The members of the anti-Home Rule ‘Ulster Volunteers’, formed in 1912, joined the 16th and 36th divisions at the onset of WWI. The emblem of the Ulster Volunteers is on the right (the emblem of the 36th is on the left). The same emblem was used in 1966 when the modern UVF was founded.
See also South Belfast Volunteers | A Hive Of Glass | Village UVF | Welcome To The Village.
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Here is another set of four portraits of Robert Bennett, Joe Long, James Cordner, and Robert “Squeak” Seymour, all members of the UVF killed in the 1970s (Bennet, Long, Cordner) and 1980s (Seymour).
Inverary Street, east Belfast.
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A plaque has been added to the controversial 2013 UVF mural in Inverwood Court, commemorating (fairly) recently-deceased volunteers Kenny Black, Neill Reeves (21 years old, possibly from tainted drugs) Kevin Carvil, and Robert Armour.
The quote – Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed – is from Martin Luther King. For more on the history of this wall and the MLK quote, see Direct Action.
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A new mural to William “Buster” Keenan was unveiled this month – July 8th – coincidentally the anniversary of wife Eileen’s death. Both are listed on the UVF memorial stone (image 3) in front of the mural, along with David Ervine and the Long-Cordner-Bennett-Seymour quartet.
According to ACT, Keenan was involved in the Battle Of St. Matthew’s (in which Bobby Neill and James McCurrie were killed, along with Henry McIlhone). To the left (fourth image) is another “Ulster Volunteers” stone, a “Sydenham roll of honour – to those who gave their lives in the Great War”.
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inverary dr ycv east belfast battalion fusiliers rifles canadian inniskilling rifleman royal navy highlanders
A plaque has been added to the Cupar Way “peace” line memorial to UVF man William “Plum” Smith. “Moved on 8th June 2016 – sadly missed by his family.” For more information on his life, see the previous version.
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East Belfast now extends all the way to Bangor: shown today are two East Belfast UVF boards in Whitehill, one a red hand and the other the familiar “pilgrims” image, seen continuously in east Belfast since the 90s in Tamar Street, Mersey Street, and (twice) on the Newtownards Road (currently in the Iceland car park). (Article on the EB – North Down UVF dispute in nearby Bowtown area in 2015.)
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Religious vandalism, putting Jesus above “club and country” and loyalist paramilitarism, in south Belfast.
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“We have slain him but we fear him/As we stand in silence now/For the hero light still lingers/Like a lantern on his brow. And the wiles of witchcraft jeer him/With the phantoms of our dead/As they moil like may mosquitoes/Round his torn and bleeding head.” Cuchulainn is invoked as a “defender of Ulster” on the UDA memorial stone in the Kilcooley estate. The Red Hand Commando and UVF stones are shown below. The three paramilitary stones were added independently of the WWI garden (BelTel).
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X04095 X04093 X04096 owernroe drive the death call of cuchulainn champion of ulster the sons of ulster’s best who have stood the test? would you take the oath with hand held high are you prepared to die to keep our ulster free it is up to you and me god save ulster is our cry would you weep if i should die remember me when poppies fall for our ulster i gave all tell me i have lived my life well and it has not all been in vain
Here are two wide shots of a long wall from the Bangor Protestant Boys Flute Band (Fb). Many of the panels are related to WWI. For the Somme panel on the left, see Ulster Volunteers; for three of the flags on the right, see North Down Battalion. Right of centre is an emblem for the band itself: the lion and the unicorn on either side of cross rifles and the red hand of Ulster on an oval.
For the previous (mural) version, see Bangor Protestant Boys.
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Photographic portraits of four UVF members – Robert “Squeak” Seymour (east Belfast commander), Joe Long, Robert Bennett, James Cordner – on panels adjacent to a new Somme mural (shown tomorrow). Seymour died in 1988, the others in the early seventies. The same four are commemorated on a mural (and a plaque) on Ballymacarrett Road. “At Ulster’s call, they gave their all, a different war, on a different day, a bloody sacrifice, was the price to pay.”
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X04066 london rd lest we forget if they ask you will you kindly tell them here lies a soldier of the UVF resting where no shadows fall he shall grow not old as we that are left grow old
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 