“1st south Belfast LSC [Fb] remembers. Lest we forget.” “To the glory of God and in honourable memory of the former players from Linfield Football Club who laid down the glory of their youth upon the altar of freedom during the Great War of 1914 – 1918.
The main part of this new board in the Village shows the Linfield memorial at Bertrancourt, France. The memorial was unveiled in 2022 (BBC). The BBC article explains the reference to “Rifleman Walker” in the poem by Johnny Jamison at the centre of the memorial: Walker had been a Linfield player before joining the Royal Irish Rifles and dying on May 6th, 1916. Jamison recites his poem in this Fb video. In the background is the familiar Ulster Tower.
The colours of the third (Carrickfergus) battalion of the Central Antrim regiment of the Ulster Volunteers can be seen at Sam’s Flags. They are very similar to the piece shown above, except for the addition of the emblem in the top right corner (close-up immediately below) which shows the Ulster Volunteers drilling with a machine-gun mounted in a car, preparing to resist Home Rule – see this 1988 mural and the photograph in this History Ireland article. (See also UVF Motor Car Corps.) In the Royal Irish Rifles of WWI, however, Central Antrim became the 12th battalion (War Time Memories Project).
Next to the Central Antrim flag is a board marking the “110th anniversary of the Battle Of The Somme 1 July 1916 – 1 July 2026. Honouring their courage, remembering their sacrifice. Lest we forget.”
“Rathcoole remembers 11th November. Lest we forget”, “In remembrance” with some lines from For The Fallen, and “Remember them, generation to generation”.
This trio of WWI memorial boards is on the fence of the basketball court along Derrycoole Way, Rathcoole, Newtownabbey, next to an installation of gravestones and sandbags – Row On Row.
The sponsors in the corners of the board shown above are RATH Community Group (Fb) and Dalaradia (web); they previously jointly supported a QEII mural “On The Occasion Of Her Platinum Jubilee“. RATH holds a commemorative service annually in November.
This entry updates the images in Sorry It Was All For Nothing, which showed the central board a few days before its official launch, on May 8th. In the few days before the launch, the “garden” area was added, the pebble-dashed wall was repainted, and the small boards of kneeling soldiers – both WWI and modern British forces – were added on either side.
The UVF boards at the junction of London and My Lady’s roads in east Belfast have been completely replaced (compared to 2022). The hooded gunmen on the short side have been replaced by “Joy, peace, love” while a tribute to David Ervine now replaces the lettering reading “East Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force”. Ervine was a UVF member from 1972 to 1980 before turning to a career in politics. “He asked the question “why can’t I be an Irish citizen of the UK?” … “An architect of peace. An inspiration to us all.” Always remembered by his family, comrades, colleagues and friends.”
Next to Ervine is a UVF roll of honour in which Roy Walker joins Robert Bennett, James Cordner, Joseph Long, and Robert Seymour, who were previously portrayed (Ulster’s Brave). Walker was killed in a feud with the UDA in 1976. And around the corner the UVF emblem has been replaced by a board to the Ulster Volunteer Force Regimental Band.
The largest panel remains a tribute to the dead of WWI, specifically now the “3rd battalion (Mountpottinger)” of the East Belfast regiment of the Ulster Volunteers who “marched to the old town hall in Victoria Street accompanied by the Duke Of York Pipe Band and around 270 members volunteered”. The long text explains the negotiation between Kitchener and Craig over the formation of the 36th Division; the East Belfast volunteers joined the 8th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles; “training took place at Ballykinlar in County Down and the Battalion became known as “Ballymacarret’s Own””.
“Millbrook remembers – they gave their all for our freedom.” Here is a new installation in the Millbrook area of/just outside Larne, celebrating and commemorating the sacrifice of locals who lost their lives while serving the British forces during the World Wars.
The Great War 1914-1918: “Be proud of the lads of Millbrook, who at the bugle call/put on the Country’s armour and rushed to duty’s call They have gone to beat the Kaiser, we are sure they will succeed,/To drive him out of Flanders, And Belgium shall be freed! Their names shall live in history, Their names we will adore,/And Ulster shall be proud of them, when they return once more.”
On the left are three medals: Pip, Squeak, and Wilfred (that is, the 1914 Star, for service in France or Belgium, the War (service) medal, and the Inter Allied Victory medal) (Identify Medals), with the ‘Dead Man’s Penny’ on the right.
The names on the headstone between the two World War panels are [from WWI] John Blair, David Linn Ritchie, Robert Erskine, Wesley Campbell, James Steele, Samuel McKay, Robert McFall, Thomas Kirkpatrick, Samuel George Mathers, Charles McNally, William John Kirkpatrick, Daniel McMichael, [from WWII] Cyril Cecil Whitley, William Magee. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you – Deuteronomy 31:6”
Second World War 1939-1945: “Here inscribed the names of friends we knew, Young men with whom we often flew Scrambled to many angels high, They knew that they or friends might die Behind each name a story lies, of bravery in summer skies; Though many brave unwritten tales, were simply told in vapour trails Many now lie in sacred graves, and many rest beneath the waves Outnumbered every day they flew, Remembered here as just ‘The Few'”
The medals on the right are the Burma Star, Defence Medal, and the War Medal, with the RAF brass cap badge on the left.
Along the main road in Drumahoe Gardens, Millbrook, Larne.
This entry updates a similar entry from 2022 with images and close-ups of the now-faded red and orange paint in the mural on the back wall of the “36th (Ulster) Division Victoria Cross Memorial Garden”.
For close-ups of the board picturing the WWI VC winners, see The Dead We Honour Here. “‘Throughout the long years of struggle … the men of Ulster have proved how nobly they fight and die’ – King George V, 16th November, 1918”
St Leonard’s Crescent/old Newcastle Street, east Belfast
The poppies in this new mural suggest WWI, but the “pants” over the wheels of the planes shown here as they pass Scrabo tower suggest a post-war plane (or a modern light aircraft).
The Cavan County Museum (web) in Ballyjamesduff includes a “WWI trench experience”, with 350 metres of trench and more than 6,000 sand-bags. The Cavan volunteers joined the 9th battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers (108th brigade of the 36th). The officer commanding of the Division, Oliver Stewart Wood Nugent, was from Cavan (History Ireland).
“Battle Of The Somme 1st July – 18th November 1916”, “”Comrade, friend, foe/come home, come home/tired, broken bones.//Remember them,/remember them all,/comrade, friend, foe.//After war comes peace/and when peace comes/never let it go.//And never ever forget/to remember them,/comrade, friend and foe.” – Jim Cleary, Virginia.”
“”The 36th (Ulster) Division had 5,500 casualties on July 1st 1916 and were men drawn mostly from one community in the province of Ulster. Nearly 2,000 soldiers from cities, towns, villages and town lands of the North were killed in the first few hours of fighting. The 16th (Irish) Division had 4,330 casualties in September 1916, of whom 1,200 were killed. These casualties came mainly from the other three provinces of Ireland.” – Department Of An Taoıseach”
This pair of hand-painted (and stencilled) boards is next to the Mount Inn on North Queen Street. Tiger’s Bay is loyal to the memory of “1690” and the service of the 36th Division in WWI in 1916.
Greenmount Street, Tiger’s Bay, north Belfast
On the other side of the Mount, at the bottom of the old Lewis Street, are two more hand-painted boards from 2024 – see Friends Of The Somme.
Paddy Duffy Collection 