King Billy – Paddy Duffy Collection

William And Mary

2026-08-182026-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“King William III, King of England, Scotland and Ireland 1689-1702. ‘Prince of Orange’. “The enemy made some resistance but at length gave way, and we routed them entirely.” King William III, writing to Queen Mary after the battle of the Boyne: 1st July 1690″.

This gable-sized board – launched on July 10th, 2026 – replaces the UVF “Armed And Ready” centenary mural in the Westwinds estate.

The “parchment” in the lower-left corner describes the crisis in Protestantism caused by James II’s (conversion to Catholicism and) second marriage and birth of a son, thereby threatening to establish a Catholic line of monarchs.

It then includes some of the letter from the Immortal Seven inviting William, who was already married to James’s (Protestant) daughter (and presumptive heir) Mary, to take over. As the dates-of-death on the board make clear, Mary died young, at age 32, of smallpox (WP), leaving William to rule alone for another eight years.

Blenheim Drive, Westwinds, Newtownards

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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King Billy’s On The Wall

2026-07-052026-07-08Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The “Roden Street Bonfire And Cultural Festival 2026” has events every day this week, leading up fireworks and the lighting of the bonfire on the Eleventh (Fb). This new board, at the Donegall Road end of Roden Street, was unveiled on June 28th (Fb video).

“William III and II, also known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from 1672, and King of England, Ireland, and Scotland from 1689 until his death in 1702.”

“Historical Significance. The Glorious Revolution: William was invited by English Protestant leaders to invade England depose his Catholic father-in-law, King James II. Battle of the Boyne (1690): He secured his rule in Ireland by defeating James II’s forces at this pivotal battle. Constitutional Monarchy: His reign with his wide, Mary II, marked a shift toward parliamentary power through the 1689 Bill of Rights.
Cultural Legacy. The Orange Order: A Protestant fraternal organisation named in his honour, which celebrates his victory at the Boyne annually on The Twelfth (July 12). Iconography: He is famoulsy depicted on murals in Northern Ireland, often riding a white horse and wearing an orange sash. Place Names: He is the namesake of Williamsburg, Virginia, and the College of William and Mary. ‘Remember 1690 – King Billy’s on the Wall [youtube]'”

The portrait of William on the left is by Godfrey Kneller and part of the collection in the National Gallery Of Scotland.

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Victory In Ireland Day

2025-08-212025-08-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This image of King Billy crossing the Boyne in 1690 is on the No Surrender lodge (LOL 241) in Donaghadee. King William III’s victory in Ireland is celebrated annually on July 12th, with parades and gatherings of fraternal lodges and flute bands.

William’s victory is joined here by a number of small boards commemorating the 80th anniversary of Victory In Europe, on May 8th, 1945, “remembered with pride” by Orange lodges 241 and 836 (Brother Henry Ferguson Memorial), Royal Black Preceptory 768 (Ulster), and Flutes And Drums Donaghadee (Fb).

Manor Street, Donaghadee, replacing two Platinum Jubilee boards.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Loyalist Village

2025-07-062025-08-01Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Loyalist Village, south Belfast.” UVF markings in the Village continue to proliferate with the recently-added board shown above (from the top of Tavanagh Street) alongside a slew of other boards, some of which are included below.

The “Village team” is not Linfield FC but the UVF (the phrase was also used by the Village UDA); “VTOT” (standing for “Village team on tour”) has previously been used as graffiti – see Welcome To Hell!!!

The purple hoarding below gives “1913” as a creation-date for the battalion. The Ulster Unionist Council organised the signing of the Covenant in September, 1912, and in January 1913 voted to bring together the militias that had been formed in various places into an Ulster Volunteer Force. One of these was a South Belfast battalion that had formed in 1912 (History Ireland). Hence, both “1912” and “1913” are given as dates for the creation of the battalion. When the Volunteers were integrated into the Ulster Division for the Great War, the South Belfast Volunteers joined the 10th battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles.

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“The prevention of the erosion of our identity, our culture and our heritage. We will preserve this no matter the cost. We will not be the generation to fail Ulster. No surrender. 2nd battalion South Belfast” “What we have we hold”

Love The Brotherhood

2025-07-032026-08-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Denmark Street arch (at the top of the lower Shankill estate and next to the Clifton Street Orange Hall) returns for the 2025 marching season.

