Belfast

UVF 2nd Battalion A Company Donegall Road

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“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
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South Belfast Volunteers

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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
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Leana An Dúın Unbowed Unbroken

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The dying Cú Chulaınn (as portrayed in bronze by Oliver Sheppard, in a statue installed in the GPO in 1935) is used as a symbol for the locals from Lenadoon area of west Belfast who fought for freedom (“saoırse”): Tony Henderson, John Finucane, Brendan O’Callaghan, Joe McDonnell, Laura Crawford, Maıréad Farrell, Patricia Black, Bridie O’Neill (subsequently changed to Bridie Quinn).

There were originally portraits of all nine people in the apex when the mural was launched in 1996, but only three remain.

See also the Cú Chulaınn Visual History page.

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Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy (no date given)
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Remember Our Gibraltar Martyrs

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The Gibraltar Three are IRA volunteers Maıréad Farrell, Seán Savage, and Dan McCann, who were executed by British crown forces in Gibraltar on March 6th, 1988.

Along the top is written a variation on the second half of Terence MacSwiney’s famous phrase: “[It is not those who can inflict the most but] “Those that endure the most will conquer in the end”

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Copyright © 1998 Paddy Duffy
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