Sandy Row Marching Band Supplies (Fb) has this Somme commemoration flag in a number of variations (“South Belfast”, “Loyal Carrick”, etc). Perhaps the “West Belfast” version has sold out, as this “North Belfast” flag is actually flying along Cupar Way in the middle Shankill.
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“If our shores are threatened/We will take up arms/To defend our loyal cause/Our culture and our heritage/Our freedoms and our laws.” Moygashel’s own (William) Wesley Somerville, a member of both the UVF and UDR, was killed by a bomb prematurely exploding as he placed it on the minibus of the Miami Showband in July of 1975. Three members of the band died, one of them Protestant, along with volunteers Somerville and Harris Boyle from Portadown (WP). “He died for Ulster” (on the plaque).
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Moygashel Park when injustice becomes law resistance becomes duty mid-ulster brigade
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More anti-Good Friday/Belfast Agreement sentiment, this time from Dungannon, and this time claiming not that support has been withdrawn from the Agreement but that it was not supported in the first place: “Loyalist Eastvale Avenue says ‘No’ to Irish Sea border – Anti-GF 1998, still anfi-GFA 2021”.
Also in this street: memorial plaque to LVF leader Billy Wright.
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On Thursday of last week the Loyalist Communities Council, which represents the various loyalist paramilitary groups – all of which are proscribed organisations – in a letter sent to both Micheál Martin and Boris Johnson temporarily withdrew their support for the Good Friday or Belfast Agreement in protest over the NI Protocol that is part of Brexit (Guardian | BBC). These Moygashel UVF boards go further, threatening violence in response to a law seen as unjust.
From left to right: “Ulster 1912 2021 – compare with Deserted, Well I Can Stand Alone which shows the date as 1914. Time to decide!” “Our forefathers fought for our freedom and rights. No border in the sea or we continue the fight.” “Belfast Agreement null & void”, “UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade – when injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.”
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This time last year, Portadown True Blues flute band (Fb) was preparing for a trip to Toronto, Canada, for an international celebration of the Twelfth (News Letter) but it was cancelled on account of the pandemic. This blue board was an update of their long-standing purple mural in Edgarstown next to the Somme mural, also featured below (and previously in In Answer To The Echo Of Alarm.
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The slogan “How is freedom measured? By the effort which it costs to retain!” dates back to WWI and, in the Irish context, to the Home Rule era. It looked as though Britain was going to give Ireland – as a whole – some measure of self-governance (whether while remaining in the UK (“constitutional Home Rule”) or separating from it (“revolutionary Home Rule” or “Fenianism”). In response, it seemed to some that fighting for Britain in the war might secure the status quo. Perhaps additionally or alternatively, it indicated the willingness of unionists to fight. Great effort is the measure of freedom greatly prized – “loyalist Rathcoole will NEVER accept a border in the Irish Sea.” The placards are a product of United Unionists Of Ulster (News Letter). For a mural rendition of the WWI postcard, see previously: How Is Freedom Measured?
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“Ulster sold out – time to fight”. The DUP’s Sammy Wilson declared the party would “fight guerilla warfare” against the ‘Northern Ireland Protocol’ which caused Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg to beseech them to “work through the democratic processes” (Irish Times).
This graffiti is on Church Road, Newtownabbey.
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“Loyalist Ballysillan says NO! to Irish Sea border.” The Ulster Banner merges with the Union Flag, and a Northern Ireland floating free of the south is cradled by Britain. (Compare with Give And Take.)
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Hagan Homes’s (web) advertising for its new “Thirty Eight North” development on Lawnbrook riffs on popular culture: below, a version of Donald Trump’s slogan; above, an (inadvertently political) homage to TV reality show Love Island.
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Striped “No Irish Sea border” stickers on the Shankill Road, Belfast, protesting the NI Protocol that is part of the UK’s “Brexit” from the EU.
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 