This mental-health mural is at the entrance to the car park off St Bride’s Street, Carrickfergus, with healthful reminders and tributes to local clubs (l to r): “My community works together for the win”, “Borrow another day”, “Take care”, “Take the time”, “Enjoy your food”, “Evolution” [boxing club] (Fb), “Barba[r]ians est. 1975” [wrestling club] (Fb), Barn United [soccer club] (Fb), “Meditate; don’t medicate”.
If you know the artist or initiative, please comment/get in touch.
These are images of a new UDR [Ulster Defence Regiment] veterans association board in Woodburn Avenue, Carrickfergus (for the previous memorial plaques at this site, see M10770).
“In memory of those who gave their lives in the service of our country and are still doing so.”
At its peak (in 1973) the UDR had more than 9,000 personnel (Statista). The UDR was amalgamated into the Royal Irish Regiment in 1992 and a 2005 estimate put the number of its veterans at about 58,000 (Veterans Services NI).
The family of “Andrew Jackson 1767-1845”, seventh president of the United States, hailed from Carrickfergus (Discover Ulster-Scots | Carrickfergus History) and there is a period cottage that functions as a museum on the site of the home from which his parents and two older brothers departed (Discover NI).
There is a Visual History page on Ulster-Scots murals. A series of murals was painted, beginning in 1999, under the title ‘Pioneers To Presidents’, the last of which was of Andrew Jackson in the lower Shankill in 2007. Why he was chosen as the subject of this new mural in Pinewood Avenue, Sunnylands, Carrickfergus, is as yet unknown.
“Ulster is ours”, says James Craig, first prime minister of Northern Ireland, in (a reproduction of) an election poster from c. 1940 (according to Whyte’s). If it is for his own seat in North Down, for Stormont – rather than a poster for the Ulster Unionist candidates in by-elections – it might be from 1938 (WP).
Samuel Beckett was born in Foxrock, near Dublin, on this day in 1906. These painted shutters (artist unknown) are in the High Street in Enniskillen. Beckett’s connection to the town is that he attended Portora Royal public school. (WP)
Here is a gallery of the smaller boards in the Whitehill area of Bangor – other specific pieces can be found in The Elite and Long To Reign Over Us.
The area is a UVF stronghold but split between the North Down and East Belfast battalions – see Welcome To Bowtown and North Down UVF. The very bottom of the estate is UDA – “RUFF touts” is on the border-line, Skipperstone Road.
Two flute bands are mentioned: Pride Of Whitehill (Fb) and Bangor Protestant Boys (Fb).
“Armed and ready – Protestant Action Force [PAF] – ‘The Elite'”. The PAF name was used to cover semi-independent sub-groups of the UVF, active in the 1970s and 1980s in mid-Ulster and Newtownabbey (WP). The name was given in connection with rioting in Newtownards in late 2021 (BelTel).
These new boards claiming that the PAF was an “elite” are in in the Whitehill area of Bangor. The second such board, shown below, is covering up a memorial to David Gordon Dalzell (for background see Pride Of Whitehill).
The Red Hand Commando – another UVF sub-group/cover-name – also claim to be “the elite”; see e.g. 99.9% Need Not Apply.
Queen Elizabeth II died, aged 96, on September 8th, 2022, and is now (according to this board) queen of the angels in heaven (Matthew 28:2), which perhaps allows her to send other angels to Earth (Matthew 24:31) to deliver messages to chosen people.
Also included (below) from the same street is a memorial tarp to British soldiers in the Great War and WWII, including Vickers machine guns, Spitfire aeroplanes, and a WWI tank (perhaps a Mark V (Tank Museum)).
Here is a gallery of three waves of painting (24 pieces) from the Project 24 space (Spectator) on Queen’s Parade, Bangor. From top to bottom, the images are from late March, the bank holiday at the start of April, and mid April. (The wall was also painted in January – see Stop Ruining Art.)
Above is a self-portrait by artist Jossie Pops (Johnny Hamilton) (ig) who also painted the portrait of actor Gerard Butler immediately below. Shortly, after, RickyDrewAPiccy added a piece between these two – a robot with the words “Don’t drink flat whites. Don’t wear massive coats. Don’t be a robot.” (Fb) – but it was quickly replaced by the Codo heads (under ‘April 7th’, below).
Paddy Duffy Collection 