South Belfast UDA

“South Belfast UFF commander Joe Bratty, murdered by the enemies, 31st July ’94.” Bratty was killed along with Raymond Elder by the Provisional IRA (WP). The pair were also remembered in a Lemberg Street mural in 2001, and later in the Sandy Row memorial garden.

The red fist in the larger mural famously has five fingers and two thumbs.

Roosevelt Street, south Belfast

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Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T01197 T00268

UVF 2nd Battalion A Company Donegall Road

“In loving memory of fallen volunteers [from the] Ulster Volunteer Force Belfast Brigade, Donegall Road 2nd Battalion, A Coy”. The two plaques unfortunately cannot be read.

The side wall shows volunteers with lowered weapons flanking a memorial “In proud and loving memory of Vol. Stevie McCrea, Friend Sammy Mehaffy”.

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Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T00445

South Belfast Volunteers

Along the top are the emblems of the Royal Inniskilling (27th) Fusiliers (featuring Crom castle), Royal Irish Rifles (featuring the Maid Of Erin harp), Royal Irish Fusiliers (featuring the barossa eagle).

Wrapped around the left column are “Ballykinler, Finner, Clandeboye” – three of the training camps of the 36th. Wrapped around the right column is “Lest we forget”.

The central text reads: “Ravenhill – Village – Donegall Pass – Ormeau Rd – Sandy Row – Lisburn Rd. 10th infantry battalion Royal Irish Rifles, 36th (Ulster) Division, South Belfast Volunteers”

The Union Flag appears in the lower left, next to an unidentified medal, while the flag of Ulster (rather than Northern Ireland, which did not yet exist) appears in the lower right, next to a Victory medal. (In a previous version of this painting, the Union Flag was a VC and the medal was a Distinguished Conduct Medal.) Between them is the emblem of the 36th Division.

The main image shows three graveside mourners standing in a field of barbed wire and in front of ?mis-shapen tombstones?, all against a background of sunrise over a mountain on which have been superimposed (left) a map of the Somme and (right) a large UVF emblem.

Painted by Ron McMurry on boards. Donegall Pass, south Belfast

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Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T00251

Stand Off! Trade Off!

In the summer of 1998, an Orange Order march was allowed to parade along Ormeau Road. Parades Commission chairman Alistair Graham (pictured in the mural beneath the evil-eyed OO member) “insisted that the Ormeau Road decision “was not a simple trade-off for our earlier decision on Drumcree”” (Irish Times).

Painted by Troy Garity, recreating an Ian Knox cartoon (Belfast Media). See also Give Way and A Postcard From The Edge.

Artana Street, south Belfast

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Copyright © 1998 Paddy Duffy
T00317