Month: November 2022

The Dead Cannot Cry Out For Justice

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Photographs of a dozen atrocities are included on the right of this Derwent Street mural, ranging in time from the 1970 gun-battle around the nearby St Matthew’s church in 1970, in which Jimmy McCurrie and Bobby Neill were killed, to the October 1993 IRA bombing of Frizzell’s fish shop on the Shankill Road, in which Leanne Murray (shown on the left) was one of ten people, two of them children, to die. The others incidents portrayed are Bloody Friday, Darkley, Coleraine, Abercorn, Balmoral, Claudy, La Mon, Kingsmill, and Teebane. 

This new computer-generated mural replaces the painted East Belfast Remembers, which had peeled away to a great extent.

“The slaughter of the innocent by the blood soaked hands of Sinn Fein/IRA never to be forgotten. The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them. Is this the equality Sinn Fein/IRA asks for? No economic targets, no legitimate targets, no enquiries, no truth, no justice. Hold dear the memory of all the innocents murdered in our country in support of the Sinn Fein electorate. This memory extends to those not mentioned here who were murdered going about their daily lives at work, at prayer and in remembrance. Nothing was sacred in the futile question for a united Ireland.”

Derwent Street, east Belfast

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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David Ervine MLA

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“He had the courage to climb out of the traditional trenches, meet the enemy in no man’s land and play ball with him.” David Ervine was a UVF member, arrested in 1974 and served six years in the Maze before turning to politics: he first ran for office in 1985 and represented East Belfast in the NI Assembly from 1998 until his death in 2007. The board, above, shows Ervine’s silhouette in a wreath of poppies along with pictures of and information about his life; the image below of the lower left-hand side includes a photograph of Ervine with Gusty Spence.

Video of the launch (on 2014-11-01) is available at U.tv

Montrose Street South, east Belfast

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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Starrett And Cummings

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These five boards together form a memorial to the UDR and in particular to Privates Fred Starrett and James Cummings, who died in an IRA bombing on Belfast’s Royal Avenue on February 24th, 1988. Both Orangemen, their deaths are commemorated every year by a parade from east Belfast to the city centre.

Thorndyke Street, east Belfast

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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What Fire Does Not Destroy It Hardens

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The memorial tarps to Ian Ogle at the entrance to Cluan Place were photographed on October 5th and appeared – unmolested – in For His Family. On about the 18th of November they were subject to an arson attack. Belfast Live has reaction from the family.

The final image is of a tarp within Cluan Place, which was (perhaps) originally at the entrance.

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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How Nobly They Fight And Die

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Soldiers from the 36th (Ulster) division in the trenches of WWI prepare to go ‘over the top’. One waits for the precise moment according to his watch, ready to fire a shot, while the other prepares to blow a whistle and launch a flare.

There is no definitive source for the quotation, and many sources are at odds, but all agree on the basic wording and that the words belong to George V: “Throughout the long years of struggle, [which now so gloriously ended,] the men of Ulster have proved [on many fields] how nobly they fight and die.” The date is given as ‘November 16’ or as ‘December’ 1918, and possibly come from a note sent to Edward Carson. The quote also appears on the Ulster Tower in Thiepval (Ulster Tower) and on the Cenotaph in Belfast (WP).

Included below is a “Booked UVF” on an adjacent wall. Queens Avenue, Glengormley.

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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The Longest Reign

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“I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service.” said Princess Elizabeth on her 21st birthday on April 21st, 1947, five years before she became queen. As the info board to the right describes, “In 2015, she became the longest reigning monarch in British history, surpassing her great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria. In 2016, she became the oldest reigning monarch in the world! … In 2017 Her Majesty and her loyal consort Prince Philip marked their 70th wedding anniversary – the longest royal marriage in British history.”

“This artwork was commissioned by Queens Park Women’s Group to celebrate the platinum anniversary of the reign of our beloved monarch Queen Elizabeth II and was officially opened by Mr David McCorkell KStJ, Her Majesty’s lord-lieutenant for County Antrim on 25th August 2022.”

Queens Avenue, Glengormley, Newtownabbey

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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South East Antrim Remembers

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“Dedicated to the officers & volunteers of 2nd battalion.” This 2017 South East Antrim 2nd battalion UDA/UFF mural in Glengormley lists the battalion’s areas: Rathcoole, Monkstown, Whitewell, Greenisland, Rathfern, Shore Rd, Glengormley, Carrickfergus, Larne, Braidside [Ballymena], Whitehead, Ballymena, Antrim, Ballycarry, Ballyclare, Newtownards.

Replaces They Live With Us in Queen’s Avenue, Glengormley, Newtownabbey

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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The Joy Of Our Hearts

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The Newington tribute to Bobby Sands and the other deceased hunger strikers of the 1970s and 80s (see previously: Mol An Óıge Agus Tıocfaıdh Sí) has been augmented with four plaques to republicans from the area who died in the Troubles: (l-r) Martin McDonagh, Rosemary Bleakley, Colm Mulgrew, and Sean ‘Maxi’ McIvenna.

Unbeknowst to her parents (Lost Lives), Bleakley had joined Cumann Na mBan at 18 and was four days short of her nineteenth birthday when she and McDonagh were killed in a premature bomb explosion in the North Street arcade (Victor Patterson image of the blast), along with civilians Ian Gallagher and Mary Dornan (Sutton); 20 others were injured (Fortnight). Bleakley was not buried in the republican plot (in Milltown) but coincidentally in the plot adjacent to Dornan (BBC).

Bleakley was portrayed in the old New Lodge Volunteers mural.

Newington Avenue, north Belfast

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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The Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne

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Novelist Brian Moore grew up on the Antrim Road and went to St Malachy’s, before emigrating to Canada in 1948. For the centenary of his birth in 1921, Paradosso Theatre adapted Moore’s best-known novel, (The Lonely Passion Of) Judith Hearne, for the stage and mounted this board in Duncairn Avenue, showing the elements of Judith’s life: the bottle, the beads, the aunt who raised her, the piano used for lessons, and her red coat.

The board by Friz (ig) replaces the anti-joy-riding mural “Where’s The Joy?”, the last to go of the three, the others having been in CNR west Belfast and PUL west Belfast.

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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