British forces – Page 6 – Paddy Duffy Collection

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.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T00881 [T00880]

To All Foreign Nationals Across The Empire

2022-09-132026-08-30Extramural 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.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T00879 [T00882]

Battle Of The Falls

2022-09-132026-08-30Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Four people were killed in the course of The Falls Curfew, the 36 hours from July 3rd to 5th in 1970 during which 3,000 houses on the lower Falls were cordoned off after a weapons search of the area devolved into a riot. The curfew ended with a march of women and children from Andersonstown bearing relief (represented in Falls Curfew 1970).

The information in the centre of the board includes an augmented version of the Wikipedia infobox on the event. Erected in the spot previously reserved by “the Official Republican Movement”.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T00876

Still No Inquest, Still No Justice

2022-09-132026-08-28Extramural Activity1 Comment

A march took place on July 9th, 2022, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Springhill-Westrock massacre, in which five people were killed by the British Army. A new inquest was directed by the AG in 2014 but has been repeatedly delayed; it is scheduled to begin next year (Belfast Live).

The march was organised by the Springhill-Westrock Campaign (Fb); it began at the memorial plaque in Springhill and ended at the memorial garden in Westrock (Irish News). See also Keep On Praying.

The mural shows the pre-fab aluminium bungalows built in Westrock in 1949.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T00891

Unrepentant Republicans

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

Here is a gallery of the republican boards along the low wall just east of the Falls garden of remembrance. From right to left: James Connolly and Seamus Costello; Divis 81; anti-PSNI; “web of corruption”; Charlie Hughes (killed in 1971 the feud with the OIRA); the Falls Curfew featuring Máıre Drumm; Billy McKee, Alec Murphy, and Brendan Hughes; the Falls Road Massacre 1920; Kieran Abram – Abram was knocked to the ground in the early hours of July 5th, 1992, and kicked to death by loyalists in running battles with nationalists on North Howard Street, near the old British Army sangar. Four people were convicted of manslaughter in the case (Judiciary NI).

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T00850 T00851 T00852 T00853 [T00854] T00855 T00856 T00857 T00858 T00859 T00860

Life Springs From Death

2022-09-132026-08-28Extramural Activity1 Comment

The new replacement board commemorating the Gibraltar 3 (Maıréad Farrell, Dan McCann, and Seán Savage “executed by British crown forces 6th March 1988) uses words from Pearse’s oration at the funeral of O’Donovan Rossa. Not the more common “the fools, the fools …” but “Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations” (used previously in Strabane in 1990 – M00860). The board is “dedicated to the memory of Thomas and Edith Haddock”.

Here is the previous board.

The Modern Order Of Hibernians

2022-09-132026-08-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A Penal law of 1695 forbade the practice of Catholicism and “dissenter” forms of Protestantism –anything other than Anglicism, forcing people and priests to worship in secret. Although the precise date of the founding of the Ancient Order Of Hibernians is shrouded by the existence of various other Catholic fraternal and defensive organisations such as St Patrick’s Fraternal Society and the Ribbonmen – the AOH history page gives 1838 in Pennsylvania – the order traces its roots back to Penal times and in particular to the Defenders in 1784, which arose to protect Catholics from the (Protestant) Peep-O-Day Boys and in defiance of Penal laws forbidding Catholics to bear arms (WP). The Belfast division (58) of the AOH is in Clonard Street.

For Penal laws, see also An Raıbh Tú Ag An gCarraıg? in Glen Bawn | The Mass Rock in Ard Eoın | Penal Days/Laethanta Na Péındlíthe in Andersonstown.

Norah McCabe

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

Norah McCabe was shot in the back of the head by a plastic bullet fired from an RUC land rover at around 7:45 a.m. on July 9th, 1981, the day after hunger striker Joe McDonnell died. (Danny Barrett would be killed by a British Army sniper in the evening.) The new boards were mounted to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of McCabe’s death. In 1981, a mural was painted at the same spot (in the old Linden Street) to protest the use of plastic bullets: see Plastic Death.

“Norah McCabe, 1947-1981, murdered by an RUC plastic bullet on 9th July 1981, aged 33 years.” With a poem “Peace” by daughter Áıne McCabe, who was three months old when her mother was killed (Irish News).

(old) Linden Street, west Belfast

HMS Belfast

2012-07-232026-08-04Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“HMS Belfast – built in Belfast to protect Britain’s future. Pro tanto quid retribuamus. [What shall we give in return for so much? – the motto of Belfast city]”. The mural shows HMS Belfast being launched on March 17, 1938. After serving in WWI and Korea, the ship is now a tourist attraction in London.

Tower Street, east Belfast