A friendly Alsation on the shutters of Paws N’ Noses (Fb) dog-grooming salon on the Ballyclare Road, Glengormley, Newtownabbey
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Paws N’ Noses
Newtownabbey
Slaughter Of The Innocents
The flags of the Paratroop Regiment and Israel fly alongside the Union Flag over the Bayardo memorial on the Shankill Road, west Belfast. The boards around the wall present photographs of bombings and killings under headings such as ‘Children murdered by Sinn Fein – IRA‘, ‘Sinn Fein/IRA’s Slaughter Of The Innocents’, ‘IRA – Sinn Fein – ISIS no difference‘.
The Paratroop regiment killed two Protestants on the Shankill in 1972 and the community did not forgive them – compare Stop The Witch Hunt from the middle Shankill with Paras Fight Back – but the flag is now flying at the Argyle Street memorial because, the Belfast Telegraph suggests, Soldier F has links to the area. Soldier F – the Paratroop soldier who is facing two charges of murder on Bloody Sunday 1972 – plead ‘not guilty’ in December 2024 (BBC) and will stand trial in September 2025 (BBC | RTÉ).
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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An Elephant At Home
This new Glengormley street art pays tribute to an elephant from Bellevue Zoo during WWII.
In response to the blitz of April 1941, thoughts turned to what might happen if the zoo was bombed. Thirty-three animals that would be dangerous to the public (if they escaped) were executed. A zoo-keeper, Denise Weston Austin, brought Sheila, an Asian elephant, to her home on the Whitewell Road, where she lived for several weeks, before being returned to the zoo in time for the bombing of May. (See WP for dates of the Belfast blitz.) For photographs of Sheila and Denise, and the tale of how Sheila’s absence was discovered, see Wartime NI.
By DanLeo (web), with DaisyChain (web).
Ballyclare Road (just below Moss Road) in Glengormley, Newtownabbey.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Monkstown YCV
This entry updates Four Lads Had A Dream, which showed seven boards on the low wall opposite the Monkstown social club. Three more boards have been added to the right-hand end of the wall. One (above) has a gallery of photographs from the history of the Monkstown YCV flute band (Fb) “established 1974”, the second gives the lyrics to a song by Jim English, which was written for the band’s “50th anniversary battlefield tour” (Fb), photos from which are shown in the third panel.
“So now we’ll toast to those four young men from back in ’74/Did they think their dreams would still live on for 50 years and more/So raise a glass to those four young men and the dream they had made/To name the band in memory of the YCV brigade.”
Cloyne Crescent, Monkstown, Newtownabbey
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Old Comrades
Here is a gallery of images of the boards and flags on the fencing around “Buck’s Shed” in Rathfern, Newtownabbey. The usual themes are represented: the 36th Division and WWI (Mountainview Battlefields Association Fb), the British military, Rangers FC, and George Best.
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The Present Conflict
This is a new UDA board in Monkstown, Newtownabbey. At the top we see the emblems of “Loyalist Prisoners’ Aid” and “Ulster Defence Union” alongside the familiar UYM and UFF emblems. For the UDU, see the entry on one its earliest appearances, in a 2009 mural in the lower Shankill. Loyalist Prisoners’ Aid is a fundraising album of UDA songs (now freely available at SoNIC). (Also seen: an LPA flag flying in Newtownards in 2018.)
The photograph at the bottom (close-up below) shows the UDA marching in 1972 in North Street, Belfast city centre. (Of the buildings on the left, only the brick building housing “Castle jewellers” remains standing – Street View.) The original photograph can be seen at Alamy.
“This memorial is dedicated to the memory of the officers and members of our organisation who were murdered by the enemies of Ulster and to those who paid the supreme sacrifice whilst on active service during the present conflict. Quis separabit.” Four of the 1st battalion dead are named in the mural across Devenish Drive – see Monkstown UDA.
Ards Park, Monkstown, Newtownabbey. For the previous mural in this spot, see Murals Irlande Du Nord.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Doubt Thou The Stars Are Fire
Here is a selection of Shakespearean quotations on the topic of love on the driveway walls of a house on the Ballyclare Road in Glengormley:
“William Shakespeare – 1565-1616 Aged 52 – 38 plays, 154 sonnets”
[Left (image below)]
“Hear my soul speak of the very instant that I saw you, did/My heart fly at your service” [The Tempest 3.1]
“Tell me, for which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?” [Much Ado About Nothing 5.2]
“Parting is such sweet sorrow” [Romeo & Juliet 2.2]
“I would not wish any companion in the world but you” [The Tempest 3.1]
“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,/So long lives this, and this gives life to thee” [Sonnet 18]
[Right (image above)]
“Doubt thou the stars are fire/Doubt that the sun doth move/Doubt truth to be a liar/But never doubt I love” [Hamlet Act 2 Scene 2]
“When I saw you/I fell in love./And you smiled/because you knew” [from Arrigo Boito’s libretto to Verdi’s Falstaff. In Italian: “Come ti vidi/M’innamorai./E tu sorridi/Perchè lo sai”]
“See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand/O that I were a glove upon that hand/That I might touch that cheek.” [Romeo & Juliet 2.2]
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The Going Is Good
Hazelbank (House) was blown up by the IRA in the 1970s (The Burn) and Macedon (House) was demolished after being closed in 1981 – their grounds became Hazelbank Park (History Hub Fb). The towers on the promenade by the shore provide a backdrop for this Lidia Cao (ig) street art on the Shore Road.
With Daisy Chain (web) and A&N borough council (web).
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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King Of All Birds
John And Rab
Cloughfern Young Conquerors flute band (Fb – warning: copious use of images of Eddie The Trooper) was founded in 1973, the same year as the UDA began using the name “UFF”. “John” and “Rab” on the arms of the emblem above are John “Grugg” Gregg (also known as ‘The Reaper’) and Rab Carson of the UDA’s Southeast Antrim brigade. The pair were killed together in 2003 by the lower Shankill (West Belfast C company) UDA. (See also Gregg & Carson for another local tribute.)
The gentleman in the panel on the right is “The General”; he celebrated a birthday in July of this year (2024) (Fb) and so is perhaps not (as this board might suggest) another of the “absent friends” held in “glorious memory”.
See also: 50 Years Unbroken and CYC 50th– celebrations from 2023 of the band’s fiftieth anniversary.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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