Africa and Nigeria (History Ireland | WP). A photo of the Ghanaian representative in the mural – Dennis Tette Tay – is included in this BBC article. The Canadian representative is perhaps from “Mohawk Loyal Orange Lodge No. 99” on the Mohawk Reservation at Desoronto, Ontario, Canada (Fb).

Vandalised with “KAH” and “UDA scum!” graffiti.

The Fountain, Londonderry

Update: The cleaned-up board in February of 2023 can be seen in the Paddy Duffy collection.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11059 [X11058] X11061 [X11060] [X11062] in god our trust faith hope charity

Those Old Grey Walls Still Firmly Standing

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The sights and sounds of Irish Street and Londonderry: (clockwise from right) a verse from Londonderry On The Foyle (youtube) in a frame of the walls of the city of Derry – “But once more I’m coming home aboard a steamship/On Lough Foyle once more I’m passing by Culmore/And I see those old grey walls still firmly standing/There ’round my city Londonderry on the Foyle”; East Bank (Irish Street) Protestant Boys (Fb) on parade; Carson and the signing of the 1912 Covenant; St Columb’s Cathedral; Irish Street FC (Fb).

Strule Gardens, Londonderry

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11031 X11032

William King Memorial Flute Band

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

On the left is the story of William King,and on the right, the story of the William King Memorial Flute band (Fb), including the death of Bobby Stott on, forty-seven years ago yesterday. These images were taken during the summer; the board was vandalised two weeks ago (BelTel).

William King “was born in Co Donegal in 1920. He was one of a family of 14 … He served in the army during the Second World War and at the time of his death on 24th September 1969, he worked as a security guard at Du Pont in Maydown. A widower, he was a father of four … and lived in the Fountain area of Londonderry … In the hostile atmosphere of Londonderry in the weeks following the ‘Battle of the Bogside’ in August 1969, William was badly beaten by a group of nationalist rioters in London Street, close to the Fountain … and later died from a heart attack precipitated by these injuries. … unlike the victims of Bloddy Sunday, William King and the other approx. 250 people who died as a result of the terrorist campaign throughout the “Troubles” would not receive any enquiries or attention as time passed.”

“On 6th April 1974 having mastered 8 tunes, the band is dedicated on the “Apprentice Boys Memorial Hall” by Dean George Good … On the 25th November 1975, band member Bobby Stott, a part-time member of the Ulster Defence regiment, was murdered by the IRA in The Fountain … [in 1982] they competed at the “Band Championships of Ireland” and were placed 2nd but after this setback the Wm King would go on to dominate the melody band contest scene for the next 30 years.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11077 X11078 X11079 X11076 hawkin st

Peace If Possible, Truth At All Costs

Extramural Activity2 Comments

“Londonderry west bank loyalists” are “still under siege”, at first from two decades of “Republican violence” – “Between 1971 and 1991 the Protestant population of the Cityside declined by 83.4% as a result of Republican violence (Shirlow et al. 2005)” – hence the boarded- and dressed-up windows – and now from the “PSNI”.

(The words “as a result of Republican violence” are not included in the Shirlow article).

Fountain Street and Hawkin Street, in the Fountain, Londonderry.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
martin luther no surrender NI100 northern ireland centenary
X11084
X11080 [X11081]
X11083
X11086 [X11085]
X11088 [X11087]

Men From The Fountain

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

All three major WWI memorials with relevance to Ulster – Thiepval Memorial, Menin Gate, Ulster Tower – are brought together in a gallery in Londonderry’s Fountain as part of a tribute to the “Men from the Fountain who made the supreme sacrifice in the Great War.”

“Thiepval Memorial: The Thiepval Memorial to the missing of the Somme is a war memorial to 72,195 missing British and South African servicemen, who died in the battles of the Somme of the First World War between 1915 and 1918, with no known grave. It was built in red brick and limestone between 1928 and 1932. It is near the village of Thiepval, Picardy in France. A visitors’ centre opened in 2004.”

“Menin Gate: The Menin Gate memorial to the missing is a war memorial in Ypres, Belgium, dedicated to the 54,395 British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres salient of World War I and whose graves are unknown. The memorial is located at the eastern exit of the town and marks the starting point for one of the main roads out of the town that led Allied soldiers to the front line. The Menin Gate memorial was unveiled on 24 July 1927.”

“Ulster Tower: The Ulster Tower is Northern Ireland’s national war memorial. It was one of the first memorials to be erected on the western front and commemorates the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division and all those from Ulster who served in the First World War. The memorial was officially opened on 19 November 1921 and is a very close copy of Helen’s Tower which stands in the grounds of the Clandeboye estate, near Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland. Many of the men of the Ulster division trained in the estate before moving to England and then France early in 1916. The Tower is staffed by members of the Somme Association, which is based in Belfast.”

Previously the site of In God We Trust.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11066 X11067 X11064 X11065