UDU (Ulster Defence Union) mural in Pine Street, Londonderry, vandalised with “IRA” graffiti. The mural has since been repaired. For the original, see Union Shield.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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UDU – IRA
Red Mick
Michael “Mickey” (though here “Micky”) Devine was red-headed and was a founder member of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) in his native Derry (The Plough & The Stars) and also of the INLA (IRSP Derry). The mural on the gable shown above includes the socialist symbols of the red star and the plough, great bear (ursa major), or “big dipper” shining over the towers of Long Kesh, where Devine died on the 21st of August, 1981, after 60 days on hunger strike, the tenth and final striker to die.
The writing that can be seen faintly in the lower third (from a previous version of the mural) reads “They have served their British masters, the poor pathetic fools. They think that inhumanity and cruelty can break us. Haven’t they learnt anything? It strengthens us, it drives us on, for then more than ever we know that our cause is just. INLA Vol. Micky Devine, Long Kesh 1981”
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02856 shantallow derry
Watch Your Back
Two republican boards at the Eastway roundabout on the eastern side of Creggan estate. The upper board shows an IRA volunteer with RPG-luancher – “Welcome to Creggan. Watch your back on the way out.” – the other is an IRPWA board urging people to speak out against internment of republicans in Maghaberry, Portlaoise, and Hydebank.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02860 irish republican prisoners welfare association
Roll Of Honour
Mural in Derry commemorating members of Na Fıanna Éıreann, the youth wing of the IRA. The names are listed in the order of death, from earliest to latest, beginning with fifteen-year-old Gerald McAuley who was shot dead in Clonard (Belfast) in 1969, and ending with John Dempsey shot on the Falls Road (Belfast) in 1981.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02870 michael sloan eamonn mccormick gerard donaghey david mcauley sean oriordan michael magee joseph campbell john dougal tobias molloy joseph comiskey bernard fox sean hughes michael marley neal mccrory robert allsop james templeton kevin mccauley james o’neill paul mcwilliams brıogaid dhoıre 1909-2009 oglaıgh na héıreann fuaır sıad bás ar son saoırse na héıreann sunburst ógra shınn féın
Waterside, Cityside, Quayside
The Peace Bridge is shown spanning the Foyle between (the former) Ebrington barracks and the Guildhall, with a film-strip of images, many depicting naval and military scenes, above and below. The detail below shows a gap in the walls of Derry, a poster encouraging people to “Join the Wrens [and free a man for the fleet]” (the Women’s Royal Naval Service; see the poster at IWM), soldiers playing ping-pong in their barracks, and the ship’s bell of the HMS Londonderry (which served as a training ship during the Falkland War (WP)).
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02872 X02873 project funded reimaging communities programme supported by shared communities consortium lottery housing executive social development first minister deputy international fund for ireland derry londonderry doire
External & Internal
Two images of graffiti in the Kildrum area of Derry. The first (above) sends messages to outsiders (or at least, directed at external pressures) — “Tıocfaıdh ár lá”, “End British Internment”, “Victory to the POWs”, and “RUC not welcome in Foylehill” — while the second, which is in a more secluded spot, contains many for internal audiences — “Drugs out”, “Bring back RAAD” (Republican Action Against Drugs | WP), “Kill Hoods”, “SF scum”, “Not a bullet, not an ounce” (a comment on IRA disarmament), as well as “Free Gaza!!” and “Israel scum”.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02862 X02861 kildrum gdns
Vol. Eamonn Lafferty
19 year-old Provisional IRA volunteer Eamonn Lafferty was killed on August 18th, 1971, in a gun-battle with British Army forces who were attempting to dismantle barricades in republican “Free Derry”. The mural and plaque shown (and a headstone) are situated—as the mural states—in the location where he was killed, in Creggan’s Kildrum area. (His body is buried in City Cemetery.)
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02863 killed on active service at this spot on by crown forces whilst defending his community was just 19 years old fuaır sé bás ar son na héıreann derry brigade óglaıgh na héıreann beırıgí bua song in Lafferty’s honourimages from Lafferty’s funeral commanding officer 1st battalion
Like The Foam From The Fountain, Like The Mist From The Mountain
Twenty-year-old William Frederick McFadzean from Lurgan won the Victoria Cross for throwing himself on top of a crate of hand grenades that fell into his trench on July 1st (WP), the first day of the battle of the Somme; July 1st and 2nd would see 5,000 of his comrades from the 36th (Ulster) Division killed or wounded. The portrait on which the image is based can be seen at CultureNI.
Here’s a recording of the song composed in his honour:
Kinsale Park, Caw, Londonderry
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02867 36th Ulster Division (109 Brigade) 9th October 1895 – 1st July 1916 for valour for god and ulster UVF YCV ulster volunteer force young citizen volunteers
In A Foreign Land
The [Sergeant] Lindsay Mooney Memorial Flute Band was formed in 1973 after the St. Patrick’s day death of Lindsay Mooney, a UDA member killed by the premature explosion of a bomb near Lifford, County Donegal (Sutton). The band dissolved in 1993 but commemorative nights are still held (NI World).
The board above is in the Lincoln Court area of Londonderry, from where Mooney and the band both hailed. “To those of us who criticise, to those who cannot see, just remember in a foreign land fell a better man than me.”
The Ballad Of Lindsay Mooney: youtube | lyrics
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X02865 sergeant
Ulster Is Not For Sale
Quiz: The UDA are called “Wombles” because they resemble the stop-motion characters of the BBC children’s show in (a) their fur-lined parkas, (b) their parading, or (c) their ability to acquire anything? You can find all three explanations on-line. Originally the name seems to have been a derogatory one, used by their UVF rivals, but it was adopted by the group itself. A close-up of the text on the right is below.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02748 X02747 when our forefather fought and died they led the way that we should go as loyalists united we should stand to send our message across the land that all our enemies would know ulster is not for sale nor will we let it go no surrender quis separabit nelson drive auglish court
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 