“In memory of the lost, 15 April, 1912.” The majority lifeboats on the RMS (not “SS”) Titanic were made of wood, constructed at Harland & Wolff at the same time that Titanic was built. Of the 2,209 people on board the ship at the time of her collision with an iceberg late in the evening of April 14th, 706 people survived in lifeboats that could have carried 1,178 people. (WP)
This tribute to those who died in on a short section of pedestrian railings on the Cupar Way “peace” line (Visual History). In the background are the specially designated spots for tourists to sign the wall (see Collecting Signatures).
Until now, whenever the United States has been placed along side the Union Flag or the Flag Of Zion, is has been in the form of some sort of Confederate Flag (2014 | 2016 | 2025). This has indicated that the contemporary USA as a whole has not been perceived as a supporter of (Northern Irish) loyalism or in a similar position to loyalists, but that the spirit of the Confederate South is akin to that of loyalism: a once-dominant ethnos, which held its position by institutionalised violence, besieged by the forces of expanded suffrage and mediocrity (as they would see it).
Donald Trump’s rhetoric and agenda found favour with Northern Irish loyalists, and a few Trump flags and graffiti were seen previously – see Take America Back for an example and further references.
Trump’s victory in November, 2024, gave him a second term as President of the United States Of America. Freeing himself from anyone associated with the conservative/neoliberal Republican party that restrained him in his first term and instead installing (Trump) loyalists in the cabinet and other key positions, Trump has been able to erode the USA’s character as a liberal democracy and move it instead towards authoritarianism (Guardian).
Although Trump’s current term is only fifteen months old, the shift has been sufficiently profound that the USA is now seen as simpatico with (NI) loyalism, and the Flag Of The United States – not a Trump flag or a Confederate flag – now flies alongside the flags of the United Kingdom and Israel.
The wall is notable for the wild-style writing and other art painted on the Shankill side – including this paste-up by Leo Boyd (web) – but the wall itself, at 30+ feet tall, is the main draw, and tourists sign their names (and patronising slogans) on top of the art.
“Echoes of the Ulster-Scots across the United States Of America”, “The Ulster-Scots … their footprints and songs graced the Appalachian Trails.”
These four panels are the first stage of a longer “pioneers to presidents”-style mural (Visual History) on Ulster-Scots (or, Scotch-Irish) emigration in the 1700s to the British colonies that in time became the United States.
Upon arrival at eastern sea-ports, many of the Scotch-Irish headed west across the Allegheny mountains and down into the Appalachians. By 1790, it is estimated, almost 200,000 people, or 6% of the population, of the recently-created United States Of America were of Ulster-Scots heritage (WP).
These four panels are in North Howard Street, west Belfast. As can be seen from the wide shot below, the mural will soon be extended around the corner into Fifth Street. (Update: see We Lead Across Time And Space.)
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
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 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.
“Welcome to Craigyhill, home of the world’s biggest bonfire.”
The board in the image below was mounted circa 2019 (replacing the controversial Craigyhill Provost Team board that showed a hooded gunman with a pistol). The community was already claiming that its annual bonfire was “Northern Ireland’s biggest”.
But the claim was expanded to the entire world with 2022’s bonfire, which was measured at 202.3 feet (see March 2023’s Welcome To Craigyhill). The builders took a break with the (July) 2023 bonfire but the 2024 pyre (not “2023”, as in the image above) was measured at 205 feet, 2.69 inches (Belfast Live).
“Millbrook remembers – they gave their all for our freedom.” Here is a new installation in the Millbrook area of/just outside Larne, celebrating and commemorating the sacrifice of locals who lost their lives while serving the British forces during the World Wars.
The Great War 1914-1918: “Be proud of the lads of Millbrook, who at the bugle call/put on the Country’s armour and rushed to duty’s call They have gone to beat the Kaiser, we are sure they will succeed,/To drive him out of Flanders, And Belgium shall be freed! Their names shall live in history, Their names we will adore,/And Ulster shall be proud of them, when they return once more.”
On the left are three medals: Pip, Squeak, and Wilfred (that is, the 1914 Star, for service in France or Belgium, the War (service) medal, and the Inter Allied Victory medal) (Identify Medals), with the ‘Dead Man’s Penny’ on the right.
The names on the headstone between the two World War panels are [from WWI] John Blair, David Linn Ritchie, Robert Erskine, Wesley Campbell, James Steele, Samuel McKay, Robert McFall, Thomas Kirkpatrick, Samuel George Mathers, Charles McNally, William John Kirkpatrick, Daniel McMichael, [from WWII] Cyril Cecil Whitley, William Magee. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you – Deuteronomy 31:6”
Second World War 1939-1945: “Here inscribed the names of friends we knew, Young men with whom we often flew Scrambled to many angels high, They knew that they or friends might die Behind each name a story lies, of bravery in summer skies; Though many brave unwritten tales, were simply told in vapour trails Many now lie in sacred graves, and many rest beneath the waves Outnumbered every day they flew, Remembered here as just ‘The Few'”
The medals on the right are the Burma Star, Defence Medal, and the War Medal, with the RAF brass cap badge on the left.
Along the main road in Drumahoe Gardens, Millbrook, Larne.
This is a representation of the 1941 Belfast Blitz, providing a graphic companion to the large board in Enfield Street, which contains information and images, and a list of 79 people from the Woodvale who died in the blitz. (There is also a plaque on the side of the Woodvale Community Centre.) There were three separate nights of bombing: April 7th/8th, April 15th/16th, and May 4th/5th and half of the buildings in Belfast were destroyed or damaged (WP); it is not clear what particular buildings are being depicted here.
On the left, spotlights and anti-aircraft guns attempt to take down the planes dropping bombs. (For information about the anti-aircraft guns in Belfast, see York Road Civil Defence Hall.)
Painted by DanK (web) in Glenvale Street, Woodvale, west Belfast, during the same trip in which he painted a D-Day mural in Carrickfergus.
The only mentions of the U.C.L./”Ulster Carrickfergus Loyalists” on-line come from a Facebook page of an individual called Dean Martin. The account describes the UCL as “newly-formed” in January, 2026 but the sticker in the third images dates back to October, last year (2025): “U.C.L.-patrolled area – keeping our women and children safe.” This suggests that the group was formed following the anti-immigrant riots last (2025) summer. See also Keep Our Kids Safe | One Big Clean Up | Stop The Boats | Protect Our Children.
The flags are in North Street and the poster was in Marine Gardens, Carrickfergus.
Paddy Duffy Collection 