For each of the 12 panels, see Upward. Each side of the arch features a quote from scripture: on the outside, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel – Psalm 41 v. 13”, and on the estate side “Love the brotherhood, fear God, and honour the King – [1st] Peter 2 v. 17”

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Breaking The Siege

2025-05-072026-08-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

English forces under Kirke came to the aid of the besieged Protestants in Derry, “breaking the boom” across the Foyle and ending the siege at the end of July, 1689. The next wave of forces sailed for Belfast Lough, and together with the troops from Derry, set siege on August 20th to a garrison of Jacobite forces stationed in Carrickfergus castle, who soon began to run low on gunpowder, and surrendered. (WP | NIWorld)

This new board in Davy’s Street, Carrickfergus, focuses mostly on the siege of Derry, though gives the dates of the Carrickfergus siege at the top. Schomberg appears in the top-left quadrant of the board – he would go on to die on at the Boyne in 1690; in the top-right is the Carrickfergus castle and the Mountjoy; in the bottom-left are Walker’s statue and the canon ‘Roaring Meg’; bottom-right is a painting of the Derry inhabitants celebrating the end of the siege; top-centre is the coat of arms of William and Mary; and bottom-centre is the Londonderry coat of arms.

Replaces a trio of small UVF boards.

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The Royal Landings

2025-05-072025-05-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“The Royal Landing, Carrickfergus, Saturday 14th June 2025. The pageant, re-enactment, and parade.”

William III, statholder of Holland, landed at Torbay, England, in November, 1688 with 250+ ships and 30,000 men in order to overthrow the Catholic convert James II who had become king in 1685. As king of England, William was automatically made king of Ireland, but he and his forces had to go to Ireland to win the island from James and the forces loyal to him. Schomberg had already successfully besieged Carrickfergus in 1689, allowing William to land on June 14th, 1690. The image used as a background is Pocock’s oil painting of the landing, which is held by the National Maritime Museum.

The Royal Landing event involves a parade – involving the Carrickfergus Defenders flute band (Fb) and the Ulster Grenadiers flute band (Fb) – from Woodburn fields to the marina, where King Billy’s landing will be recreated (Fb).

See also: June 14th, 1690 in Newtownabbey

Our Community Transformation

2025-01-262025-02-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Ivan Davis was a DUP and then UUP politician who was a Lisburn borough councillor (and mayor 1991-1993) and member of the Assembly for Lagan Valley from 1998 to 2003, before being ousted in favour of the anti-Agreement Jeffrey Donaldson (BBC). He died in 2020 (BelTel). The stone in his memory is in the garden at the top of Old Warren: “In memory of Ivan Davis O.B.E. Freeman of the city of Lisburn, a dedicated honourable public servant who worked tirelessly for the entire community of Lisburn.”

The boards on the wall were seen previously in 2023’s Conflict To Peace – which includes a colour photograph of the old UDA mural – and 2024’s Faith, Blood, Service, Sacrifice.

Avonmore Park, Old Warren, Lisburn

The Glorious Revolution

2024-11-152026-08-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The story of William in Ireland has been a recent favourite in PUL displays (e.g. Newtownabbey | Carrickfergus | Shankill); this version is novel in adding a letter from June 30th, 1688, both in transcription and facsimile, under the heading of the “Glorious Revolution”. In it, the “Immortal Seven” tell William, the Prince Of Orange, that 95% of English people want a change in monarch. William arrived in England in November, 1688, and in Ireland in June, 1690.

The Williamite Trail (from October) joins an earlier tribute (June) to Elizabeth II on the years of her silver, ruby, gold, diamond, sapphire, and platinum jubilees (1977, 1992, 2002, 2012, 2017, and 2022).

For another combination of William and Elizabeth, see Elizabeth, Queen Of Orange.

This sub-station is the site of the infamous “Join The UDA” mural of 2015 (one | two).

Oakfield Crescent, Oakfield/Glenfield, Carrickfergus

Whitehead Temperance

2024-09-202025-06-21Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Benjamin West painted The Battle Of The Boyne in 1778 and his composition – with William moving from left to right on a white horse and Marshal Schomberg dying in the bottom-right corner – has become the standard representation in loyalist culture, perhaps due to versions of it appearing on the covers of songbooks for the Orange Order and the Apprentice Boys soon after (Belinda Loftus 1982 Images In Conflict). It appears here on the wall of Whitehead Orange Hall, along with a board connecting service by Irish soldiers in British forces in WWI and Afghanistan (see previously: The Sacrifice Remains the Same in east Belfast).