36th (Ulster) Division – Page 2 – Paddy Duffy Collection

Our Only Crime Is Loyalty

2024-08-132024-11-14Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

These are the boards at the chip shop (formerly a Spar and before that a Mace) in the centre of the Mourneview estate, Lurgan.

Above, and in detail below, are the pieces from the front of the shop, in Pollock Drive. Anti-clockwise from bottom-left:

First: “Believe, we dare not boast,/Believe, we do not fear/We stand to pay the cost,/In all that men hold dear.//What answer from the North?/One Law, one Land, one Throne/If England drive us forth,/We shall not fall alone!” Kipling’s poem Ulster.

The first stanza also appears in a Belfast RHC mural, and other lines from the poem have been used elsewhere: We Perish If We Yield | The Terror, Threats, And Dread.

Second: YCV

Next (tall piece): A company, 1st battalion, Mid Ulster brigade UVF – Lurgan as well as Broxburn (outside Edinburgh) and Thornliebank (near Glasgow).

Next: PAF plus (out of frame in the wide shot) “When injustice becomes law resistance becomes duty.” The same panel was seen in Ballyclare, though for the 1st East Antrim battalion rather than the Mid Ulster brigade.

Above: A tribute to the Ulster Volunteers from the area: the 9th battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers joined the 108th brigade in the 36th (Ulster) Division; the 5th battalion joined the 31st brigade and the 10th (Irish) Division. This board goes back to (at least) 2011.

Finally (top left), a UDU/UDA board, to 1 company, D battalion, South Belfast. All of the remaining pieces are UVF/PAF.

Around the corner, in Mourne Road, a gallery of photographs of the Craigavon Protestant Boys (Fb) past and present, with a plaque in memory of Victor Stewart. “Our only crime is loyalty.”

In the adjacent Spelga Park: “Unbowed & unbroken – our only crime is loyalty – Mourneview/Gret estate bonfire” with an unusual combination of shamrock and Orange lily.

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Conspicuous Gallantry

2024-08-032024-11-10Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Dedicated to the memory of the men and women who served with the UDR C.G.C (Conspicuous Gallantry Cross) under OPERATION BANNER during the Troubles. Lest we forget. Also in memory of local veteran Geoffrey Lindsay who passed away on the 12th November 2022.”

The Conspicuous Gallantry Cross is shown (in the close-up below) at the top of the board; it was awarded to the UDR retroactively in 2006 for its role in ‘Operation Banner’, i.e. the deployment of British Army troops to Northern Ireland – the regiment had been folded into the Royal Irish Regiment in 1992. The mural is specifically to the 5th (Co. Londonderry) battalion – here is a list of the 11 battalions (and bases).

There is also a UDR information board (and an Ulster Volunteers board) in the green-space in front of this mural – see Leckagh Remembers The Fallen.

The memorial mural to the 36th (Ulster) Division on the end wall has also been completed since last (2023) year – in-progress images for both murals from last August are included below. For the previous murals on these walls, see C07766.

Two other pieces are included, below: the UVF mural was seen last year in Pause, Reflect, Remember; the ‘Ignite the fire’ board appears to be new.

Leckagh Drive, Magherafelt

August 27th green-washing of previous mural:

August 27th in-progress image of mural immediately above:

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Millbrook Arch

2024-07-102025-06-26Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Millbrook arch has three panels: “36th (Ulster) Division, Battle Of The Somme, 7:30 am 1st July 1916”; the Clyde Valley (Mountjoy II) “The SS Clyde Valley achieved notoriety for its role in the Larne gun-running operation 24th-25th April 1914”; “Sir Edward Carson signing the Ulster Covenant, Belfast City Hall 28th September 1912”.

Drumahoe Gardens, Larne

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North Down UVF

2024-03-292024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Each quadrant of Down (north, south, east, west) gave rise to a battalion of Ulster Volunteers, and North Down comprised 15 companies, almost doubling the typical British-Army size of eight companies (History Ireland; see also another History Ireland article on the initially sporadic development of the Volunteers out of Unionist Clubs).

Upon the outbreak of the Great War, the Down volunteers joined the 13th battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, which were assigned to the 108th brigade of the 36th Division of the British Army.

The mural shown in this entry is a recent repainting; the previous version was painted in 2017 (and originally c. 2007 – see M03697).

See also: Only A Few Minutes – a memorial mural to Bangor native James Samuel Davidson, of the 108th and a North Down volunteer.

