Dundonald

Armed And Ready Again

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This is the UVF/RHC memorial garden in Ballybeen, with individual plaques to “East Belfast battalion commander” RJ ‘Mickey’ Wilson (died 2022), Jim ‘Jonty’ Johnston (killed in 2003 BelTel), M. Walker, G. McCartney, David Brown. While most of the plaques and stones are to the modern UVF, there are three pieces to the 36th (Ulster) Division.

“Too many names to mention, but I will certainly try./Tears run down my face as I try not to cry./Their names written in gold of Volunteers gone by./These men they died heroes in battles, fought and won./They may be gone, but in our hearts remain./The Ulster Volunteer Force. The People’s Army./Armed and ready again.”

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Ballybeen Makes Winners

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Which direction will you go in? To the negative west of the compass of “choice” lie “Alcohol, paramilitaries, drugs”; to the positive east are “Education, employment, life. On the side panel, youngsters are encouraged to study English, math(s), social media and Google.

And further down Brooklands Drive, “Ballybeen makes winners” in sports: soccer, boxing, and motorcycle racing. The boxer is John Lowey, who represented Ireland at the 1988 Olympics; he is also featured in Boxing Through The Generations and Ballybeen Dream which last also includes three local footballers.

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Pride Of Ballybeen

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The Pride Of Ballybeen is a flute band formed in 2014. Their band mural features the Union Flag and Ulster Banner flanking the red hand of Ulster on a six-pointed star against an orange field, surrounded by a crown and a garland pinned by a rose; the titular banner, below, is supported by shamrock and thistle. 

Video of the band in action on youtube.

Craigleith Drive, Ballybeen, Dundonald.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Reality Show

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“Make drugs history – cleaner communities now.” This is an anti-drugs board in the Tullycarnet estate. In both its title and various elements, the board references the television show Shameless, which was set on a Manchester housing estate and ended on May 28, 2013, after eleven seasons (WP). Black-and-white images from the estate, and other Belfast landmarks, are featured at the top.

The plaque below reads: “Shameful mural. This mural was officially unveiled on 15th June 2009 by First Minister Peter Robinson. This mural was created by young people from Tullycarnet to highlight that drug and alcohol use should not be normalized by communities.”

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Orange And Green

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A three-piece stone in the same Tullycarnet garden as the war memorial and peace mural. “Orange and green it doesn’t matter, United now, Don’t shatter our dream, Scatter the seeds of peace over our land, So we can travel, Hand in hand across the bridge of hope.” by Sean McLaughlin, a twelve-year-old who was killed in the Omagh bombing of 1998 (WP). The garden was unveiled June 2010 (IFI).

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Tullycarnet Memorial

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This is a three-stone memorial to army soldiers from both World Wars in Tullycarnet, featuring a line from the gospel of John (“Greater love has no-one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” 15:13) and a song by Randall Wallace for the 2002 movie We Were Soldiers called ‘The Mansions of the Lord’: To fallen soldiers let us sing, where no rockets fly nor bullets wing, our broken brothers let us bring, to the mansions of the Lord. No more weeping, no more fight, no prayers pleading through the night, just divine embrace, eternal light, in the mansions of the Lord. Where no mothers cry and no children weep, we will stand and guard though the angels sleep, Oh through the ages safely keep, the mansions of the Lord.”

By Ross Wilson with support from the International Fund For Ireland (IFI)

Behind the memorial is a mural reading “Time for peace – invest in kids …… not war!”

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