McCalmont Memorial

King Billy’s sword is tipped in blood, and he rides below a shamrock, rose, and thistle, uniting the kingdoms. Ballyclare Orange Hall is named after Hugh McCalmont, a major-general in the British Army Ulster Unionist MP for North Antrim in 1895 (and East Antrim in 1918?). His Whiteabbey house was burned down by suffragettes in 1914 because it was used as a training ground by the UVF of the anti-franchise Carson.

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Sports We Love

Whitehead artist Janet Crymble “designed & created this new collage in Ballyclare, featuring south Antrim sporting heroes past and present: Kyle McCallan, Steve McCooke, Paddy McNair, Jimmy Todd, Gary Longwell, Ronnie Lamont, Henry Turkington, William Cowan, William Thompson, Johnston Todd, Willie John McBride. John Reid from the NIHE – which sponsored the mural – has an image from the launch of local children posing with the piece.

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04449 Grange Dr Ballyclare

Politician, Barrister, Ulsterman

Sir Edward Carson, 1854-1935, was born and raised in Dublin, and practiced law there for many years, but he is most famously associated with the Unionist campaign against Home Rule and the creation of “a Protestant province of Ulster” and eventually the six-county state of Northern Ireland.

This new piece is by Dee Craig in Ballyclare’s Grange Drive.

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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We Will Never Accept A United Ireland

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Writing has appeared alongside the “Show No Mercy Expect None Back” mural in Ballyclare. On one side : “We will never accept [was originally “except” but this was quickly changed] a united Ireland – Feriens Tego [the UFF motto]” and “Now entering loyalist Erskine/Rashee Park – Quis separabit [the UDA motto]” and on the other: “Ballyclare heartland of south east Antrim – Simply the best [used with both UDA and UFF]”

The final image is from July, when the wall had been ‘booked’ for the UDA.

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X05348 2016-07-06 UDA Booked+

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Show No Mercy, Expect None Back

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Above and below are images from a new UFF/UDA/UYM mural in Ballyclare, featuring the Ulster banner and Union flag, and a quartet of hooded gunmen.

 A very similar slogan is used in an Eddie The Trooper mural in Carrickfergus.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X3808 X03807 Erskine Pk south east antrim SEA quis separabit UYM terrae filius