Ballyclare UVF memorial mural to volunteers from the 3rd and 1st battalions.
Erskine Park, Ballyclare
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Lest We Forget
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Armed And Ready
The ‘hooded gunman’ is alive and well, as evidenced by this “1st East Antrim – D. Company Ulster Volunteer Force” mural in Wellington Green, Larne.
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For Bravery In The Field
Robert King, of the 12th Royal Irish Rifles, who joined the army from the Ulster Volunteers, was “awarded the Military Medal for gallantry in action on 1st July 1916” at the Somme. The two sides of the medal are shown in the top right, with George V on one side and “for bravery in the field”. The 12th Rifles were drawn from the Central Antrim regiment of the Ulster Volunteers including the Newington area of Larne; King, however, was from Ship Street.
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X03763 X03764 Wellington Grn Central Antrim Regiment newington
Out On The Tiles
A happier image from Oakfield Drive (compared to Glenfield Community Noticeboard): the interests of local children are reflected in the tiles they made: a Union flag and Ulster banner but also a heart and “Liverpool”. One of four such tile collages on the front of the (now-defunct) Glenfield Community Association building.
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Composition With Electrical Cable And Shadow Of Power Line
Two images of pleasing shapes formed by cabling, street signs, and the shadow of power lines on plastered walls.
Previously in accidentally-geometric-walls, the Mondrian-esque Composition With Orange, Bathroom Tile And Dolphin Wallpaper.
Boyne Square is a loyalist area of Larne. It hosts a bonfire and Orange Order arch in the marching season.
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Glenfield Community Noticeboard
February 2015 saw the controversial painting of two UDA murals in the Glenfield estate, Carrickfergus. They are now graffitied over with “child beaters”, “fuck ur UDA” (above) and “child molester”, “fuck yerz” and the red hand x’ed out (below). It’s not clear what (or who) the allegations concern.
For the originals, see Glenfield Community Association.
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1st Batt – 3rd Batt
This UVF hooded gunman expresses solidarity between the East Antrim 1st battalion and the (North Belfast?) 3rd battalion.
Drumahoe Gardens, Millbrook. The same hooded gunman is used in Armed And Ready in Larne.
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HMS Hawke
HMS Hawke was a Royal navy WWI cruiser sunk by German U-boat on October 1st, 1914. It was a training ship, which meant that among the 542 sailors who lost their lives on the Hawke, 75 of them were 16 year-old boys.
Five of the deceased were from the Donegall Road area. This is the first mural in south Belfast’s “Poppy Trail”; in addition to the Hawke, there will be a board for each year of the first world war, and perhaps others for WWII, on the streets off Donegall Road, from Barrington Gardens westward across into the Village.
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The Poppy Trail 1914
“The first Belfast men in action were not those who volunteered after the war’s outbreak. Instead, they were the regular soldiers already in the army, or reservists who were called up as war began. A battalion which contained a large number of Belfast regulars and reservists was the 2nd Royal Irish Rifles. Since it was not part of the 16th or 36th divisions, the battalion drew men from across Belfast’s communities.” Thus begins the 1914 board on south Belfast’s “Poppy Trail” launched on February 29th. The 1914 board, in Egeria Street, features the stories of Lance Corporal Samuel Spratt (from Lecale Street, off the Donegall Road) who died at Neuve Chappelle in August 1914 and Corporal Michael McGivern (from Merrion Street, off the Falls Road) who died at Kemmel in December.
See also: interviews from the launch on NVTv (starting at 13m44s)
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X03692 X03691 Egeria Street sharedhistoryworkshop.com housing executive signtech imperial war museum kitchener your country needs you
Where Is The Reconciliation?
A fire was lit at the base of the John Henry Patterson mural (see Operation Lion | Godfather Of The Israeli Army) on Beverley Street, prompting the notice on the railings above: “Where is the equality? This historically significant artwork, was attacked & defaced by Irish Republican racists? Where is the reconciliation?”
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 