This entry updates 2022’s They Said We’d Never Last, showing the space where previously there were four panels of historical photographs from the Ulster Volunteer Force flute band.
For the John Singer Sargent painting in the bottom-left corner of the wall, see Observe The Sons Of Ulster.
St Leonard’s Crescent/(old) Newcastle Street, east Belfast
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At its peak, the Harland & Wolff shipyard employed 35,000 people (IndustriAll) and the flat-capped worker became a symbol of east Belfast, along – much later – with Samson and Goliath, the two gantry cranes at the shipyard that were raised in 1974 and 1969 (WP) and which have become the symbol of Belfast.
The title of this entry is the first line of Martin Mooney’s poem ‘Launching The Whaler Juan Peron‘.
The silhouetted workers and cranes are on a mobile office in Fraser Pass, Newtownards Road, Belfast, at the end of the Pitt Stop next to the Belfast Bikes racks.
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This jaunty spaceman was painted by Ralph Connolly (ralphatronic on ig) in Bannagh Corner, east Belfast.
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This entry updates a similar entry from 2022 with images and close-ups of the now-faded red and orange paint in the mural on the back wall of the “36th (Ulster) Division Victoria Cross Memorial Garden”.
For close-ups of the board picturing the WWI VC winners, see The Dead We Honour Here. “‘Throughout the long years of struggle … the men of Ulster have proved how nobly they fight and die’ – King George V, 16th November, 1918”
St Leonard’s Crescent/old Newcastle Street, east Belfast
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On the anniversary of David Ervine’s death, January 8th, a new board was launched in his memory, with images of Ervine “yearning for peace” in the cages of Long Kesh, where he met Gusty Spence (the pair can be seen together in the middle of the first column of photographs).
After his release, Ervine turned to politics, running unsuccessfully as a PUP candidate for Pottinger in the Belfast City Council elections of 1985 (WP); he would eventually be successful in 1997. In 1998 he was returned by Belfast East in the Assembly election (ARK). He helped bring about the loyalist ceasefire in 1994 – which was read aloud by Spence (youtube) – and was pro-Agreement in 1998 (DIB | Guardian | Slugger).
The information about the Memory Chair sculpture makes mention of Ervine’s boots but it seems they have not survived the mothballing of the sculpture which was last seen on site – boots included – in 2014.
Montrose Street South, replacing the various pieces seen in late 2024’s Today, Everyday, And Always.
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“Titanic Gentlemen’s Club [Fb], every Wednesday 6pm – 8pm, Connswater Community Centre. Make mental health great again. Every man has an engine room – you don’t have to maintain it alone. Let’s break the silence and support men’s mental health.”
The green ribbon is the symbol of the campaign to release political prisoners, and “Make ___ great again” is the form of the slogan of the MAGA movement in the United States.
The board was officially launched July 9th (Fb) in Severn Street, east Belfast.
“”BreaktheStigma” for the men who rise, together: We are the voices once held back,/Taught to smile through every crack./But now we speak, we face the fight,/Together stepping into the light.//This is Break the Stigma, strong and true,/A brotherhood of me and you./Men alike, from every road,/Each carrying a silent load.//No shame in tears, no guilt in pain,/No more hiding hurt in vain./We rise as one, we make it known-/You don’t have to walk alone.//We’re not defined by past or scar,/By what we’ve lost or who we are./We’re here to talk, to heal, to grow,/To lift each other from below.//So here we stand, hearts open wide,/With honesty we will not hide./For every man who needs a sign-/Break the Stigma holds the line.”
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The seventh anniversary of the murder of Ian Ogle is approaching: “Big O” was killed on the evening of January 27th, 2019. Five people received sentences in March 2025, having been found guilty of murder – see In Memory Of Ian Ogle.
Also included is a small memorial plaque to British forces, which seems to have been generated by AI.
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These flags – one to the Ulster YCV (14th RIR) and two to the Blues And Royals flute band, Sydenham (Fb) – are on the fence below the Northern Ireland Centenary board in Mersey Street, at the junction of Parkgate Drive in east Belfast.
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This is a new version of the board seen in 2022, in which the central emblem was of the 8th battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, whereas it is now of the “East Belfast & North Down Veterans’ Association”.
Below, a small plaque reading “We were there yesterday, We are here today, We will be here tomorrow” has been added
Albertbridge Road, east Belfast
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This entry provides close-ups of the WWI memorial display in Clarawood, east Belfast, and complements the images and text presented in 2023’s Spared To Testify To Their Glorious Deeds.
The three vertical panels with text read as follows:
“Ulster Division – a great military parade will take place on Saturday, May 8, 1915. The troops of the Ulster Division numbering 17,000 men will be on Parade. Cavalry, Infantry, Pioneers, Engineers, Signallers, Cyclists Cors, Army Service Corps and Army medical Corps. Men and Women of Ulster come and see the Greatest Military Display ever held in Ulster, and do honour to your own Division. God save the King.” (There is video of the May parade on Facebook and NI Screen. The photograph of George V inspecting the troops in Aldershot on September 30th, 1915, can be seen here.)
“The Battle Of Albert (1st – 13th July) 1916. The leading battalions of the 36th (Ulster) Division) [sic] had been ordered out from Thiepval Wood just before 7.30am and laid down near the German trenches … At zero hour the British barrage lifted. Bugles blew the “Advance”. Up sprang the Ulstermen and without forming up in the waves adopted by other divisions, they rushed the German front line … By a combination of sensible tactics and Ulster dash, the prize that eluded so many, the capture of a long section of the German front line, had been accomplished. During the Battle Of The Somme the (Ulster) [sic] Division was the only division of X Corps (British Army) to have achieved its objectives on the opening day of the battle. This came at a heavy price, with the division suffering in two days of fighting 5,500 officers and enlisted men killed, wounded or missing. Of nine Victoria Crosses given to British forces in the battle, 4 were awarded to 36th (Ulster) Division soldiers. ‘I am not an Ulsterman but yesterday, the 1st July, as I followed their amazing attack, I felt that I would rather be an Ulsterman than anything else in the world.’ – Captain Wilfred [sic Wilfrid] Spender, 2 July 1916.”
“36th (Ulster) Division 32,186 killed, wounded, missing. The tower is dedicated to the glory of God in grateful memory of the officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the 36th (Ulster) Division, and the sons of Ulster in other forces who laid down their lives in the Great War, and of all their comrades in arms who, by divine grace, were spared to testify to their glorious deeds.”
Knockwood Crescent, Clarawood, east Belfast
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