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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
“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
The memorial tarps to Ian Ogle at the entrance to Cluan Place were photographed on October 5th and appeared – unmolested – in For His Family. On about the 18th of November they were subject to an arson attack. Belfast Live has reaction from the family.
These five boards together form a memorial to the UDR and in particular to Privates Fred Starrett and James Cummings, who died in an IRA bombing on Belfast’s Royal Avenue on February 24th, 1988. Both Orangemen, their deaths are commemorated every year by a parade from east Belfast to the city centre.
Soldiers from the 36th (Ulster) division in the trenches of WWI prepare to go ‘over the top’. One waits for the precise moment according to his watch, ready to fire a shot, while the other prepares to blow a whistle and launch a flare.
There is no definitive source for the quotation, and many sources are at odds, but all agree on the basic wording and that the words belong to George V: “Throughout the long years of struggle, [which now so gloriously ended,] the men of Ulster have proved [on many fields] how nobly they fight and die.” The date is given as ‘November 16’ or as ‘December’ 1918, and possibly come from a note sent to Edward Carson. The quote also appears on the Ulster Tower in Thiepval (Ulster Tower) and on the Cenotaph in Belfast (WP).
Included below is a “Booked UVF” on an adjacent wall. Queens Avenue, Glengormley.
“I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service,” said Princess Elizabeth on her 21st birthday on April 21st, 1947, five years before she became queen. As the info board to the right describes, “In 2015, she became the longest reigning monarch in British history, surpassing her great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria. In 2016, she became the oldest reigning monarch in the world! … In 2017 Her Majesty and her loyal consort Prince Philip marked their 70th wedding anniversary – the longest royal marriage in British history.”
“This artwork was commissioned by Queens Park Women’s Group to celebrate the platinum anniversary of the reign of our beloved monarch Queen Elizabeth II and was officially opened by Mr David McCorkell KStJ, Her Majesty’s lord-lieutenant for County Antrim on 25th August 2022.”
