Preparations for Eleventh Night bonfires are underway in many estates, including Ballycraigy in Antrim which is getting help from an AI-generated Popeye. Ballycraigy used to boast the biggest Bonfire (see Lead The Way); you can keep track of this year’s build on the bonfire’s Facebook page.
Hollowburn Road, Ballycraigy, Antrim
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The Denver Smith mural in the Steeple, Antrim, has been replaced with the printed board (shown above and immediately below) which retains the same elements of the mural, including the WWI soldiers and the emblem of the 36th (Ulster) Division. (For information about Smith, see Here Lies A Soldier.)
Memorial boards in the same style and palette have also been mounted on adjacent walls to two members of the modern Ulster Volunteer Force. To the left, Mark McCausland, who died in 2024 (Wray’s); the board in his memory replaces a UVF flag (seen in Pass Not This Spot In Sorrow). To the right, Davy Langley, who died in 2018 (Funeral Times); there was previously a mural to his memory in the same spot (see Ulster Volunteer Forces)
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Bluebells flower in April and May, which is also the time of year when foxes are frequently seen, foraging to support their new offspring (Discover Wildlife).
This Peaball (web) creation (with support from @daisychaininc) is on a wall at Ellie May’s restaurant (web) in Dunadry, outside Antrim.
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“The Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) was an infantry regiment of the British Army established in 1970, with a comparatively short existence ending in 1992. Raised through public appeal, newspaper and television advertisements, their official role was the “defence of life or property in Northern Ireland against armed attack or sabotage” but unlike troops from Great Britain they were never used for “crowd control or riot duties in cities”. At the time the UDR was the largest infantry regiment in the British Army, formed with seven battalions plus another four added within two years.”
“The UDR Soldier: As poppy petals gently fall,/Remember us who gave our all,/Not in the mud of foreign lands,/Not buried in the dessert sands.//In Ulster field and farm and town,/Fermanagh’s lanes and drumlin’d Down,/An Ulsterman should live in peace//We did not serve because we hate,/Nor bitterness our hearts dictate,/But we were they who must aspire,/To quench the flame of terror’s fire.//As buglers sound and pipers play/The proud Battalions march away./Now may the weary violence cease,/And let our country live in peace. – By John Potter”. Potter (bio at Royal Irish) also wrote a history of the UDR called A Testimony To Courage.
The statue featured on the right is the Lisburn UDR Memorial.
Next to the ‘B Specials’ board in Parkhall Road, Antrim
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According to the Lough Neagh fisheries collective, about 400 tonnes of eel are taken annually from the lake (Fisheries Collective | also Fb | see also DAERA 2022 management plan). If eel is not your idea of dinner, the Fisheries Visitor Centre in Toomebridge might convince you otherwise.
This new painting is by emic (web) on Main Street, Toome.
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“In memory of Brigadier Billy Wright (King Rat). ‘Greater love hath no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ – John Ch15v13. Gone but not forgotten.” Wright became alienated from the UVF due to his opposition to the ceasefire and peace process (in 1994) and was finally kicked out in 1996 during the Drumcree dispute. The Portadown UVF under Wright formed the LVF [Loyalist Volunteer Force]; another LVF unit was formed in Ballycraigy, where this memorial can be found. (BBC | WP) Silhouetted graveside mourners have been added, compared to the 2009 image in the Peter Moloney collection.
Craighill, Ballycraigy, Antrim.
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According the Antrim & Newtownabbey Council press-release, the new statue of Queen Elizabeth (and two corgis) unveiled on September 6th next to last year’s statue of Prince Philip in Antrim Castle Gardens “captures Her Majesty in a dignified pose, reflecting her grace, steadfastness and lifelong service to public service”. Others are not so sure that it captures Elizabeth at all, including the A&N’s own councillor Vera McWilliam, who told the BBC that “it does not resemble the queen in any shape or form” (BBC); the controversy was reported on as far afield as Australia, India, and the US.
Both pieces were “sculptured” by Anto Brennan (NVTv profile), who also did the bust of Mary-Ann McCracken opposite Clifton House (seen in The World Affords No Enjoyment Equal To That Of Promoting The Happiness Of Others).
See also Artnet for this and other recent controversies over the paintings of UK royals.
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The Ballycraigy bonfire from 2021 (Fb) is at the centre of a new free-standing board that was added this (2024) summer. Around the outside, the rose and thistle are joined by the orange lily and the poppy, rather than the shamrock and daffodil of the “four nations”.
For the similar board on the gable wall in the distance, see Lead The Way.
On the green at Hollowburn Road, in the Ballycraigy estate, Antrim.
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Steeple Veterans flute band is a part-time band drawing on “veterans” or “old boys” of the Steeple Defenders (which used to have a board nearby). The “older but no wiser” tag-line is exemplified by the fact that they dress up in costume each 12th for the return leg of the day– in 2023 they adopted Jurassic Park as their theme, with members dressed as dinosaurs, park rangers, and explorers. The black ribbons in the bottom corners are perhaps in memory of member David Johnston, who died last year (2023) (Belfast Live | BelTel).
Also included (below) is a tribute to Elizabeth II on the occasion of her platinum jubilee, a few months before she passed away in September, 2022, added next to the Somme mural seen in Ulster Volunteer Forces.
Seacash Drive/Parkhall Road, Antrim.
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Katie Taylor and Carl Frampton are featured on the large mural at Antrim Boxing Club (Fb), painted by Visual Waste (ig) with support from the Housing Executive (Press Release), Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, and the executive’s T:BUC programme (see previously Belfast Melt).
Below are the small murals on the other walls, of the club’s logo, including the Round Tower (DfC), and of the Irish Athletic Boxing Association (web).
For another Taylor mural, see School Of Champions. Frampton appears in half-a-dozen other murals, most prominently in The Jackal.
Durnish Road, Antrim.
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Paddy Duffy Collection 