36th (Ulster) Division

The Dead We Honour Here

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“The dead we honour here made the noble sacrifice for a cause that should never be forgotten.” A new board has been added to the memorial to the Ulster Volunteers on the Newtownards Road at St Leonard’s Crescent (the old Newcastle Street) over the bricked-up windows of the Belvoir Bar (see previously Not For Sale). The annual parade of the Belvoir Somme Association took place at the end of September (youtube)

The portrait of Carson was previously on the corner of Welland Street. The UVF Band mural is to the right of the memorial: see The Great War and They Said We’d Never Last.

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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Ulster’s VC Heroes david nelson ernest wright alexander william mcfadzean edmund de win richard annesley west hugh colvin james somers jams duffy robert morrow edward barry stewart bingham thomas hughes robert hill hanna robert quigg john spencer dunville eric norman frankland bell james crichton geoffrey st. george shillington cather james anson otho brooke john alexander sinton dedicated to the women of east belfast that served in wwi and wwii

Victoria Crosses Of The 36th (Ulster) Division

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Dee Craig updated the Victoria Crosses mural in Cregagh, honoring G[eoffrey St. George Shillington] Cather, W[illiam Frederick] MacFadzean, R[obert] Quigg, and E[ric] N[orman] F[rankland] Bell. Five more were included in a board on the Shankill and another in Willowfield Street. (For the previous Cregagh version, see M03390)

Cappagh Gardens, Cregagh, Castlereagh

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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Ulster And Scotland Did Answer The Call

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The Battle Of Assaye (India) took place on September 23rd, 1803, and the 74th regiment of the Royal Highland Fusiliers became known as the Assaye regiment in recognition of their performance (WP). By the time of WWI, the regiment had been merged into the Highland Light Infantry, whose 2nd battalion fought at the Somme in 1916 alongside the 36th (Ulster) Division (WP). The Highlanders’ emblem (which still includes the word “Assaye”) is on the right, the Ulster Volunteers’ on the left. In the apex are the flags of the UVF and YCV (14th battalion Royal Irish Rifles). This new mural commemorates the UVF volunteers of both WWI and the Scottish brigade: J. Rankin, Br. Creer, B. Wilson, B. Creer, A. Steele.

“Ulster and Scotland did answer the call/Together in battle they bled and fall/Shoulder to shoulder their lives they did give/It’s to them we give thanks/For the lives that we live.”

“We are the dead. Short days ago/We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow/Loved and were loved/And now we lie/In Flanders Fields.”

Disraeli St

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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Shankill Star

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This memorial to Brian Robinson (unveiled March 2, 2013) was sponsored by the Shankill Star Flute Band, in Disraeli Street – where Robinson grew up – and is replete with images from the first World War such as soldiers (both British and German), trenches and poppies.

Robinson was killed on 2 Sept., 1989 by an army undercover unit moments after he had shot and killed a Catholic named Patrick McKenna (WP). This is the second mural on the street to Robinson. The piece is not paint, but printed laminate, which is now cracking and peeling.

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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XXXVI

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The main battles of the 36th (Ulster) Division (“XXXVI”) are listed – Somme, Thiepval, Messines, Ypres, Cambrai, Somme (1918), St. Quintin [St. Quentin], Lys, Courtrai – and those who died are commemorated on this new board. The main board is surrounded by smaller boards, part of the Poppy Trail, bearing the names, ages, addresses, ranks, and units of deceased soldiers. For example: William Lyttle, aged 18, 16 Tenth Street, 9th batt. Royal Irish Rifles, Rifleman 13044.

The same (main) board has also been mounted on the Shankill: see Improving Your Environment.

Replaces: They Haven’t Gone Away and Welcome To The Shankill.

The info board above reads: “Thousands of brave Shankill men marched down our road and off to war, over 1500 of them never returned, with over 150 losing their lives on the 1st day of July 1916.”

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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Thomas George Wortley

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“Sgt. Thomas George Wortley , “D Coy” 14th Btn. Royal Irish Rifles, Service No. 14/17063, Died Messines 07-06-1917, Spanbroekmolen British Cemetary Grave C10″. Wortley was born in Carrickfergus, lived in Belfast, died on the first day of the battle at Messines (findagrave), buried in a small cemetery of British soldiers, many from the 36th (Ulster) Division, in Spanbroekmolen on the Ypres Salient in Flanders (WP) – shown in the mural – and is remembered in Carrickfergus with a parade each year on the date of his death (carrickfergusrollofhonour).

Maple Gardens, Carrickfergus

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Copyright © 2012 Paddy Duffy
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Time In Hell

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A dead WWI soldier in the scorched Belgian countryside is comforted by an ethereal figure who will convey him to heaven: A soldier standing at heaven’s gate/To St. Peter he did tell/I’m here to enter heaven now/I’ve served my time in hell – a variation on James Donahue’s WWII Soldier’s Poem (WP). The poem was previously used of Republicans in a 1981 mural in Derry (see I Refuse To Change/M00151).

The Larches, Carrickfergus

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Copyright © 2012 Paddy Duffy
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Charge Of The 36th At Thiepval

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“The charge of the 36th (Ulster) Division at Thiepval, 1st July 1916. By the end of the battle, five thousand five hundred Ulstermen lay dead. ‘At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.’”

Inniscarn Drive, Rathcoole, Newtownabbey

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Copyright © 2011/2012 Paddy Duffy
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Ulster Tower

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“The Ulster Tower is a memorial to the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division. It was officially opened on 19th November 1921 by Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson. The tower is located close to the Schwaben Redoubt, a German stronghold at the edge of Thiepval Wood, France, which the Ulster Division attacked at 7.30 am on the 1st July 1916.”

“This mural was dedicated to the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division on 31st July 2010 by the West Belfast Athletic And Cultural Society. ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends’ – John 15:13”.

Conway Street (“Somme Street”), Shankill, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2012 Paddy Duffy
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Charge From Thiepval Wood

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The nameplate on the lower corner of Northland Street now reads “Thiepval Street” and the Thiepval board above adorns the end wall (replacing an earlier mural to UVF A Company 5th platoon). On the other side of Conway Street is/was North Howard Walk where a plate now reads “Passchendaele Court“. The names are unofficial (as of November 15th, 2012). (See also “Somme Street”.)

The memorial stone is dedicated to the UVF company (and not to the WWI soldiers from the 36th (Ulster) Division who died in the charge from Thiepval Wood, July 1st, 1916): “This stone is dedicated to the memory of the fallen volunteers of No. 5 platoon A company 1st Belfast battalion Ulster Volunteer Force. ‘As poppy petals gently fall/Remember us who gave our all/Not in the mud of foreign lands/Nor buried in the desert sands//In Ulster field and farm and town/Fermanagh’s lanes and Drumlin’d Down/We died that violent death should cease/And Ulstermen might live in peace’ Lest we forget.”

The Conway Walk mural was produced by the “Shankill 1st Somme [Association]” with support from the “Govan Somme Association, Grapes Bar, Glasgow”.

Northland Street and Conway Walk, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2012 Paddy Duffy
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