WWII – Page 2 – Paddy Duffy Collection

We Also Serve

2025-06-222026-10-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is a series of ten boards in Craigyhill, Larne about WWII. (It replaces a set of twelve UDA boards – see The Loyalist Executioner.)

From left to right (top to bottom) their subjects are:
the Ulster Defence Volunteers/Ulster Home Guard, formed from the B Specials;
Paddy the pigeon;
submarine HMS Thrasher (using an image from the Seosamh Mac Coılle collection);
HMS Larne, a minesweeper built in Renfrew, Scotland;
the port of Larne through which passed “over 5 million people and Allied forces”;
Kilwaughter Castle, a training ground for UK and American troops;
the royal visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in June 1942;
James Stuart Steele of Ballycarry, who served in both WWI and WWII;
the Larne Spitfire, one of seventeen spitfires funded by a Belfast Telegraph fund-raising drive (Wartime NI | see also the Ballymena spitfire in Per Ardua Ad Astra);
local casualties of WWII – “In remembrance of those from town of Larne that paid the supreme sacrifice during the Second World War”.

Shanlea Drive, Craigyhill, Larne

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From D-Day To VE Day

2025-05-062025-05-16Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

39 Allied divisions – 12 of them British – participated in the Normandy Landings – officially “Operation Neptune” – that took place on June 6th, 1944; in planning for the operation, the original “D-Day” was June 5th, but bad weather postponed it until the following day, when 160,000 troops stormed the beaches of the Bay Of The Seine. By the end of August, Paris had been liberated, and by the following May, victory in Europe had been achieved. 2024 was the eightieth anniversary of D-Day and 2025 the eightieth anniversary of VE Day, on May 8th.

This D-Day board and VE Day mural are in Edlingham Street, Tiger’s Bay, north Belfast. Also included below is a WWI memorial electrical box in Mervue Street, though as can be seen from the board (immediately below) the ‘graveside mourner’ silhouette is becoming a generic symbol of lost UK forces.

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VE Day Celebrations

2025-05-062025-05-16Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The eightieth anniversary of VE (“Victory In Europe”) Day is May 8th. Commemorative events in Belfast include a walking tour of the city centre (City Council) and a dance on the HMS Belfast (IWM); for events elsewhere in Northern Ireland, see VE-VJDay80. Pubs will be open for an extra two hours (until 1 a.m.) on the day.

Shore Road, north Belfast. For the monument and the “Lest We Forget” board in the background, see Remembrance Sunday.

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The Shankill Remembers VE Day

2025-05-052025-05-08Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

World War II ended in Europe at 11 p.m. on May 8th, after Germany’s unconditional surrender to the Allied forces. The date was dubbed “Victory In Europe Day” or “VE Day” and this year (2025) marks its eightieth anniversary.

The text at the bottom of this Shankill Road poster reads: “‘My dear friends, this is your hour. This is not the victory or of any class, it’s a victory of the Great British people as a whole. We were the first, in these ancient isles, to draw the sword against tyranny.’ – Prime Minister Winston S Churchill”. The lines come from brief remarks Churchill made to the crowds assembled at the Ministry Of Health in London – the text can be found at Forces News; Pathé newsreel of Churchill’s earlier radio announcement of the end of the war can be found on youtube.

Shankill Road, west Belfast

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Colonel Paddy

2025-01-072026-08-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A statue to WWII hero Robert Blair “Paddy” Mayne (1915-1955) stands in Conway Square, in front of the Newtownards town hall and close to the “Colonel Paddy” café (final image); the family grave is in Movilla Abbey. He is featured in the nearby mural at Russell & Co solicitors and there was previously a mural in his honour in the Movilla area of the town.

The plaque at the base of the statue reads: “Lt Colonel Robert Blair “Paddy” Mayne was born in Newtownards and attended Regent House Grammar School. From an early age his talent on the rugby field was apparent, with successes playing for his school, his country and the British Lions. Blair Mayne is, however, remembered principally for his military prowess. He first served with the Office Training Corps at Queen’s University Belfast where he was studying law. However, his military career began in earnest in 1939 when he obtained a commission in the Royal Artillery. He went on to serve with the Royal Ulster Rifles, the Cameronians and the newly formed 11th Scottish Commando with which, in 1941, he first saw action at the Litiani River in Syria [WP] and was mentioned in dispatches for his bravery. The offer from Colonel David Stirling to join “L” Detachment of the newly formed Special Air Services followed and it was on a subsequent raid in the North African desert that he gained the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). Later acts of outstanding bravery in Sicily, France and North Western Europe added three bars to his DSO and his regiment ended the war in Norway assisting with the surrender of German forces there. Lt Colonel Maybe was also honoured by the French and Belgian nations when he was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Legion d’Honneur (with palme). Following the war Blair Mayne continued to practice law and was appointed Secretary of the Law Society, although due to injuries sustained in combat he was unable to resume his rugby career. He died in a car accident in Newtownards on 10th December 1955. His funeral was the largest ever witnesses in the town and was attended by senior military figures and other dignitaries. At his graveside his former padre said: “The gift of leadership and the ability to inspire complete devotion and loyalty were his to an exceptional degree.” Blair Mayne is buried in the family play in Movilla Cemetery, Newtownards. This statue was erected by Ards Borough Council and funded by public subscription with assistance of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s National Lottery Fund.”

