1,000 copies of J.P. Beadle’s painting “Battle Of The Somme: Attack Of The Ulster Division” were produced in 1917 in order to raise funds for wounded soldiers and POWs of the First World War. It has been further reproduced in boards and paintings since the re-imaging wave in the mid 2000s (see Visual History 10 | some early instances: 2007 in Londonderry | 2008 in Belfast), including this one in Cookstown. The original painting hangs in Belfast City Hall. (Irish Untold)
The County Tyrone men from the Ulster Volunteers joined the 9th battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, which were put into the 109th brigade of the 36th Division. The Cookstown Grenadiers uses a (modern) emblem of the 36th – combining Union Flag, Maid Of Erin harp (symbol of the Royal Irish Rifles), and a red (right) hand on a field of poppies – as part of its band emblem (on the right, and on the board of photos, below); the WWI-era emblem of the 36th is the red (left) hand in the middle of the board.
The photographs on the second panel are labelled as follows: “First Parade 12th 2018. A special occasion for the band on its first outing. Accompanying our good friends in LOL 196 to the 12th demonstration in Stewartstown. A bond still strong to the present day.”; “Tribute to a volunteer. The band paying tribute to Vol. Gary Holdsworth (office commanding) [see also Along With The Brave And The Bold] at the local memorial in Monrush.”; “Remembering the fallen. A member of the band lays a wreath at Cookstown cenotaph.”; “Band on parade at the 12th of July demonstration in Coagh 2025.”; “Band on parade in Londonderry for the relief of Derry celebrations 2025.”
The third board shows shamrock, poppy, thistle, rose, and orange lily around the Mid-Ulster UVF emblem and the words, “In memory of volunteers from the east Tyrone area who took the first to militant republicanism. Their deeds and sacrifices will not be forgotten. For God and Ulster.”
This celebration of the Northern Ireland soccer team is in Cookstown. On the left are the emblem of three world cups. Prior to its twice-in-a-row appearances at the World Cups in Spain (1982) and Mexico (1986), Northern Ireland’s only other appearance was in Sweden (1958), where it reached the quarter-finals.
The three players in the centre – Ray McCoy, Stuart Dallas, and Aaron Hughes – are all Cookstown locals. McCoy made one appearance for the NI team, Dallas 62, and Hughes 112.
“In loving memory of Vol. Gary Holdsworth, Officer Commanding, East Tyrone Mid-Ulster Brigade, Ulster Volunteer Force.” Holdsworth died in 2021 and the sources for this information – RBL Football Fb | Mid-Ulster ACT Fb – suggest that the title of “UVF OC” is an honorary or aspirational one. Holdsworth has appeared in the papers in connection with rioting and distrurbing the peace, but nothing involving weapons or drugs. A parade is held in his honour each year (Monrush Social Fb).
Similarly, the lines “Lay him away on the hillside, along with the brave and the bold. Inscribe his name on the roll of fame, in letters of purest gold.” come from a song (‘Lay Him Away On The Hillside’) about James Daly of the Connaught Rangers. He was executed by a British Army firing squad in November, 1920, for leading a mutiny to protest the actions of the Tans and RIC (WP).
The memorial is in the street where Holdsworth lived: Milburn Close, Cookstown
The left-hand part of this large installation in Dervock is given over to six boards commemorating the First World War and the locals who served and died in it. Sixty-two names are listed on the “roll of honour”, including the “Upwards of 42 men [who] had made the supreme sacrifice” from the roughly 200 who served – as noted by “Lady McCartney” (perhaps at the opening of the Dervock War Memorial Institute – Larne Times & Weekly Telegraph, 25th December 1922). (For the Institute, see Ulster War Memorials, which also gives a (very different) list of Dervock dead.) The central image was long ago a mural in the centre of the village – it can be seen in the plates to Bill Rolston’s Politics And Painting and as image 24 in volume one of Drawing Support.
