Here are three images of Red Hand Commando boards and flags in the Bloomfield estate. They both feature a red hand with eagle’s wings over a six-pointed star and on the flag, the motto (in crude Gaelic) “Lamh Derg Abu” – “Onward, Red Hand” or “Red Hand To Victory”. The loyalist paramilitary group declared an official end to activities in 2007 (BBC-NI) and decommissioned its weapons by 2009.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02777 X02776 X02778 lámh dhearg abú
Cut-out boards in the shapes of the red hand of Ulster (both left and right hands!), the five-pointed orange star (usually purple) of the Williamites, the crown of the British monarch, and King Billy on his steed line the fence along Bute Park in Ballybeen.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02742 X02743
“For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.” This is a new (July 2014) Red Hand Commando mural in Bangor with RHC Youth and Red Hand Comrades Association insignia against a backdrop of Thiepval Tower and the Somme, with masked gunmen in the foreground and a border of poppies.
The quote is from Shakespeare’s Henry V, act 4, though the lines are reversed (Folger).
Ballyminetragh Gardens, Bangor
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02741 X02740 in memory of our fallen volunteers
The IRPWA (tw | Fb) placed the names of prisoners currently held in Maghaberry in the barbed wire above the so-called “international” wall. Barbed wire is the symbol of republican prisoners though this barbed wire is used to protect Andrews Flour. Above, you can see the boards for Harkin, Mellon and McGilloway.
The full list, from left to right: Seamus Kearney, Gerard McManus, Nathan Hastings, Mark McGuigan, Sean Kelly, Barry Concannon, Damien Harkin, Thomas Mellon, Martin McGilloway, Jason Ceulemans, Gavin Coney, Liam O’Donnell, Neil Hegarty, Jon Paul Wooton, Martin Kelly, Colin Duffy, Harry Fitzsimons, Christopher O’Kane, Tarlach MacDhomhnaill, Seamus McLaughlin, Gavin Coyle, Brendan McConville, Kevin Barry Nolan.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02770 [X02771]
Charles, Prince Of Wales, and Camilla, Duchess Of Cornwall, will visit Ireland north and south this week (beginning in Belfast on Monday 23rd). The éırígí stencil and flyer shown above are from last year’s visit to the north, at the start of which he shook hands with Gerry Adams (BBC-NI). Charles is the titular head of the parachute regiment, which served in Northern Ireland from the late sixties to the nineties, including in Derry during Bloody Sunday.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02769 Beechmount Ave
UFF/UDA/UYM (North Down, 2nd battalion, D company) memorial mural in Bloomfield estate, Bangor, to Andrew McIlvenny and Roy Officer, with hooded gunmen on a bed of poppies flanking the UFF clenched fist.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02773 terrae filius quis separabit
The eagle (of the Red Hand Commando?) pulls back one UVF flag to reveal … an earlier UVF mural. Close-up below.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02767 X02768 ulster for all a. company 1st battalion 1912 YCV for god and ulster ballyree ballyminetragh
Smithfield Market houses a wide variety of shops (BelfastCity) including Filipino groceries, dressmaking, hairdressing, jewelry, a nail bar, computers, carpets, bicycles, e-cigarettes and also – shown above – My Old Toy Box (Fb), sellers of model toys. Cash only!
Previously: Smithfield Market
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02765 X02764 their only colour was khaki winetavern street
Three images of flags. In the one above, flags are seen on either side of the Short Strand “peace” line: the Irish tricolour and the flag of Palestine stand over a Union flag hung next to the local bonfire site.
The second is a “flag of flags” in Tullycarnet – the Union flag, the cross of St. George, St. Andrew’s Saltire, and the Ulster banner, all together around the red hand of Ulster and the crown, and “No Surrender”.
In the third, the flag of Hamas flies above the red-and-yellow Starry Plough of the Irish Republican Socialist Party in Derry’s Bogside.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02766 X02877 X02805
The eagle of Isaiah 40:31 flies outside the New Life church in the no-man’s land between the security gates on Northumberland Street: “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (BibleHub)
The signature and the giant “coins” in front of it are shown below, along with the Síocháın/Peace tower. The (brown) cross in the middle of the area is shown in Cross Of Crosses.
See also: O Ye Gates | Cross & Wire
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02739 X02946 X02947 [X02948] X02536 X02706 artists crawford & mccann
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 