Union Flag – Page 10 – Paddy Duffy Collection

You’ll Never Walk Alone

2022-10-092024-11-02Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The civic spirit of Bedfordshire’s Captain Tom Moore has been celebrated in murals across the UK, including this one by Blaze FX in Clonduff. Moore attempted to raise funds for the NHS during covid by doing laps around his garden with his walker in advance of his hundredth birthday. He originally aimed at raising 1,000 pounds but ended up raising 30 million after the effort went viral.

On the left is a tree cross-section (or “tree disk”) (on the left) that has been decorated with a hooded gunman and the insignia of the (east Belfast) UVF and YCV, along with a printed board with “The uniform may have changed but the cause remains the same. Ulster Volunteer Force” around the UVF emblem and “Fallen, not forgotten” below. There is a very close variant of this wording on a mural in Bowtown (Newtownards).

Tullyard Way, Castlereagh

Update, 2024: the mural has been – mostly – blacked out

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Now Is The Time To Kneel

2022-10-092024-07-29Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The “now” in “now is the time to kneel” would seem to suggest that there is some inappropriate kneeling going on at some other time, besides as a mark of respect to the patriotic dead (in this case, Queen Elizabeth II, who died on September 8th, 2022) – perhaps the kneeling prior to Premier League soccer matches as a protest against racism (World Soccer Talk).

Replaces Clonduff Youth on Clonduff Drive in Castlereagh.

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Getrude Star

2022-09-252024-07-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Gertrude Star flute band (Fb) celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2021 and to mark the occasion this (2022) May, the two side-walls were painted, one of which is shown below. The main mural was painted for the 50th anniversary in 2011, with Ulster Banners and Union Flags flanking the UK coat of arms – “Dieu et mon droit”, “Honi soit qui mal y pense”. The following areas are listed: (left) Gertrude St, Clarawood, Templemore Ave, Woodstrock Road, Albertbridge Rd, south Belfast, Scotland, Antrim, Glengormley, Carrickfergus, Braniel; (right) Dee Street, Newtownards Rd, Cregagh Rd, Castlereagh Rd, Holywood, Ballybeen, Tullycarnet, Shankill Rd, north Down, Bangor.

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In Defence Of The Woodvale

2022-09-182024-07-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The end wall of Columbia Street in the Woodvale was knocked down, taking with it a former Duke Elliott/UDA mural, which was then replaced with boards (rather than murals) commemorating the history of the UDA and Elliott. Elliott lived one street over, in Leopold Street (WP). He was killed in 1972, at age 28, in a dispute with other UDA members.

Ohio St

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They Shall Not Grow Old

2022-09-182024-07-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Remember With Pride” (with a poppy). Although the dates of his birth and death are given, Stevie “Top Gun” McKeag’s name appears only on the side-wall of this new mural in the lower Shankill estate. McKeag was the top assassin in the UDA during the 1990s, claiming at least 12 victims. Both his WP page and this Guardian article describe his career and preeminent standing within the UDA.

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Operation Lion

2022-09-132024-07-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

John Henry Patterson went from Ireland to Kenya, where he killed several lions after months of hunting. He wrote an account of the hunt entitled The Man-Eaters of Tsavo which has inspired three movies; the lions, named The Ghost and The Darkness, were both over nine feet in length. Back in Ireland he commanded a battalion of the UVF and was involved in the Larne gun-running of 1914: Operation Lion.

The final panel (on the right) shows the star of David and a quote from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “In all of Jewish history we have never had a Christian friend as understanding and devoted.” The interim panels described Patterson’s raising and leading of the Jewish battalions of the Royal Fusiliers in WWI. After dying in obscurity in Los Angeles in 1947, his remains were transported to Israel in December 2014 and reinterred (video). For more, including a recording of Patterson’s voice, see this BBC Magazine article.

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To All Foreign Nationals Across The Empire

2022-09-132024-07-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Are you one of Kitchener’s own?” asks this mural in Northumberland Street: “We here pay grateful and everlasting tribute, to all foreign nationals across the empire, who courageously and passionately fought side by side with their British counterparts, for King and country, during the First World War.” The left-hand side (second image) features images of soldiers from the West Indies and India, including “The Flying Sikh”, Hardit Singh Malik and a French lady as she “pins flowers on a regiment containing Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus.” On the right, images of the “presentation of Colours to the 51st Battalion Canadian expeditionary force” and of Canadian “bluebird” nurses in the Canadian Army Medical Corps.

Replaces (part of) Welcome To The Shankill. See Belfast Live for an image from the launch.

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UDU-UFF-UDA

2008-01-012025-12-05Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is a 2007? repainting of a lower Shankill mural placing Ulster Freedom Fighters/Ulster Defence Association (UFF/UDA) within the historical context of “a new organization entitled the Ulster Defence Association, the objects of which are to elect an assembly of 600 delegates, having authority to declare the policy and direct the action of the Ulster Unionists and to raise funds for the purposes of the organization from loyalists of all classes.” The motto of the organisation was “Quis separabit” (which is the same as the UDA’s).

The Union faded away in the 1910s, but the name was revived by the UDA in 2007.

The manifesto was launched on St Patrick’s day 1893, in response to the 2nd Home Rule bill. Membership was closed on June 1st, by which time 170,000 people had signed up. The newspaper source of the text is unknown; a similar newspaper article from the Tasmanian Daily Telegraph can be found here. The words “Ulster Defence Association” do not occur in the manifesto.

For more on Saunderson, see Union Is Strength.

Golden Jubilee

2008-01-012025-12-05Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Elizabeth the second by the grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and our other realms and territories, queen, head of the commonwealth, defender of the faith.” “Elizabeth II dea [sic] gratia Britannia regina fidei defensor”. “We the British subjects of Ulster pledge our allegiance to her sovereign majesty Queen Elizabeth II now and forever. The heart of the empire Ulsters loyal citizens.”

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor acceded to the throne of the United Kingdom in 1952 (she was crowned in 1953). 2002 was her golden jubilee year.

N Howard Street, west Belfast

We Won’t Have Home Rule

2008-01-012025-12-04Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

These three panels are in the courtyard of the Rex Bar in what used to be Moscow Street, celebrating resistance to Home Rule – Covenant Day September 28th 1912; the formation of the Ulster Volunteers, being reviewed at Fernhill House in Glencairn Park by Edward Carson; “Deserted! Well I can stand alone“; and (in post-partition Northern Ireland) “a Protestant farmer’s wife guards her husband against sectarian attack from across the border”.