PUL – Page 88 – Paddy Duffy Collection

Buster Keenan

2022-09-252026-08-30Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This mural to William “Buster” Keenan was unveiled on July 8th (2017), coincidentally the anniversary of wife Eileen’s death. Both are listed on the UVF memorial stone in front of the mural, along with David Ervine and the Long-Cordner-Bennett-Seymour quartet.

According to ACT, Keenan was involved in the Battle Of St. Matthew’s (in which Bobby Neill and James McCurrie were killed, along with Henry McIlhone). To the left is another “Ulster Volunteers” stone, a “Sydenham roll of honour – to those who gave their lives in the Great War”.

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East Belfast UVF On Parade

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The board appears to show a “show of strength” (firing into the air) rather than a parade, by hooded gunmen of the east Belfast UVF. The crowd is gathered on Newtownards Road at Dee Street, date unknown (but prior to 2008).

Newtownards Road, east Belfast.

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Lost Volunteers

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This board commemorates the action and deaths of the British Army’s 36th (Ulster) Division in World War I’s Battle Of The Somme, of which Captain Wilfrid Spender wrote, “I am not an Ulsterman but yesterday, the 1st July, as I followed their amazing attack, I felt that I would rather be an Ulsterman than anything else in the world. My pen cannot describe adequately the hundreds of heroic acts that I witnessed … The Ulster Volunteer Force, from which the division was made, has won a name which equals any in history.”

For images of the launch (on 2016-03-08) see Belfast Live.

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The Right To Defend Yourself

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“We seek nothing but the elementary right implanted in every man: the right if you are attacked, to defend yourself.” Re-imaging took a decisive turn into re-re-imaging with the return of hooded gunmen to east Belfast, at the junction of Newtownards Road and Dee Street (at the old Bright Street), replacing a mural for the Glentoran Community Trust. It’s not clear who the UVF felt attacked by in 2011; it is possible that this mural is also about local muscle-flexing in addition to sectarian politics or attention from the police. Eleven years later, the mural is still standing, though somewhat the worse for wear.

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Scotland, England, Wales

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After almost fourteen years the long-standing Rising Sons Flute Band mural off Newtownards Road (at the old Bright Street) has been replaced with a mural to the (modern) YCV, the youth division of the UVF. The vine of flowers in yellow includes the shamrock, thistle, and Tudor rose (but not the daffodil of Wales, which is named along with Scotland, England, and the YCV battalions of east Belfast extending to Newtownards and Bangor) .

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The Blues

2022-09-252024-07-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

East Belfast Protestant Boys (Fb) mural “dedicated to Gareth Keys” with the statement (on the side wall): “Our message is simple: where our music is welcome, we will play it loud; where our music is challenged, we will play it louder.”

In the old Hemp Street, nearly opposite Derwent Street, east Belfast.

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They Said We’d Never Last

2022-09-252026-08-30Extramural Activity1 Comment

Ronnie’s hardware shop in east Belfast, vacant for many years and the site of Our Brave Defenders, was finally torn down last year and a pocket park created with murals commemorating east Belfast volunteers who died in the Great War and the UVF Regimental Band (tw), this year celebrating its 50 anniversary (video of the launch).

See previously: 40th anniversary banner at the same spot (next to the Belvoir Bar at the old Newcastle Street in east Belfast).

Flax Gatherer

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Manchester duo Nomad Clan (web) – seen painting Harland & Wolf at the Dirty Onion during Culture Night/Hit The North 2017 – returned a year later to paint on the Newtownards Road. In keeping with the previous piece at this site – Deirdre Robb’s flax flowers – they painted a “female flax gatherer from a bygone era” (East Side Partnership).

For Valour

2022-09-252024-07-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is the repainted version of this wall in Pitt Park. Previously (see Peter Moloney Collection) it featured VC winners but now it commemorates WWI soldiers generally.