PUL

Spirit Of ’93

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The house in Bond’s Place that had been home to an Eddie mural for many years was torn down in the summer of 2021; it had been used since at least 1982 for images of the Commonwealth, King Billy, and, since 1996, Eddie The Trooper. The final Eddie board that was on the wall has been moved one neighbourhood over, into Lincoln Court. It was the first to include the words “Spirit Of ’93” – presumably a reference to the Greysteel Massacre in which eight people in the Rising Sun bar were killed in reprisal for the Shankill Bombing (BelTel). The “raid” was planned in – and both gunmen rented rooms at – the UDP office on Bond’s Place, just across Bonds Street (NI Judiciary).

“SLMFB” is the Sergeant Lindsay Mooney Flute Band, though it is more fully the “SLM Memorial FB“.

Eddie has his own Visual History page.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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The People’s Band

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“Shankill Protestant Boys [Fb] “The People’s Band” 45th anniversary, 1980-2025.” The band held a parade on August 1st to commemorate the anniversary, with nearly forty other bands attending (Fb).

For “USSF”, see the Peter Moloney Collection. The band’s club is in Bell Close – see SPB Way.

Shankill Road, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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A Forgotten Atrocity

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Wreaths are laid at the Bayardo Bar memorial on the Shankill Road on the fiftieth anniversary of the attack, which involved the shooting of two people at the door and the bomb being left at the entrance, which caused the deaths of a further three people: “In memory of five innocent Protestants slaughtered here by a republican murder gang on 13th August 1975. William John Gracey aged 63, Samuel Gunning aged 55, Joanne McDowell aged 29, Hugh Alexander Harris aged 21, Linda Boyle aged 17. Erected by the Bayardo Somme Association. “A forgotten atrocity”.” Fifty other people were injured in the attack.

Here is an opinion piece in the BelTel claiming that “republican communities … have been far more active not only in memorialising violent events impacting upon them, but also campaigning for the truth about those actions … the lack of balance in how the past is being investigated here has created a one-track, green-tinted narrative”.

See also: the memorial in 2023. Included here are close-ups of two recent plaques, one “In memory of Neily Reid Scotland, true friend of the Bayardo Somme Association, died 4th February 2022. Lest we forget.” and the other “In memory of Billy Boyce, loyal friend of the Bayardo Somme, died 19-12-2018. Lest we forget.”

Shankill Road/Aberdeen Street, west Belfast

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Collecting Signatures

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Tourists from various countries – shown above are Brazil, Canada, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, New Zealand, German, the United States – can now sign the Cupar Way war-wall in a specially-designated panel for their country; guests from other nations will have to continue defacing the wall wherever they can find a spot, whether or not it is covered in art.

The panels extend to the right of image and replace Only A Fool Would Fight, which already has various place-names of divided areas above it – Israel/Palestine, Shankill/Falls, Nicosia, Baghdad, Berlin.

For background, see the wall’s Visual History page.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Join Your Local Band

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Here are three from Mersey Street, east Belfast.

Above, a recruitment tarp for the Blues And Royals flute band (Fb).

Below, (and on the wall above the flute band’s tarp) a NI Centenary board using the St Patrick’s saltire in the background. The saltire is an Anglo symbol of Ireland and was included in the Union Flag when the union was between Britain and Ireland and thus – like the word “Ulster” – has been reduced to signifying Northern Ireland after partition.

Last, street-art on the bridge over Conn’s Water.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Jim McCabe

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Jim McCabe, “life-long campaigner for truth and justice” after his wife Norah was killed by a plastic bullet in 1981, returns to the “International Wall” (Visual History) on Divis Street. The original mural – from a few months after his death in January 2023 – was replaced by A Window To A Free Country, one of the Palestinian-inspired murals. This new version replaces The Land Is Ours.

“In memory of all the innocent victims murdered and seriously injured by British Crown forces.”

The image above is from August 2nd; the images below are from July.

July 13th:

July 9th:

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Roden Street Through The Years

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Roden Street was divided in two when the Westlink was built along the path of the Blackstaff to join the M1 at Broadway with the Grosvenor Road. (This portion of the Westlink opened in 1981; a Klaus Fröhlich photograph of a blocked-off Roden Street on the CNR side, looking towards Divis, is included at the end of the post.) The vintage mural in the top left of the first board (above) was in Clifford Street and is now on the Grosvenor Road (CNR) side of the motorway. (The mural can be seen in Visual History 01.)

From the second board, the “RSD” (Roden Street Defenders [private Fb]) red hand was in Iverna Street, and the King Billy was in Rockland Street.

In the fourth board, the red fist in the top right (which famously had five fingers and two thumbs) was in Roosevelt Street, which is the location of these boards. Immediately below it is the A Battalion mural at the south (Donegall Road) end of Roden Street.

Copyright 1981 Klaus Fröhlich. Used by permission

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Your Culture Needs You

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Here is a gallery of small boards on flower boxes in “the Village Green community park of remembrance”:
“The Protestant faith we will maintain. Your culture needs you. Join your local band, Orange lodge, Apprentice Boys, Royal Black historical group”, with Kitchener pointing at the viewer;
“Deserted – Well, we can stand alone!“;
“Ulster Day, 28th September, 1912“;
“No Home Rule. Let our flag run out straight in the wind. The old red shall be floated again. When the ranks that are thinned shall be thinned. When the names that are twenty are ten“;
– Edward Carson and the formation of the Ulster Volunteers in 1913;
– All nine counties of Ulster are “Hands up!” “against Home Rule”.

The Village, south Belfast

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Let Your Light Shine

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“How cool is it that the same God that created oceans and mountains and galaxies looked at you and thought the world needed one you too”, “Be the light”, “God is love”, “Let your light shine”.

Uplifting religious messages in Sixmilewater Park, below Main Street, Ballyclare.

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Ballyclare Remembers

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Modern UVF volunteers in balaclavas stand with heads bowed on either side of the Ulster Tower in Thiepval, standing among orange lilies and red poppies.

On the left the 10th Scottish Rifles (AWM) commence a raid, below the emblem of the Ulster Volunteer Force, and on the right, the Royal Fusiliers appear to march off to war in a press photograph (Flickr), below the emblem of the 36th (Ulster) Division.

In Grange Drive, Ballyclare, on the same as wall, and using part of the frame from, a previous UDA board: Young Guns.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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