Ulster-Scots Heroes

Here are two boards outside the north Belfast Orange hall in Alexandra Park Avenue, north Belfast.

Above: sporting heroes Joey Dunlop, Alan Campbell, Darren Clarke, Alex Higgins, George Best, and Carl Frampton.

Below: nineteen winners of the Victoria Cross: (left) Major Ernest Wright Alexander, Captain Eric Norman Frankland Bell, Commander Edward Barry Stewart Bingham, Private James Crichton, Second Lieutenant Edmund De Wind, Private James Duffy, Private William McFadzean, Private Robert Morrow, Sergeant David Nelson, (centre) Rifleman Robert Quigg, (right) Lieutenant James Anson Ortho Brooke, Lieutenant Geoffrey St. George Shillington Cather, Second Lieutenant Hugh Colvin, Second Lieutenant John Spencer Dunville, Sergeant-Majjor Robert Hill Hanna, Private Thomas Hughes, Captain John Alexander Sinton, Sergeant James Somers, Lieutenant-Colonel (Acting) Richard Annesley West.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01025 [T01026] [T01027] T01028

The New Lodge Six

“Time for the truth”. Two of the New Lodge Six (James Sloan, James McCann) were killed by the UDA outside a bar and four (Tony Campbell, Ambrose Hardy, Brendan Maguire, John Loughran) among the crowd that gathered by British Army snipers from their positions on top of the flats, using night-vision sights, February 3rd-4th, 1973.

Donore Court, New Lodge, north Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
T00424

Tiger’s Bay

“UFF 3rd battalion, E company.” “Welcome to loyalist Tiger’s Bay.”

The tiger was used in a 1988 mural in Hogarth Street/Adam Street without any mention of a flute band or paramilitary gang. The tiger here is flanked by two UDA/UFF gunmen in balaclavas and bomber jackets.

Cultra Street, north Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2000 Paddy Duffy
T00447

New Lodge 1900-2000

This pair of murals, on the New Lodge Road, Belfast, contrasts life for young people in the black-and-white “1900s” to life in colourful “2000”. Instead of working (and dying – in the headlines from the Irish News) in mills, they work in fast-food restaurants and drive black taxis (and suffer unemployment, suicide, and anorexia – again, in the newspaper), and instead of playing in the streets and wrapping themselves in blankets, they sit on walls and drink.

New Lodge Road, north Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2000 Paddy Duffy
T00353
T00348 [T00366]

The Two Faces Of British Imperialism

“The two face of British imperialism: In Belgrade we bomb because they would not sign the Peace Agreement … In Belfast we merely try to re-write the Peace Agreement”.

Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair gave a statement on Britain’s participation in the NATO bombing of Serb targets in Yugoslavia after Slobodan Milosevic rejected an agreement with the Kosovo Albanians – this, Blair said, was only the latest in a series of bad-faith actions on Milosevic’s part; the targets included Milosevic’s house, the Socialist party’s headquarters, and a TV station (BBC | Guardian).

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T00346

We Demand The Truth!

“We demand the truth! International investigation into the death of Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson.” Finucane and Nelson were both solicitors with nationalist and republican clients. Finucane was shot by the UDA in front of his wife and three children in 1989; RUC collusion was immediately suspected (and the weapon came from a UDR armoury) (WP). Nelson was killed by an LVF (“Red Hand Defenders”) car-bomb in March, 1999 (WP); the report of the eventual inquiry into her death can be found at CAIN. The allegation in the illustration here is that when the mask of loyalist “murder gangs” is lowered, the Orange Order and RUC are found behind it. “Disband the RUC”

Ardoyne Avenue, north Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T00365

Same Story, Same Bigotry

Londoner Stephen Lawrence was murdered by stabbing in 1993 and, although arrests were made, no charges were brought. A 1998 public inquiry found that the London Metropolitan Police Service was “institutionally racist”. (In 2012, two of the original suspects would be found guilty of the murder (WP).)

Catholic Robert Hamill was beaten to death by loyalists in Portadown in 1997 while police in an RUC land-rover looked on (WP).

Brompton Park, Ardoyne, north Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T00347c

Martin Luther King

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere …” “If colour, religion or political opinions do make us different, misery, oppression, unemployment and exploitation make us the same – Martin Luther King” The first quote comes from Martin Luther King’s Letter From A Birmingham Jail; the source of the quote is unknown.

Hillman Street, New Lodge, north Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
[T00327] T00363cr

Leonard Peltier

“Leonard Peltier, Native American US political prisoner. “We must stand together to protect the rights of others. No child to go hungry, no woman denied the right to earn a living, no person denied health care or education, no prisoner held for political reasons.”” (The quote appears in a letter on Peltier’s web site.) Peltier, a member of the American Indian Movement, was convicted of the shooting of two FBI agents in a shootout at Pine Ridge in 1975 and sentenced to two life terms (WP).

Hillman Street, New Lodge, north Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T00325

Out Of The Ashes Of 1798

“I ndıl chuımhne – this plaque is dedicated to all those from the greater Newington area who lost their lives as a result of the conflict in this country.” Pikemen from the 1798 uprising stand on either side of a phoenix, with portraits above of Wolfe Tone, James Connolly, Henry Joy McCracken, and Mary Ann McCracken.

Newington Avenue, north Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T00354c