Tommy Dickson ended his career (in 1965) with a partial season at Glentoran. Before that, however, he spent 16 seasons in the first team at Linfield, scoring 451 goals and leading the club to titles in the League Cup, Irish Cup, Gold Cup, Ulster Cup, City Cup, North-South Cup, and County Antrim Shield (shown at the top of the mural). (WP)
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01538 [T01539]
“In loving memory of Taughmonagh residents Brian McMillan, Alan ‘Rocky’ Meehan, Dennis Berrty (Sgt UDA), Thomas Vance (2 Para), Thomas Douglas. Murdered by cowards during the conflict in Northern Ireland. Those we love don’t go away, they walk beside us every day.”
McMillan and Meehan were civilians shot along with TA staff sergeant (and English Catholic) Joseph Flemming on July 9th, 1972.
Dennis Berry was shot by the UVF after leaving the UDA social club in Taughmonagh. According to Lost lives, “Reliable loyalist sources said the shooting was the result of a personal row rather than having any political or organisational basis.” (p. 441)
Thomas Vance died in the IRA’s 1979 ambush of the British Army at Narrow Water Castle, near Warrenpoint (WP), on the same day that Louis Mounbatten was killed. (Republican mural)
Thomas Douglas was shot while walking along the street. His family denied he was a leading loyalist and simply a member of the Orange Order (CAIN | Fb).
This plaque is in the UDA memorial garden in Taughmonagh at the corner of Finbank Gardens & Malfin Drive.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01537 [T01536]
A long series of tit-for-tat shootings of pubs and clubs continued into the summer of 1976, with attacks on the Chlorane (June 5th), Walkers (June 25th), the Ramble (July 2nd), the Whitefort (July 29th), and then, on the 30th, The Stag at Shaws Bridge, Belfast, by the Republican Action Force (PIRA) (Sutton). John McCleave, John McKay, and James “Jimmy” Doherty died on the night of the attack, and Thompson McCreight died of his wounds nine days later. The memorial to them – “erected by the local communities” – is on Milltown Road, next to the Dreamscheme (web) mural.
Milltown Road, Belvoir, south Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01530 [T01531] T01532 [T01533] T01534 T01535
“Cogús supports the republican prisoners”. Cogús (Fb) is (was?) the prisoners’ welfare arm of the RNU. The board above — using a vintage illustration going back to 1981’s I’ll Wear No Convict’s Uniform — replaced More Blacks, More Gays, More Irish on Pantridge Road, Dunmurry, joining the “Join RNU” and mental health boards shown below.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01500 [T01501] [T01502] T01503
Above, a “Welcome to loyalist Seymour Hill” board with flags and poppies, and a (2021) tarp “Seymour Hill says no to the Irish Sea border”.
Below, Queen Elizabeth II 70th/platinum Jubilee banners remain on either side of the UDA board above the Seymour Hill shops, even after her death in September (previously there were two NI Centenary banners). There are orange lilies at the four corners of the UDA emblem.
Rowan Drive, Dunmurry
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01525 T01526 [T01527]
US forces were still segregated racially during WWII; “colored” soldiers (as they were then called) were housed in a camp at Ballybog Road (WW2NI) where Seymour Hill PS now is and just below Seymour Hill House which was used to house evacuees from Belfast after the blitz and which was formerly owned by the Charley family (Lisburn.com | Lord Belmont) – it is now administered by Radius (formerly the BIH Association).
The “framed” portrait on the left is of William “Billy” Harbinson, a member of the Royal Ulster Rifles who was a POW at Colditz (Lisburn.com | WW2NI); the photograph can be seen in the RUR museum.
There used to be a plaque on the wall which read, “This mural was dedicated by Col. Robin Charley on 1st July 2009 to the people from this area who contributed to the to the effort during World War II. Also our American allies who were based here and later contributed to the conflict.”
Painted by Tim McCarthy (“Verz” ig) for the Re-Imaging Programme; it replaced a UDA mural.
Hornbeam Walk, Dunmurry
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01524
The old C Batt mural further up Hornbeam Road has long been painted over. It used the same line – “They gave their lives that we may live in freedom” – to remember Wesley Nicholl and Brian Morton. A plaque to Morton is now included on top of the new mural. “Brian Morton (Morty) killed in action 07/07/1997, a true Ulster patriot who gave his life in defence of his country. Feriens tego.” As with republican memorials, “active service” means that Morton was killed by a premature bomb exploding.
Previously on this wall: Queensway Flute Band.
Hornbeam Drive, Dunmurry
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01523 [T01522]
The mural in Cluan Place goes back to (at least) 2002. It used to include the words “5 people shot, houses burned, houses bombed” but these have been painted out in this repainted version.
For Ian Ogle, see What Fire Does Not Destroy It Hardens.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01480 T01483
Photographs of a dozen atrocities are included on the right of this Derwent Street mural, ranging in time from the 1970 gun-battle around the nearby St Matthew’s church in 1970, in which Jimmy McCurrie and Bobby Neill were killed, to the October 1993 IRA bombing of Frizzell’s fish shop on the Shankill Road, in which Leanne Murray (shown on the left) was one of ten people, two of them children, to die. The others incidents portrayed are Bloody Friday, Darkley, Coleraine, Abercorn, Balmoral, Claudy, La Mon, Kingsmill, and Teebane.
This new computer-generated mural replaces the painted East Belfast Remembers, which had peeled away to a great extent.
“The slaughter of the innocent by the blood soaked hands of Sinn Fein/IRA never to be forgotten. The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them. Is this the equality Sinn Fein/IRA asks for? No economic targets, no legitimate targets, no enquiries, no truth, no justice. Hold dear the memory of all the innocents murdered in our country in support of the Sinn Fein electorate. This memory extends to those not mentioned here who were murdered going about their daily lives at work, at prayer and in remembrance. Nothing was sacred in the futile question for a united Ireland.”
Derwent Street, east Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01476 [T01477] [T01478] T01479
“He had the courage to climb out of the traditional trenches, meet the enemy in no man’s land and play ball with him.” David Ervine was a UVF member, arrested in 1974 and served six years in the Maze before turning to politics: he first ran for office in 1985 and represented East Belfast in the NI Assembly from 1998 until his death in 2007. The board, above, shows Ervine’s silhouette in a wreath of poppies along with pictures of and information about his life; the image below of the lower left-hand side includes a photograph of Ervine with Gusty Spence.
Video of the launch (on 2014-11-01) is available at U.tv
Montrose Street South, east Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01475
Paddy Duffy Collection 