“”To embrace the story of Mesen/Messines and its spirit of brotherhood is to be freed from the slavery of bigotry and intolerance.” – Glen[n] Barr O.B.E. 2001″
Glenn Barr was a UDA brigadier and spokesperson for NUPRG and its policy of an independent Northern Ireland – see Common Sense. In the 1980s and beyond, his efforts were directed mainly at tackling youth unemployment in Londonderry, for which he received an OBE in 2005. He died in 2017. (WP)
The tower in the mural shown here is (perhaps) the round tower at the ‘Island Of Ireland Peace Park’ in Messines, a cross-community project of Barr’s and (former Donegal T.D.) Paddy Harte’s. The Park honours the soldiers – from both the 36th (Ulster) and 16th (Irish) divisions – who were killed or wounded in the Battle Of Messines Ridge in June, 1917. The source of Barr’s quotation is unknown but he made similar remarks on other occasions (NIWorld | ISPS).
The mural is in the Ebrington Centre’s car park, off Bond’s Street, Waterside, Londonderry. It joins three other murals to the Irish dead of WWI: The Cost of War (which also features the Peace Park) | We Are The Dead | Comrades In Arms.
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