This selection of images from Leckagh Drive, Magherafelt, focuses on the memorials to the dead of WWI (and WWII in the mural above), with an additional board commemorating the UDR 5th (County Londonderry) battalion); there is also a mural and some plaques commemorating (modern-day) UVF volunteers, which will be in tomorrow’s post.
The board shown in the final image provides a history of the South Londonderry volunteers from towns such as Magherafelt, Castledawson, Moneymore, and Tobermore. Edward Carson reviewed the volunteers in April 1914. Later that same month, arms were received from the weapons landed in Larne. In the Great War, the men from the area served in the 10th battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in the 109th brigade of the 36th Division.
“Always remembered by the officers and volunteers of South Londonderry/Randalstown Ulster Volunteer Force.” This memorial mural and plaque in Magherafelt names Charlie Wright, Jonathan Wallace, Ken Wilkinson, and Ian McArthur.
Of these, Wilkinson seems the most well-known, as he served as a PUP representative for the area. He commented on sectarian tensions in Randalstown in 1999 (An Phoblacht) and in Coleraine in 2009 (Irish Examiner), and spoke against sueprgrass trials in 2011 as a member of FAST (Irish Times | see previously FAST and FASTing For Human Rights And Justice); he was accused of intimidation of Catholics in Antrim in 2003 (An Phoblacht). He stood for a number of elected positions (e.g. 2013) but was unsuccessful.
Ostensibly for his stand against drug-sellers, in 2010 a pipe-bomb (BBC), and in 2011 a make-shift car-bomb (BelTel), were placed against his home and he received death threats in 2013 (politics.ie). He died in 2021 (BelTel | News Letter | Irish News).
The plaque in the memorial garden (shown below) reads, “This plaque is dedicated in memory of all of the loyalist people of Ulster who have suffered at the hands of the enemies of our land. Lest we forget.”
This UDA board on the eastern side of the Leckagh estate names six men who “gave everything in defence of our civil and religious liberties”: Lindsay Mooney (remembered also in the Fountain and Lincoln Court areas of Londonderry), Benny Redfern (this board replaces a board dedicated to Redfern alone), Cecil McKnight (Waterside), Gary Lynch (Waterside), Ray Smallwoods (Lisburn), William Campbell (Coleraine).
“North Antrim – Londonderry – Tyrone brigade”, “Remembered by all South Londonderry & Tyrone 6th batt.”
The house next to the Village memorial garden got an extension at the back in 2020 and with it the left-hand part of the house’s gable wall was extended upward (compare with the images from 2017 in Continuing Conflicts). The board with a verse from McCrea’s In Flanders Fields was present previously, but has been raised, and above it there now stands a red-hand emblem of the “UVF 2nd batt. south Belfast”.
After WWI, the Royal Irish Rifles became the Royal Ulster Rifles (and later became part of the Royal Irish Rangers). This board prioritises WWI as the Rifles were part of the 36th Division. The hero of WWI portrayed in the central panel is William McFadzean, awarded the VC for falling on two live grenades in the trenches on July 1st, 1916. McFadzean is familiar from many previous murals both individually and in the company of other VC winners; for his family home in Cregagh, see Rubicon.
Alongside McFadzean, the hero of WWII is Blair “Paddy” Mayne, who was only briefly in the Ulster Rifles before making his name in the Parachute Unit (later, and better, known as the SAS). His many medals of honour are shown in an old Newtownards mural, though he was denied the VC.
This is the new Sam Rockett mural in the Woodvale, replacing the mural seen in Murdered By Cowards. The old mural just featured Rockett, who died in August, 2000, in the feud between the UVF and lower Shankill UDA. This new mural also features the “ethnic cleansing” of Torrens in 2004.
Torrens sits between Cliftonville, Ardoyne, and the lower Oldpark, and was one of the many historically mixed areas in north Belfast that, with the Troubles, became increasingly segregated and separated from neighbouring areas by “peace” lines. Jarman (1996) provides eye-witness testimony of the dispute in Torrens in 1996 which saw Catholic families leave the area. Its proximity to Ardoyne (and Cliftonville), however, meant that over the next few years the houses were gradually abandoned by Protestants, culminating in 2004 when ten of the remaining Protestant families moved out of the area, alleging persistent intimidation and employing the term term “ethnic cleansing” – a term the poem to the right of the mural uses three times.
