physical force

Resistance Becomes Duty

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“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.” This is the sole surviving board from a number that were mounted at the height of the “Irish Sea Border” dispute. As can be seen in Street View, there was originally a “No Irish Sea Border” banner (similar to one in Dungannon) underneath this UVF board, a Union Flag board to the right, and three small boards on the railings: We Will Continue The Fight and Time To Decide (also seen in Moygashel) and We Will Defend Our Birthright (as seen in poster form in Belfast).

A very similar UVF “hooded gunman” board, in vertical format, appeared in Moygashel – see If Our Shores Are Threatened.

Milburn Park, Cookstown

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Along With The Brave And The Bold

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“In loving memory of Vol. Gary Holdsworth, Officer Commanding, East Tyrone Mid-Ulster Brigade, Ulster Volunteer Force.” Holdsworth died in 2021 and the sources for this information – RBL Football Fb | Mid-Ulster ACT Fb – suggest that the title of “UVF OC” is an honorary or aspirational one. Holdsworth has appeared in the papers in connection with rioting and distrurbing the peace, but nothing involving weapons or drugs. A parade is held in his honour each year (Monrush Social Fb).

Similarly, the lines “Lay him away on the hillside, along with the brave and the bold. Inscribe his name on the roll of fame, in letters of purest gold.” come from a song (‘Lay Him Away On The Hillside’) about James Daly of the Connaught Rangers. He was executed by a British Army firing squad in November, 1920, for leading a mutiny to protest the actions of the Tans and RIC (WP).

The memorial is in the street where Holdsworth lived: Milburn Close, Cookstown

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Young Newton

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This Young Newton (the UYM in east Belfast) mural is an extension to the left-hand end of the fiftieth anniversary repainting of “Freedom Corner” (final image) and next to the Young Newton memorial garden (penultimate image).

The group has had a presence on the area’s walls since 1997. See also 2005 | 2009 | 2009 at the other end of Freedom Corner. (Also 1999 in Bangor.)

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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The McGurk’s Bar Tragedy

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‘The greatest Belfast story never told!” ‘The McGurk’s Bar Tragedy’ is a new play by Martin Lynch (WP), being put on in the Waterfront in November by his production company Green Shoots, which is dedicated to telling working-class stories and involving actors from the community, including The Man Who Swallowed A Dictionary.

On the left of the banner, the quotation, “Everybody else had a daddy growing up; I didn’t.” is a paraphrase of Mary Kane, whose father Eddie died in the attack.

For the upper tarp, and background about the 1971 bombing of McGurk’s Bar, see Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied.

North Queen Street, New Lodge, north Belfast

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Por Vuestra Libertad Y La Nuestra

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“I ndíl [sic] chuımhne ar Eamon McGrotty 1911-1927, republican, socialist, anti-fascist. Killed fighting fascism in the Jarama Valley. Eamon attended the Brow Of The Hill school. ¡No Pasarán!” Derry man Eamon McGrotty was honoured with a plaque and a tree-planting during this year’s (2026) féıle (Derry Journal). McGrotty was one of about 320 Irishmen who fought with the International Brigades – specifically the Connolly Column of the XV brigade (DIB) – against Franco during the Spanish Civil War; there were also about 700 Irishmen fighting on Franco’s side during the war, in a brigade led by Eoin O’Duffy.

The new plaque is next to the memorials to “An Chéad Chathlán/1st Battalion Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann – Bogside, Brandywell, Bishop Street”.

Lecky Road, Brandywell, Derry

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An Uncompromised Republican

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This entry updates An Attitude Of Revolt from 2022, which showed the same four plaques as in the image below – to Tommy Roberts, Stevie Mellon, Veronica Taylor, Ruaırí (Roddy) Carlin – but a different board featuring Roberts and Mellon and an oak leaf with crossed rifles. In addition to the generic IRPWA board, the entire wall was been painted grey and a knotwork surround added, with the Saoradh (web) sunburst in the corners.

Westland Street, Derry

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You Have No Power To Make Me A Criminal

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“”You have the power to send me to gaol but you have no power to make me a criminal” – Seán Milroy, IRB” The words were reportedly (ig) spoken by Milroy in June, 1915, as he was being sentenced to three months hard labour for an inflammatory speech. He fought in the Easter Rising (see p. 27 ff of his testimony in the Military Archives) but voted in favour of the Treaty, believing that Northern Ireland could not survive politically or economically (DIB | RTÉ).

This is the latest work by Saoradh (web) and Éıstıgí Dhoıre on the wall of the Lecky Road flyover, adding on to the pieces seen in Our Present Fight.

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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William And Mary

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“King William III, King of England, Scotland and Ireland 1689-1702. ‘Prince of Orange’. “The enemy made some resistance but at length gave way, and we routed them entirely.” King William III, writing to Queen Mary after the battle of the Boyne: 1st July 1690″.

This gable-sized board – launched on July 10th, 2026 – replaces the UVF “Armed And Ready” centenary mural in the Westwinds estate.

The “parchment” in the lower-left corner describes the crisis in Protestantism caused by James II’s (conversion to Catholicism and) second marriage and birth of a son, thereby threatening to establish a Catholic line of monarchs.

It then includes some of the letter from the Immortal Seven inviting William, who was already married to James’s (Protestant) daughter (and presumptive heir) Mary, to take over. As the dates-of-death on the board make clear, Mary died young, at age 32, of smallpox (WP), leaving William to rule alone for another eight years.

Blenheim Drive, Westwinds, Newtownards

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The Phoenix Arose In ’81

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The phoenix in Clowney Street was first painted in 1981 and has been repainted periodically in the same form. (For a brief history, see The Oldest Murals.) In this update, the only noticeable changes are the quotation-marks around “69” and the golden feet on the phoenix.

For the WBTA board above the phoenix (which itself goes back to at least 2012), see Alternative Transport, Alternative Location.

Clowney Street, Beechmount, west Belfast

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A Call To Young Irishmen

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These are close-ups of the boards along the bottom of the D Company IRA board next to the Falls memorial garden. The two information boards at the extremes give brief biographies of the fourteen deceased IRA volunteers whose portraits flank the large map: Charlie Hughes, Jimmy Quigley, Daniel McAreavey, Patrick ‘Maguire’ Pendleton, Joseph McKinney, John Donaghy, Mundo O’Rawe, Michael Marley, Teddy Campbell, Martin Skillen, Bap Kelly, Billy Carson, Pat McBride, Paddy Loughran.

On either side of the large central plaque are two pairs of small boards. On the left are the Proclamation and the old information board (“Out Of The Ashes Of ’69”); on the right are an image of lilies and a reproduction of an “April 1933” “Call To Young Irishmen”, giving six reasons why they should enlist in the Irish Republican Army/Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann. The call came in response to sustained economic hardship in the country and Fıanna Fáıl’s wins in the general elections of 1932 and 1933. (Here is a pdf of the poster. And here is the IRA manifesto of 1933 (pdf).)

These boards were added c. 2020. Compare to 2013.

Falls Road, west Belfast

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