The right-hand part contains two boards about William McKinley, one to CS Lewis, one providing a small dictionary of Ulstèr-Scots words (“Our wae tongue – a proud heritage, a living language.”), one listing “memorable moments” of the Northern Ireland soccer team (“Our football. Our nation. Our pride.”), and one inviting people to “visit the north coast”.
There is no record (on-line, at least) of McKinley saying or writing, “Let us ever remember that our interest is bound up with the liberty and progress of all mankind. So long as any nation is oppressed, we are not free.” And only one of the quotations in the bio can be verified:
“President William McKinley (1843 – 1901). 1843: William was born in Ohio, after his parents [perhaps his great-great-grandfather] emigrated from Connagher [Conagher], near Dervock. 1861: Enlisted at 18. 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment. [The American Civil War] 1896: Defender of Sound Money [i.e. the Gold Standard]. “I am for sound money and opposed to the free and unlimited coinage of silver.” [“sound money” was a campaign slogan; the remainder can be found in the Republican policy platform of 1900] 1898: Spanish-American War. “War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed.” [From the first inaugural, 1897, and so not in response to the Spanish-American War; Congress declared war despite McKinley’s reticence] 1900: Gold Standard Act. Restored stability. Built prosperity. 1901: Died eight days later [sic, “after”] being shot, whilst attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffallo [sic] New York.”
See also: the Visual History page on Ulster-Scots murals.
CS Lewis did not say or write, “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” (CS Lewis)
Knock Road, Dervock, with support from Causeway Policing And Community Safety Partnership (Causeway PCSP) and the Causeway Coast & Glens borough council’s Good Relations team. Unveiled July 2nd, 2026.
A “living mural” on and around the wall around the Ark Housing (web) in Millisle, Co Down, was announced in the summer of 2025 (Newtownards Chronicle), with art by Blaze FX (ig) to be complemented by planters. By March, 2026, only background colours and various line-drawings of wildlife had been completed – see the images towards the bottom of the page – but now the whole the colours and details have been added.
With support from the Millisle And District Community Association (Fb) and Ulster Wildlife (Fb).
Golf Digest rated Royal County Down as the world’s number one course. Over the years it has hosted various important tournaments, including the Irish Open (most recently in 2024, won by Rasmus Højgaard).
This mural features six famous golfers, past and present. Clockwise from top: Pádraıg Harrington, Rory McIlroy (holding his Masters trophy and wearing the green jacket), Darren Clarke, Graeme McDowell, Shane Lowry, and Fred Daly, who won the Irish Open in 1946 and the British Open in 1947. In the background of the mural is the Slieve Donard hotel, which is just to the south of the golf course.
Painted by Visual Waste (web) in Donard Place, Newcastle, Co Down
Life and landmarks in Rathfriland, eight miles outside Newry, are presented in this “Community mural, 2010, lead artist Ann McCall, created with young people from the Beacon Centre”.
The four buildings on the left are labelled: Magennis clan of Iveagh 1136-1641 [i.e. until the Confederate Wars], Linen Market 1754, Patrick Brontë [father of the three Brontë authors] homeland 1777, Farmers’ Market. On the right is the Beacon Centre.
The mural was covered over by a printed tarp for a number of (seven?) years, but this has come down and the mural behind it is again visible. The mural in much better condition can be seen on Geograph.
Church Square, Rathfriland, site of the market house or tholsel – here is an image from c. 1915.
Mercedes Gleitze was an open-water endurance swimmer who achieved various feats, including swimming the English Channel and the Straits Of Gibraltar. She also attempted to swim the North Channel eight times, starting on four occasions from Donaghadee (Brighton Museum), site of these drawings by artist Vanessa Daws (web | Swimming A Long Way Together) – herself an open-water swimmer – on a shelter on Commons Park.
“The blackbird on the gable wall.” This piece of Peaball (web) art is on the side of the credit union in Main Street, Claudy, commissioned by Derry Credit Union to celebrate its sixty-fifth anniversary (ig).
