Our Most Gracious Sovereign

“In loving memory of our most gracious sovereign – Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022. God save the Queen.” The platinum (70th) jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, celebrated in June, 2022, was followed a short time later by her death, on September 8th. These two boards in Maldon Street, mark the two events.

Replaces a Ruby Murray board and the info board that went with the John Darren Sutton painting of King Billy in Tavanagh St.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Strike Out

Here is another response to the coronation of King Charles last weekend: (above and last) a Lasaır Dhearg (web) tarp in north Belfast reading “Fuck King Charles”.

Compare previously: England’s Bloody Empire and Not Our King with May The King Live Forever and The Settlement Of The True Protestant Religion.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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The Passing Of Queen Elizabeth II

A traffic cone provides a makeshift flower holder in front of this board Clara Street board: “Grove Community Group [Baptist Church (web | Fb)] mourns the passing of Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022″. Charter NI has images from last September of more bouquets and a piper at the board (tw).

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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May The King Live Forever

“Ballykeel 1 celebrates the coronation of King Charles III.” The United Kingdom crowns a new monarch today, May 6th, 2023, in the form of Charles III; he acceded to the throne on September 8th, 2022, upon the death of his mother, Elizabeth II (see The People’s Queen Is Dead | Now Is The Time To Kneel | Loyal Servants). The ceremony will include a pledge of allegiance that those in attendance and those watching may (voluntarily) make (BBC). The leaders of Australia and New Zealand are among those expected to make the pledge (Reuters); Michelle O’Neill and Alex Maskey of Sınn Féın will be in attendance (BBC).

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Dieu Et Mon Droit

Above is a trio of boards on a wall behind the Antiville community centre, softening (somewhat) the very aggressive set of six UDA boards next to it.

The experts’ best guess is that the gentleman on the white horse (on the right of the painting) is James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, at the siege of Maastricht in 1673. Scott was commander of the English forces fighting with the French during the Franco-Dutch war. It’s not clear, thus, what the connection is to the Antiville area of Larne or the wars fought in Ireland over the English crown. It was painted by Jan Wyck, who also did a painting of the Battle of the Boyne. On either side (as shown below) are a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and the English version of the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom.

Eddie The Trooper has his own Visual History page.

Hampton Crescent, Antiville, Larne

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Conflict To Peace

Memorial boards to Queen Elizabeth have been added to the ‘our community transformation’ board and community garden in Old Warren.

An image of the old “You are now entering loyalist Old Warren” display that is shown in the ‘before’ side of the board above is included below. On the ‘after’ side are the youth centre, the new houses at the top of Drumbeg Drive, and the Lagan View enterprise centre. For a brief history of the area, see Through Your Eyes.

The previous board on this wall – a UDA B Company board – can be seen in C02674 and its predecessor in M05916.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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D01042 courtesy of squire93@hotmail.com

Equanimity

“Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022.” This memorial board in Stevenson Park, Londonderry, shows Queen Elizabeth around the time of her 1952 accession, perhaps by Dorothy Wilding (left and right) and (in the centre) a 2004 version of the 3-D portrait by Chris Levine and Rob Munday dubbed “Equanimity” (Sotheby’s).

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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100 Years

On the left of this memorial board in Carrickfergus are five portraits from the later life of the child who began life in Greece as Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark. The family was exiled during the Greco-Turkish War. He ended up in Britain where he later joined the navy and stopped using his titles when he became the British subject, Philip Mountbatten. When he married Elizabeth he became Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. His life-time matches that of the Northern Irish state (see in the second image): he was born a month after its creation and died in 2021 at the age of 99, a month shy of its centenary.

These boards and banners are in Albert Road and Thomas Street, Carrickfergus, near the Orange lodge, (for which see On Foreign Fields). They are perhaps all sponsored by the Ulster Grenadiers flute band. “Carrickfergus says “No” to Irish Sea border”

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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