The area was eventually redeveloped from 2008-2012, with the Wyndham Street “peace” line coming down and Elmgrove Street being opened to the Oldpark Road.
The line in the poem “the resistance formed a steady band” is unclear – it might refer to loyalists being bussed into Torrens in 1996 (see the testimonies in Jarman); if it refers to B Company it would make a connection to Rockett. As it is, the connection between the two elements of the mural (if any is intended) seems to be that Rockett was from the lower Oldpark, near Torrens.
“In the name of Ireland’s cruel game/Oh, land that once sang freedom’s song/Now marred by ethnic cleansing’s wrong.//Echoes of anguish haunt the Protestants of Torrens,/Ethnically cleansed, a sinister goal,/Their weapon honed, to exact a toll.//Families robbed of essence and space,/fuelled by hated, to erase their trace.//Against the darkness, spirits sincere,/Hand in hand across the land,/the resistance formed a steady band.//Ethnic cleansing’s horrors unveiled at last,/Hearts of courage, unbreakable souls,/Truths unfurled, their power untold,/A captured scene of the evil deeds done.”
The in-progress images are from August 17th and 18th. The mural was completed for the anniversary of Rockett’s death on August 23rd. The source for the central image (of furniture being loaded into a lorry) is unknown.
RNU unveiled a new monument in Milltown as part of their Easter Rising commeration on April 9th, 2023. This photo of it is on a new board on the Falls Road, next to the Rook O’Prey board.
For the stone itself, see An Attitude Of Rebellion. There do not appear to be any images of the new monument on the RNU Fb or tw accounts.
“Republican Network For Unity. Erected by the Belfast Commemoration Committe[e]. Miltown cemetery Easter 2023.”
An imaginary newspaper called the “Ledley Hall Telegraph” includes stories on the 303 (Polish) RAF Squadron (which was stationed in Northern Ireland from 1943 to 1944), “Votes for women” (“the Representation Of The People Act saw the first women receiving the vote in 1918”), and the 16th and 36th Divisions (the mural says they “fought side by side at the Somme” – but the 36th was withdrawn on July 2nd after the Battle Of Albert and the 16th arrived in September and fought in the battles of Guillemont and Ginchy; both were withdrawn to Messines and both would take part in the Battle Of Messines in June 1917).
The “newspaper” is bookended by two painted crosses (for Row On Row), one for Guardsman Connor Lilley, a member of the Gertrude Star flute band, who was serving with the 1st battalion Royal Irish Guards when he was killed in an accident in Canada (Fb), and the other for WWI female munitions workers who, because of their work with TNT, risked yellowing skin both from direct exposure and from liver damage (“toxic jaundice”) (WP).
Also included is “The Kindness Hut”: “Be the reason someone smiles today”, “Kindness is free – please share”, “In a world where you can be anything, be kind”, “Take only what you need! If everyone shares there’s enough to go around”.
These two boards are at Gort Na Móna CLG. The one above was put developed by young Gorts as they learned about the history of the club as part of a twentieth anniversary celebration of Terry Óg Enright (Fb) who was killed by the LVF in 1998. The second board, below, combines the two previous boards to Terry Óg, seen previously in No Such Thing As Failure and Páırc Mhıc Ionnrachtaıgh.
“Welcome to Turf Lodge” — “Fáılte go dtí Lóıste Na Móna”. Turf Lodge was one of a number of estates built in the foothills of Black Mountain — including Westrock, Springhill, Ballymurphy, New Barnsley, and Dermot Hill — meant to house an underserved Catholic population and displaced families from other areas of Belfast.
The estate was built over a number of years but most people moved in between 1960 and 1962. (Northern Visions made a documentary about the history and people of the Turf Lodge estate that includes descriptions of the various ways in which the estate was left unfinished even as people took up residence.)
For the sixtieth anniversary, the electrical boxes outside John Paul II (formerly St Aidan’s) were stencilled (above and immediately below). This year (2023), more boxes have been painted, with images of gaelic games (see Gort Na Móna), bluebells (see Féıle Na gCloıgíní Gorma), and the silver fáınne on red background (see #AchtAnoıs).
Paddy Duffy Collection 