Clandeboye Road, at the bottom of the Kilcooley estate.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Remembrance Sunday

2023-11-102025-11-11Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Remembrance Day, formerly known as Armistice Day, commemorates and celebrates the end of hostilities in the first World War on November 11th, 1918. Many ceremonies in the UK take place on the second Sunday of the month, regardless of the date. This practice began in 1945, changing the WWII practice of marking the occasion on the preceding Sunday, to ensure that the holiday did not fall on a work-day (WP).

This large tarp (above) is at the Shore Road memorial garden to the 10th, 36th, and 16th divisions, shown below, along with the nearby Fifes & Drums/Fairhill flute band (Fb)/Pride Of The Shore (Fb) tribute to QEII. The tarp was also seen last year: Remembrance Day.

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Armed And Ready Again

2023-10-042024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is the UVF/RHC memorial garden in Ballybeen, with individual plaques to “East Belfast battalion commander” RJ ‘Mickey’ Wilson (died 2022), Jim ‘Jonty’ Johnston (killed in 2003 BelTel), M. Walker, G. McCartney, David Brown. While most of the plaques and stones are to the modern UVF, there are three pieces to the 36th (Ulster) Division.

“Too many names to mention, but I will certainly try./Tears run down my face as I try not to cry./Their names written in gold of Volunteers gone by./These men they died heroes in battles, fought and won./They may be gone, but in our hearts remain./The Ulster Volunteer Force. The People’s Army./Armed and ready again.”

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Royal Irish Rifles

2023-08-222024-09-08Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

After WWI, the Royal Irish Rifles became the Royal Ulster Rifles (and later became part of the Royal Irish Rangers). This board prioritises WWI as the Rifles were part of the 36th Division. The hero of WWI portrayed in the central panel is William McFadzean, awarded the VC for falling on two live grenades in the trenches on July 1st, 1916. McFadzean is familiar from many previous murals both individually and in the company of other VC winners; for his family home in Cregagh, see Rubicon.

Alongside McFadzean, the hero of WWII is Blair “Paddy” Mayne, who was only briefly in the Ulster Rifles before making his name in the Parachute Unit (later, and better, known as the SAS). His many medals of honour are shown in an old Newtownards mural, though he was denied the VC.

Death August And Royal

2023-04-042025-06-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

JP Beadle’s painting “Battle of the Somme: Attack of the Ulster Division” hangs in Belfast City Hall (Royal Irish has a history of its purchase) but is reproduced here in a new Rathcoole memorial to the dead of the Great War. (A list of “Ulster’s VC Heroes” can be found at the bottom of The Dead We Honour Here, from the east Belfast memorial garden. For the King George V quote, see How Nobly They Fight And Die.)

“Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal/Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres./There is music in the midst of desolation/And a glory that shines upon our tears.” This is the second verse of Binyon’s For The Fallen, a poem whose fourth verse – “They shall not grow old …” – is used in dozens of murals and memorials. (And in one case, the fifth verse: They Sleep Beyond England’s Foam.)

John McCrae’s poem concludes the board to the left: “In August 2019 a group from Rathcoole Protestant Boys [Fb] travelled to the battlefields of World War 1 to respect the fallen. The images represented pay homage to that visit, which prved to be and continues to be a journey of discovery and appreciation for the sacrifices made by those brave souls who fought during the Great War and who paid the ultimate sacrifice. As a group and society we look to a better future in the knowledge that those who do not learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat it. ‘If ye break faith with us who die/We shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders fields.'”

South And Central Antrim Volunteers

2023-02-262024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The 11th and 12th battalions of the Royal Irish Rifles were part of the 108th brigade and the 36th (Ulster) Division in WWI.

On July 1st, 1916, the 12th battalion’s objective was to reach the German trenches beyond Beaucourt railway station with the 9th battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers (Armagh, Monaghan & Cavan Volunteers); they were cut down by machine-gun fire and unable to achieve their goal. Robert Quigg of the 12th Rifles and Geoffrey Cather of the 9th Fusiliers were awarded the VC (see previously VCs Of The 36th). The 11th was part of the attack on the Schwaben Redoubt and reached the German second line before being pushed back in the evening. (Royal Irish | Web Matters)

Silence Speaks When Words Can Not

2023-02-212024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

There was previously a (painted) mural on this wall – see Passchendaele Court – but this latest display is a large printed board, with photographs blended together and framed by graveside mourners, poppies, and the emblems of the Pride Of Govan flute band and the Govan Somme Association (Fb), which also supported the previous mural.

To the left, as seen in the final images, is a smaller UVF (1st Battalion) A Company 5th Platoon board – like the other new board in the street We Will Always Be Ready (and on the other side of Conway Street – see When Needed We Shall Rise Again).

Conway Walk, Belfast