This UVF hooded gunman board (above the Pride Of Whitehill flute band (Fb) mural) was previously a memorial to the 36th (Ulster) Division (see They Sleep Side-By-Side) but has now become part of the East Belfast battalion’s markings in Bangor (see Always A Little Further).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11181 X11182 X11180 Skipperstone Rd
There are nine gable walls along Clanmorris Avenue, Whitehill (Bangor) which – more importantly – can be seen from the South Circular Road approaching the Bloomfield shopping centre. On many of these walls “UVF reserved” has now appeared, even on the one that recently acquired a UDA board (see third image, below). Above: a small “UVF pilgrims” board; bottom: “RIP GFA“; in between: “The media is the virus”.
Previously: Booked | Reserved | A Message From The Board
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11186 X11185 [X11187] X11190 X11184 [X11183] X11188 X11189
Here is a gallery of images from the junction of Upper Movilla Street and Georges Street in Newtownards. In the image above, a handdrawn UDA emblem can be faintly seen, behind the modern board that has fallen down (possibly off a house in Wallaces Street). In a separate post, see IRA Army Council Demands.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11257 [X11256] X11258 X11259 [X11260] X11261 X11265 [X11266]
“They fought together as brothers in arms, they died together and now sleep side by side. To them we owe a solemn obligation. They died that we might live. The Great Wars 1914-1918, 1939-1945 – Admiral Chester W Nimitz”. The central image of this Newtownards homage to the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division and the Australian ‘Rats Of Tobruk’ who held that city against Rommel’s forces in north Africa during WWII is the Tyne-Cot cemetery near Passchendaele, Belgium, the biggest Commonwealth cemetery in the world but named ofter the “Tynside cottages” that the German pill-boxes in the area resembled (WP).
New for the NI centenary are three emblems on the side wall, with (on the left) the Red Hand Comrades Association and (on the right) the Strain-Lightbody Memorial flute band (Fb).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11311 X11308 X11309 X11312 [X11305] [X11306] X11307 X11313 X11310 tower ct newtownards
A hooded UVF volunteer has been added to the shops at the bottom of the Glen estate in Newtownards (compare with 2018). It’s unclear (to us) who such a threatening image is directed at: the residents of the estate (in both a controlling and defending function), and/or the UDA at the top of the estate, and/or the East Belfast UVF, and/or outside observers.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11219 X11218 Glenard Rd
The “east Belfast” board shown above is on the east side of Bowtown while the two pieces of fresh “north Down” graffiti are on the west side, perhaps indicating that the tension between the two UVF factions – persists. The east Belfast faction was suspected in the bus burning in response to the Protocol in 2021 (BBC | Tele).
See previously in various Newtownards estates: Always A Little Further (Whitehill) | East East Belfast (Westwinds & Bowtown) | EB UVF (Westwinds). For the UDA factions in the Glen estate, see Ulster Defence Unions.
The phrase on the board is also used in an east Belfast mural: “We seek nothing but the elementary right implanted in every man … the right, if you are attacked, to defend yourself …”
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11282 X11279 X11280 Bowtown Cr
These two images are from the middle of Bowtown, which is North Down UVF territory, represented by Scrabo tower – see Our Cause Will Always Remain The Same across the street; there are East Belfast UVF murals at the top and very bottom of the estate – see East East Belfast and Bowtown UVF.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11275 X11276
Here are two new boards in the fast-growing gallery on the Falls Road below the IRA memorial garden – with three more spots ‘reserved’ for Cogús and the IRSP.
The first is to Kieran Abram. In the early hours of July 5th, 1992, Kieran Abram was knocked to the ground and kicked to death by loyalists in running battles with nationalists on North Howard Street, near the old British Army sangar. Four people were convicted of manslaughter in the case (Judiciary NI).
The second is to PIRA volunteer Charlie Hughes, who was killed in 1971 in the feud with the OIRA. (For more, see Our Struggle Continues.)
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11341 [X11835] X11340 X11342 X11344 X11343
“Foremost in my tortured mind is the thought that there can never be peace in Ireland until the foreign, oppressive British presence is removed, leaving all the Irish people as a unit to control their own affairs and determine their own destinies as a sovereign people, free in mind and body, separate and distinct physically, culturally and economically.” The quote is from day one of Bobby Sands’s hunger strike diary (March 1st, 1981) and the photograph is a 2007 image of a cell in the H-4 (Irish Times).
“Maghaberry – Portlaoise – Hydebank. Republican prisoners still exist!” IRPWA (web) board on Divis St, Belfast, replacing the Sands & Hughes mural – see Caırde Agus Comrádaıthe.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11337 [X11336]
Even though Nelson Drive is one its smaller streets, the estate is perhaps called “Nelson Drive” because the estate developed from the Nelson Drive end out towards the east. It is also called the Caw, which is the name of the town-land, from the Irish “caoth” meaning bog-hole. There are almost zero sources making reference to a tartan gang in Nelson Drive – please get in touch or comment if you can shed any light.
Replaces the Nelson Drive Wombles mural.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11012 X11011
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 