Tina Turner’s cover (youtube) of Bonnie Tyler’s song “The Best” reached #5 in the UK charts in 1989 and the phrase “simply the best” from the chorus would appear in a number of UDA murals over the years, beginning with this 1995 mural depicting hooded gunmen from the UDA/UFF’s second battalion C company.
Dover Place, west Belfast. This mural would be repainted in the Adair era to include a list of mass killings of Catholics.
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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00139c
“In memoriam: Brig. J. McMichael, Jim Kenna, Frankie Smyth, Ernie Dowds, Sammy Hunt, Steven Audley, William Kingsberry, Joe Bratty, Tommy Morgan, William Hamilton”
UDA “roll of honour” mural in Rowland Way, Sandy Row, south Belfast
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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00132
The mural at the corner of Roden Street and Donegall Road was repainted annually in 1989, 1990, and 1991. The first (see the image from 1988) lacked the McMichael memorial seen here and the white background only went half-way up the wall; the second completed the background, added LPA and UDF emblems and “In memory of John McMichael” in text (see C00525). This third iteration places the McMichael memorial and the attendant graveside mourners on a bed of grass.
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Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00120
“West Belfast Brigade UDA C Company”. UDA/UDF/LPA/UFF mural on the Shankill. (For a similar quartet of names and explanation of “UDF”, see Sans Peur.)
The title “First Ulster Defence Assoc.” is an attempt to tie together the defenders of Derry in 1688 (300th anniversary) with the modern Ulster Defence Association. This is an early attempt to give the UDA historical roots, beyond the Shankill and Woodvale Defence Associations. To this end, the group would adopt Cú Chulaınn (beginning in 1992 – see the Visual History page) and (beginning in 2007 – see UDU-UFF-UDA) the 1893 Ulster Defence Union as ancestors.
Canmore Street, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1988 Paddy Duffy
T00118
“UDA “A” batt. South Belfast. RSD [Roden Street Defenders (private Fb)] UFF”
This is the mural that greets travellers moving west along Donegall Road to the Village. The houses in Beit Street have been knocked down and their replacements, which face directly onto Roden Street, no longer reach all the way to Donegall Road, leaving this gable as a prime painting space.
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Copyright © 1988 Paddy Duffy
T00239
These are murals from completing organisations, the UVF (above) represented by an Uzi above various flags and the emblem of the UVF, and the UDA (below) represented additionally by hooded volunteers on manoeuvres. They were together on the Crumlin Road, on waste-ground at the top of Queensland Street and at the top of Tasmania Street. On the gable next to the UVF flags large YCV and 36th Division emblems would be added – see the Peter Moloney Collection.
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Copyright © 1988 Paddy Duffy
T00143 [T00238]
T00142
Paddy Duffy Collection 