WWI – Page 18 – Paddy Duffy Collection

South Belfast Volunteers

1999-01-012025-11-03Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Along the top are the emblems of the Royal Inniskilling (27th) Fusiliers (featuring Crom castle), Royal Irish Rifles (featuring the Maid Of Erin harp), Royal Irish Fusiliers (featuring the barossa eagle).

Wrapped around the left column are “Ballykinler, Finner, Clandeboye” – three of the training camps of the 36th. Wrapped around the right column is “Lest we forget”.

The central text reads: “Ravenhill – Village – Donegall Pass – Ormeau Rd – Sandy Row – Lisburn Rd. 10th infantry battalion Royal Irish Rifles, 36th (Ulster) Division, South Belfast Volunteers”

The Union Flag appears in the lower left, next to an unidentified medal, while the flag of Ulster (rather than Northern Ireland, which did not yet exist) appears in the lower right, next to a Victory medal. (In a previous version of this painting, the Union Flag was a VC and the medal was a Distinguished Conduct Medal.) Between them is the emblem of the 36th Division.

The main image shows three graveside mourners standing in a field of barbed wire and in front of ?mis-shapen tombstones?, all against a background of sunrise over a mountain on which have been superimposed (left) a map of the Somme and (right) a large UVF emblem.

Painted by Ron McMurry on boards. Donegall Pass, south Belfast

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Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
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Make No Covenant With Them Nor Show Mercy Unto Them

1997-07-012025-10-19Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

These two murals are side-by-side in Blythe Street.

On the left, a particularly violent rejection of the peace-process: “they arose in the dark days to defend our native land for God and Ulster”, “And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, though shalt smite them and utterly destroy them, thou shalt make no covenant with them nor show mercy unto them – Deuteronomy 7 verse 2”.

On the right, a UVF roll of honour: “In memory of fallen comrades. Lest we forget. John Hanna, Billy Millar, Noel Little, Bunter Davidson, Billy Stewart, Davy McNaught, Sammy Mehaffy, Dicky Richardson [later removed], Geordie Norris [later added]. Their duty demanding, their courage outstanding. Here lies a soldier, murdered by the enemies of Ulster.”

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Copyright © 1997 Paddy Duffy
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Private William McFadzean VC

1997-01-012025-10-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

William McFadzean was awarded the VC medal for throwing himself on a fallen box of grenades on the first day of the Battle Of The Somme. The battles listed to either side are: “Ypres, Fricourt, Cambrai, Thiepval, Messines, Beaucourt, Rossieres, Beaumonthamel, Langemarck,” and, “Somme, Albert, Flanders, St Quentin, Bailleul, Grandcourt, Courtrai, Passchendaele, Schwaben Redoubt”.

The gates are decorated with modern assault rifles.

Mount Vernon Park, north Belfast

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Copyright © 1998/1997 Paddy Duffy
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McFadzean And Miller

1996-09-012025-10-17Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The UVF’s William Millar (here given as “Miller”) was ambushed, along with Bobby Morton, by the RUC on the 16th of March 1983 – Millar died and Morton was injured (Long Kesh Inside Out). His death is put in parallel with the WWI service of William McFadzean, who won the VC for throwing himself on a fallen box of grenades on the first day of the Battle Of The Somme. The McFadzean family home (Rubicon) is only half a mile away from this mural.

Cappagh Gardens, Cregagh, Castlereagh

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Copyright © 1996 Paddy Duffy
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UVF 1st East Antrim Battalion

1996-01-012026-08-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The flag on the left is the UVF flag with “1912” in the corner, referring back to the Ulster Volunteers. The flag on the right lists WWI battles – Somme, Ypres, St Quentin, and Grandcourt are showing, while Arras, Thiepval, Messines, and Fricourt are probably hidden – under the title “Monkstown East Antrim”; men from the area joined the Central Antrim/12th battalion of the RIR.

Cloyne Crescent, Monkstown, Newtownabbey

36th (Ulster) Division

1996-01-012025-10-17Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“In remembrance of the 36th (Ulster) Division – For God and Ulster”. “1912” (on either side of the UVF emblem) refers to the founding of the Ulster Volunteers, who went on to join the 36th Division of the British Army, fighting at “Albert, Beaucourt, Thiepval, Grand Court, Passchendaele, Somme, Courtrai, Ypres, Cambreai [Cambrai], Rossieres [Rosières], Flanders, Baitleul [Bailleul], St Quentin, Beaumont[-]Hamel, Sch waden [Schwaben] Redoubt, Fricourt, Messines”. The stone in front reads, “At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.”

Cashel Close, Monkstown, Newtownabbey

70th Anniversary Of The Somme

1988-05-012025-08-11Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

On the left of the lightning bolt are the soldiers of the 36th Ulster division (U.V.F.) R.I.R (Royal Irish Rifles) on the western front in 1916; on the right are “UVF prisoners of war, Long Kesh”.

A similar board was painted in the UVF compounds of Long Kesh. Of it, Billy Hutchinson (in his 2011 piece “Transcendental Art“) said, “My favourite mural was one inspired by the British anti-war poet, Siegfried Sassoon. Suicide In The Trenches depicts a UVF volunteer split down the middle by a bolt of lightning. Half of him depicts a 36th Ulster Division soldier under heavy fire in a rainsoaked WW1 trench. The other half shows a ’70s volunteer incarcerated behind barbed wire and over-shadowed by watch towers.” (The piece – W2021.1.8 in the Ulster Museum collection – includes the last verse from Sassoon’s Suicide In The Trenches.)

Craven Street, west Belfast. Hutchinson also describes the importance of the Orange Cross welfare organisation in selling prisoner art produced inside the prison. The door to the club is in black to the left of frame. Stevie McCrea of the RHC was killed in the Orange Cross in 1989 – see Stevie McCrea.