Edward Carson – Page 2 – Paddy Duffy Collection

Harryville Says No

2023-04-122026-08-30Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a gallery of six boards from Harryville (four from Larne St/Larne Rd and two from Queen Street). The newest one is shown above; it celebrates Colonel Saunderson, a founder of the Ulster Defence Union, and organisation formed in 1893 to resist the second Home Rule bill. As mentioned on the board, the UDU initially met in Belfast in March and Saunderson was among the signatories of the UDU manifesto (see page 5 of the [Sydney] Freeman’s for 1893-04-29). For more on Saunderson, see Union Is Strength. The second bill was passed by the Commons but defeated in the Lords. The champions of resistence against the third Home Rule bill were Carson and Craig, shown in the penultimate image with the “Ulster Covenant” of September, 2012.

The name “Ulster Defence Union” is being used by some anti-Agreement factions of the UDA as a name for the organisation (starting in 2007 – see WDA on Peter Moloney’s site). The second board, just below, is a 4th Battalion South East Antrim UDA/UDU board. The UDA was formed in September 1971 and hence was 50 years old in 2021. The remaining two images show the UDA on parade at Harryville Bridge and in front of Pentagon House.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Politician, Barrister, Ulsterman

2023-01-152026-08-31Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Sir Edward Carson, 1854-1935, was born and raised in Dublin, and practiced law there for many years, but he is most famously associated with the Unionist campaign against Home Rule and the creation of “a Protestant province of Ulster” and eventually the six-county state of Northern Ireland.

This mural is by Dee Craig (Fb) in Ballyclare’s Grange Drive. It was originally painted in 2017 but was repaired in 2020.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Comply With Your Country’s Demand

2022-12-082026-08-31Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The new panels shown here re-re-image the side-wall of the mural on the left (see For Valour), which was dedicated to the Royal Irish Rifles of the Great War. We now see hooded UVF gunmen from the 1st East Antrim battalion, and an interesting quote from Edward Carson.

In September, 1914, six weeks after the Great War had begun, Edward Carson wrote to the Ulster Volunteers entreating “those who have not already responded” to “my call for Defenders of the Empire” to “enlist at once for the Ulster Division in Lord Kitchener’s Army”, fighting alongside “our fellow Britishers”: “Quit yourselves like men and comply with your country’s demand”. The impulse for the display of force shown here is the other, original, motivation for the paramilitary force, which Carson describes as “to defend our citizenship in the United Kingdom” (Strachan & Nally).

The Larches, Carrickfergus

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We Will Take Nothing Less

2022-10-282024-08-02Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

An estimated 100,000 people congregated at Craigavon House on the 23rd of September, 1911, to hear Edward Carson’s inaugural speech as Unionist leader (McNeill Ch. 4). In his speech he said “Our demand is a simple one. We ask for no privileges, but we are determined that no one shall have privileges over us. We ask for no special rights, but we claim the same rights from the same government as every other part of the United Kingdom. We ask for nothing more; we will take nothing less”. Ten years later, in 1921, Northern Ireland was created and it has survived to reach its centenary, despite (according to this mural) “100 years of fighting a fascist republican enemy sponsored by the Irish state.”

Highcairn Drive, Highfield

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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The Road To The Somme

2022-10-162026-08-30Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This pair of boards depict (above) the signing of the Ulster Covenant and (below) the 36th Division – formed largely from the Ulster Volunteers that were formed after the Covenant – in the trenches in WWI. It is reported that some soldiers wore their Orange Order collarettes into battle. The painting is by Carol Graham.

The pair was moved to this wall after the house on the corner was knocked down – see Out Of The Rubble.

Barrington Gardens, south Belfast.

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Covenant Of Hearts

2022-10-132024-07-30Extramural Activity1 Comment

“Ulster’s covenant of hearts” is the title given to the main board in this collection commemorating the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Covenant in 1912 and the figure of Edward Carson, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, founder of the Ulster Volunteers, and first signatory of the covenant.

Tavanagh Street, Village, south Belfast

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We Will Take The Matter Into Our Own Hands

2022-10-092024-07-30Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“We in Ulster will tolerate no Sinn Féin but we tell you this – that if, having offered you our help, you are yourselves unable to protect us from the machinations of Sinn Féin, and you won’t take our help; we tell you, we will take the matter into our own hands …. ” A quote from Sir Edward Carson (probably, 12th of July, 1920 rather than 1912 – Treason Felony | RTÉ) replaces the previous “free men” quote (see M03378); the poppies between the emblems in the main panel are also new, as is the plinth the hooded gunmen are standing on, which reads “1912 East Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force” (also, “1981 Gareth Keys 2008″). In other words, the mural has been softened (slightly) by adding historical elements.

Castlereagh Road, opposite Ravensdale Street.

Bloomfield House

2022-10-092025-06-15Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The 100th anniversary plaque and board shown in this entry are on the spot of Bloomfield House (web), where guns from Clyde Valley were held for the East Belfast battalion of the Ulster Volunteers in 1914.

See also: John Henry Patterson’s involvement in Operation Lion.

Grand Parade, east Belfast, next to the Orangefield memorial board.

The Dead We Honour Here

2022-09-252026-08-30Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“The dead we honour here made the noble sacrifice for a cause that should never be forgotten.” A new board has been added to the memorial to the Ulster Volunteers on the Newtownards Road at St Leonard’s Crescent (the old Newcastle Street) over the bricked-up windows of the Belvoir Bar (see previously Not For Sale). The annual parade of the Belvoir Somme Association took place at the end of September (youtube)

The portrait of Carson was previously on the corner of Welland Street. The UVF Band mural is to the right of the memorial: see The Great War and They Said We’d Never Last.

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Ulster’s VC Heroes david nelson ernest wright alexander william mcfadzean edmund de win richard annesley west hugh colvin james somers jams duffy robert morrow edward barry stewart bingham thomas hughes robert hill hanna robert quigg john spencer dunville eric norman frankland bell james crichton geoffrey st. george shillington cather james anson otho brooke john alexander sinton dedicated to the women of east belfast that served in wwi and wwii

Their Name Liveth For Evermore

2022-09-182026-08-30Extramural Activity1 Comment

Four generations of headgear and rifles, from 1912 to the present, are featured in this new UVF board in Glenwood Street. A portion of the previous No. 4 Platoon ‘graveyard scene’ mural it replaces can be seen in the top right, with black figures superimposed. The title of the post, which comes from Ecclesiasticus 44, appears on the accompanying info panel along with a verse from Laurence Binyon’s poem For The Fallen. The fourth verse of Binyon’s poem is more often quoted, as in What Do We Forget When We Remember and At The Going Down Of The Sun.