36th (Ulster) Division

Pass Not This Spot In Sorrow

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

There has been a 36th Division board on this wall since 2003 (see Steeple Defenders) and this second one is now more than a decade old – see the 2013 post on Peter’s site. It is accompanied by two quotations:
“Pass not this spot in sorrow but in pride/That you may live as nobly as they died.” These lines are also used in a WWI memorial mural in Carlingford Street, Belfast.
“They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old./Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn./At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.” from Binyon’s For The Fallen.

The mural below, with YCV and 36th Division emblems and a “South Antrim 1st Batt” flag was added in 2016. There’s no mention on-line of “Vol. Jimmy Fee” of the 1st (and only) battalion of the South Antrim brigade.

The board and mural are on the gable next to the Steeple memorial mural to Denver Smith; between the two gables is the UVF flag shown below.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01978 T01979 Parkhall Road all gave some some gave all thank you nhs

Ulster Volunteer Forces

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

On the front of the wall, soldiers from the 36th (Ulster) Division stop at a grave as they march through Flanders Fields; just around the corner (second image) is a memorial to a (modern) UVF member “Vol. D[avid] Langley, 1969-2018”.

For the previous Somme mural in this spot, see Steeple Defenders.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01973 T01974

We Band Of Brothers

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is a UVF/YCV mural in Grange Drive, Ballyclare, celebrating and commemorating soldiers from the Ulster Volunteers who went on to serve in the 36th (Ulster) Division in WWI and in particular at the Somme. The central panel shows soldiers bearing the Division’s standard (painted in colour in an otherwise black-and-white mural and in the style of the (US) Marines ‘Iwo Jima’ Memorial (WP)) which comprises the Union flag, harp insignia of the Royal Irish Rifles, and the red hand of Ulster on a field of shamrocks.

The other panels show uniforms of the Ulster Volunteers, a Protestant woman defending the fields, soldiers going over the top, and soldiers bowed at a UVF memorial.

Also included, below, is an ‘over the top’ image from a substation at the very top of the estate.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01801 [T01802] T01804 Henry V shakespeare

The Men Of 108th Brigade

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

In the Great War, the men from Ballyclare generally joined the 12th (Central Antrim) battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles (the emblem of which is on the left), and were assigned to the 108th brigade along with others from south Antrim and County Down.

The wear on this mural suggests that it might have been painted (by Dee Craig – Fb) at the same time as Ballyclare Remembers, for the centenary of the Somme; there is no record of it in any of the usual sources or Dee’s page.

Rashee Court, Ballyclare

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01826r

UVF Motor Car Corps

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The first time that the horseless carriage was used in a military operation was the Ulster Volunteers’ “Larne Gunrunning” of April 1914. By this time, there are thought to have been 350 vehicles in the Corps (Angelsey). It’s not clear whether the cars were later used by the 36th (Ulster) Division – please comment/get in touch if you can shed light on this. (For Spencer’s quote on the left, see I am not an Ulsterman.) The plaque is to (modern) UVF volunteer ‘Squeak’ Seymour.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T01770 [T01769]

The Sacrifice Remains The Same

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Time changes! But the sacrifice remains the same.” The board shows, in black and white, a WWI soldier, who is comforting another solider, in modern gear and in colour. The emblems of the 36th (Ulster) division and Royal Irish Rifles are also shown. Sponsored by the EU and the Cosy Somme Association. This is a repainted version of the original (late 2013) board which had faded badly.

The same board, at smaller scale, can also be found on Whitehead Orange hall.

Ogilvie Street, east Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01660 [T01661] T01662

In The Footsteps Of Heroes

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

In this board the Rising Sons Flute Band (“RSFB”) portrays itself as following in the footsteps of the Ulster Volunteers who joined the British Army and specifically the 8th battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles in the 36th (Ulster) Division, which was drawn from east Belfast’s Ulster Volunteers in 1914.

The insignia for the battalion is usually shown as dark blue rather than the black shown here – see the mural of 36th Division insignia in Canada Street. There is a similar board outside the band’s practice hall in Castlereagh Street.

Albertbridge Road, east Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01550

Bowtown UVF

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a gallery of UVF boards along Abbot Drive, in Bowtown, Newtownards, mixing North Down with East Belfast brigades (see East East Belfast), and mixing UVF/PAF with the Ulster Volunteers and 36th Division – “Through the years the uniforms may change but our cause will always remain the same”. “The prevention of the erosion of our identity is now our priority.”

There is also a board to QEII – see Bowtown Thanks You.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
[T01561] T01562 T01563 [T01564] T01565 T01566
T01557 T01558 [T01559] [T01560] [T01561] T01568 T01569

East Belfast Volunteers

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This mural and its accompanying plaques, at the mouth of Canada Street, commemorate WWI and celebrate the Victoria Crosses won by members of the 36th (Ulster) Division “For valour”: Cather, McFadzean, Bell, Quigg, Emerson, De Wind, Seaman, Knox, and Harvey. The main mural features insignia of more than thirty units of types ranging from machine gunners to vets.

Canada Street; repainted version of East Belfast Volunteers.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01543 T01542

Because He Loves What Is Behind Him

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Shankill Somme Association’s garden of reflection has added a number of new boards.

The board shown above is JP Beadle’s painting “Battle of the Somme: Attack of the Ulster Division”, which hangs in Belfast City Hall (militaryprints.com). It replaces a painting of a soldier in a field of poppies, seen in The Great War.

To its left is John Singer Sargent’s painting “Gassed”, showing the “aftermath of an indiscriminate mustard gas attack on British forces during the Battle of Arras 21st August 1918” (which also forms a part of a memorial in east Belfast) with the GK Chesterton quote “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is front of him, but because he loves what is behind him”.

Also new – and somewhat out of place – is the Northern Ireland Centenary board featuring James Craig: “It would be rather interesting for historians of the future to compare a Catholic state launched in the south with a Protestant state launched in the north and to see which gets on the better and prospers the more”. There are other “floreat Ultona” boards/murals in the Village (focusing on the B Specials and UDR) and in Rathcoole (where “Ulster welcomes her King and Queen”).

There are also three insignia on the gates (compare with M05717), to the Royal Navy, the Ulster Volunteer Medical & Nursing Corps, and the Royal Flying Corp.

Previously (c. 2017), the undead soldiers of We Shall Not Sleep were replaced with an image of the Cross Of Sacrifice memorial – the original is in Ypres, Belgium but there is also one in the City Cemetery – see One In Design And Intention. At the same time, the poppy plaques for individual local soldiers and the image of the Menin Gate were also added.

The Flanders Field board appears to have survived since 2012 – see Somme Memorial.

The final image below shows the new stone surround for the main memorial. See (again) Somme Memorial.

For the 20th anniversary electrical box on the footpath outside, see Shankill Somme Association.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01427 [T01428] T01436 T01438 [T01437] T01435 T01433 [T01434] T01432 [T01431] T01426 [T01429] T01425 T01424 T01423
[T01439] [T01430]