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York Road Civil Defence Hall

2024-12-222025-02-13Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The HUBB community centre (Fb) in north Belfast has, since 2010, been based in what used to be a World War II Civil Defence air-raid shelter, which it cleaned and renovated (Tele). The original hall is depicted in this mural on the side of the HUBB.

In 1940, Belfast was protected by thirty-eight anti-aircraft guns. The German Luftwaffe flew a reconnaissance flight over Belfast on November 30th, 1940 and a test mission of eight planes on April 7th, 1941 concluded that Belfast’s defences were, “inferior in quality, scanty and insufficient” (Hogg). 150 bombers would blitz Belfast the following week, on Easter Tuesday, April 15th, and the seven guns that had been in operation ceased firing, believing, falsely, that RAF planes were also in the sky (WP).

Belfast was bombed by the Germans four times in April and May of 1941. In the blitz of Easter Tuesday, 1941, more than 900 people died, 1,500 were injured, and half the houses in Belfast were damaged (WP). According to Elaine Hogg’s research in the ‘Darker Side Of Belfast’ series, 100,000 people left the city in the remainder of the month, due to shock, fear, and the squalid conditions and unruly behaviour that followed the bombing.

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Continuing Conflicts

2024-12-012025-06-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The war memorial garden in City Way (Sandy Row) commemorates those from the Great War, World War II, and “Continuing Conflicts” which includes the “Troubles”. There is also a fourth, smaller, stone, with John Maxwell Edmonds’s memorial epitaph.

“The Great War 1914-1918: In memory of the fallen”, with John McCrae’s poem ‘In Flanders Fields‘.
“Second World War 1939-1945: Freedom is the sure possession of those have the courage to defend it. Their ideal is our legacy. Their sacrifice is our inspiration.”
“Continuing Conflicts: We remember those who have given their lives. The wounded and those who serve in continued conflicts around the world.”

The Battles Of Britain

2024-11-282026-08-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

These wreaths are mounted next to the Battle Of Britain board on Beverley Street (Band Of Brothers) which celebrates and commemorates the Polish pilots in the RAF’s 303 Squadron during WWII.

The first and third of these three wreaths – which were new at the end of 2024 – combine WWI and WWII. In the first, we see poppies and the familiar image of a WWI soldier standing by a graveside, along with an image of a WWII fighter-plane (probably a Spitfire or Hurricane) flying over a crowd of soldiers. The third combines the red-and-white of Poland with a poppy. (See also the wreath from 2018, which placed Polish writing and imagery within a wreath of poppies.)

Dead, Dissected, And Buried

2024-08-132026-08-29Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

These are the UDA boards on Avenue Road, near Lurgan Park, which proved controversial when they were erected (in 2016), mainly because the second piece (below) “celebrat[es] 30 years of South Belfast/Lurgan 1 company D battalion” UDA and shows Troubles-era shows-of-strength (News Letter) and because it turned out the wall was owned by the Housing Executive (NIWorld).

The piece above describes the creation of the UDU in 1893, as a response to the second Home Rule bill, which was passed by the Commons but rejected in the Lords, and which Edward Saunderson celebrated by saying, “Home Rule is dead. It was dissected in the House of Commons, buried in the House of Lords, and even the Irish people would not trouble to give it a wake”. The UDU is as used an origin-story for the UDA, though often in vague terms, such as the verbiage here which reads “[the UDU] would become the birth stone of the Ulster Defence Association, as we looked to the patriotism of our forefathers to defend our communities”. (For more, see UDU-UFF-UDA. For Saunderson, see Union Is Strength.)

This year (2024), UVF lettering a stone’s throw away, on the other side of the entrance to the park, likewise drew criticism (BelTel | ArmaghI), but it has now been removed.

Avenue Road, Lurgan.

Footsteps Through Our History

2023-09-152024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Footsteps through the history of Coleraine, from top to bottom: Martin Luther (c. 1521); John Knox, who led the reformation in Scotland (c. 1560); the plan of Coleraine (c. 1611); the relief of Derry (1689); the Williamite campaign (1690); (and then a jump to) WWI (“Christmas truce, western front”); WWII (“War on the home front”).

These boards replaced a UDA mural in March, 2014 (see Loyalist Ballysally).

Daneshill Road, Coleraine.