This entry updates Dieu Et Mon Droit from 2023. The boards are showing some signs of wear, and the large ‘Eddie The Trooper’ board is missing.
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Antiville UDA
UDA/UFF/UYM
North Down Defenders
“North Down Defenders flute band [Fb], est. 2004. In memorium [sic] T. Mercer, R. Shaw, K. Shaw, G. Shaw, D. Shaw, A. Johnston, P. Magee, S. Stewart, J. Mills.”
This piece perhaps takes the place of the NDD mural at the entrance to the estate, which was replaced in 2024.
The three emblems with fists and “73” in the central emblem are from the Ulster Freedom Fighters.
Carrowdore Gardens, Kilcooley, Bangor
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Duke Elliott
The previous tribute to Duke Elliott was installed in 2013 as the houses in Columbia Street were being rebuilt. Ernie “Duke” Elliott came from the Woodvale area (Leopold Street) and was a founder member of the Woodvale Defence Association in 1971, which was later folded into the UDA. He was also a Marxist. He was killed at age 28 in a pub brawl in December 1972 in a dispute over weapons (WP | Tele | Watching The Door).
The plaque “dedicated to the officers and members of ‘B’ Company WDA (UFF)” has been retained. Also included is an image of the plaque that was added (c. 2022) to the main mural, commemorating Jackie Parsons.
Ohio Street, Woodvale, west Belfast
Buster Adams, Noel Clements, Tommy Aiken, Allistair Cousins, Billy Andrews, Irene Craig, Davy Armstrong, Drew Crawford, Fred Bailie, John Crossett, Wilbur Barnes, Tommy Dinsmore, Mark Barr, Jimmy Dowie, Sam Black, Tony Duff, Tommy Black, Ray Dummigan, Tommy Boyd, Tom Edgar, Davy Bryson, Ernie Elliot, Jimmy Carberry, Brian Faulkner // Billy Fenton, Tommy Hill, Hedgie Ferguson, Trevor Hill, Billy Gardner, Keek Holmes, Lewis Gilbert, Tommy Howells, Billy Graham, Bertie Howells, Travis Grey, Jim Hutchinson, Dennis Grey, Geordie Johnston, Geordie Hall, Tom Johnston, Jimmy Hall, Maurice Kavanagh, Stephen Hamilton, John Kennedy, Bobby Harvey, John Kiltie, Billy Higginson
Geordie King, Lee McKeag, Hugh Linton, Betty McMillan, Billy Little, Bob McMillan, Harry Lockhart, Robert McMillan, Rab Lockhart, Norman McMillan, Drew McAllister, George McMurray, William McBride, Jimmy Millar, Bobby McCade, Archie Millar, Tommy McCormick, Victor Moody, Joe McCann, Wesley Morrison, John McCrea, Graham Murdock // Jonny Nelson, Tommy Totten, Freddie Parkinson, Billy Thompson, David Parker, Phillip Thompson, Jackie Parsons, Mark Turner, Bobby Patterson, Jimmy Welshman, Ned Pollock, Lou West, Charlie Quinn, Stanley West, Ray Riley, Cecil Williamson, Jackie Robinson, Silver Wilson, George Selby, Tucker Yates, Sammy Swain, Sandy Wright
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Slaughter Of The Innocents
The flags of the Paratroop Regiment and Israel fly alongside the Union Flag over the Bayardo memorial on the Shankill Road, west Belfast. The boards around the wall present photographs of bombings and killings under headings such as ‘Children murdered by Sinn Fein – IRA‘, ‘Sinn Fein/IRA’s Slaughter Of The Innocents’, ‘IRA – Sinn Fein – ISIS no difference‘.
The Paratroop regiment killed two Protestants on the Shankill in 1972 and the community did not forgive them – compare Stop The Witch Hunt from the middle Shankill with Paras Fight Back – but the flag is now flying at the Argyle Street memorial because, the Belfast Telegraph suggests, Soldier F has links to the area. Soldier F – the Paratroop soldier who is facing two charges of murder on Bloody Sunday 1972 – plead ‘not guilty’ in December 2024 (BBC) and will stand trial in September 2025 (BBC | RTÉ).
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Kevin McKeeman
As can be seen from the photography, Kevin McKeeman was a flute band member, perhaps part of the local Dervock Young Defenders (Fb) though the patch shown is not the current one.
He is named here alongside six “North Antrim, Londonderry, And Tyrone” UDA members – “Benny Redfern, Gary Lynch, Ray Smallwoods, Cecil McKnight, Lyndsay Mooney, William Campbell” – who are named (together) on a number of murals in Londonderry and along the north coast – for background on them, see UDA Memorial.
The memorial board is now accompanied by a poppy wreath and blue background on the substation in McArthur Avenue, Dervock – compare with the images from 2019 in Tony Crowley’s collection.
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Edinburgh Company, Lisburn UDA
The Andrew Mason memorial garden in Hillhall, Lisburn, has been revamped, with a blue background on the gable wall, the removal of two small bronze plaques below the board (for which see the Peter Moloney Collection), a rebuilt lower wall to which two new plaques have been added, and an expanded “garden” with new fencing.
The plaque on the left a new version of the plaque to John McMichael, Raymond Smallwoods, Jim Guiney, and Mason – Glenn Clarke has been added. (Compare with 2023.)
“Sons of Ulster do not be anxious for we will never forget you as long as the sun shines and the wind blows and the rain falls and the rivers of Ulster flow to the sea. Always remembered by volunteers from Hillhall C Company.”
The entirely new plaque on the right reads: “Edinburgh Company, Lisburn Battalion, South Belfast Brigade, Ulster Defence Association – ‘Let us gather, hearts entwined,/To celebrate a life that once did shine,/Our dear comrades, a soul so bright,/A testament to loyalty and highland light,/Their spirit lingers, a gentle breeze,/A life well lived, forever at ease.'” “Edinburgh Company” perhaps indicates the source of the funds that made the modifications possible.
Hillhall Gardens, Lisburn
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Our Community Transformation
Ivan Davis was a DUP and then UUP politician who was a Lisburn borough councillor (and mayor 1991-1993) and member of the Assembly for Lagan Valley from 1998 to 2003, before being ousted in favour of the anti-Agreement Jeffrey Donaldson (BBC). He died in 2020 (BelTel). The stone in his memory is in the garden at the top of Old Warren: “In memory of Ivan Davis O.B.E. Freeman of the city of Lisburn, a dedicated honourable public servant who worked tirelessly for the entire community of Lisburn.”
The boards on the wall were seen previously in 2023’s Conflict To Peace – which includes a colour photograph of the old UDA mural – and 2024’s Faith, Blood, Service, Sacrifice.
Avonmore Park, Old Warren, Lisburn
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The Present Conflict
This is a new UDA board in Monkstown, Newtownabbey. At the top we see the emblems of “Loyalist Prisoners’ Aid” and “Ulster Defence Union” alongside the familiar UYM and UFF emblems. For the UDU, see the entry on one its earliest appearances, in a 2009 mural in the lower Shankill. Loyalist Prisoners’ Aid is a fundraising album of UDA songs (now freely available at SoNIC). (Also seen: an LPA flag flying in Newtownards in 2018.)
The photograph at the bottom (close-up below) shows the UDA marching in 1972 in North Street, Belfast city centre. (Of the buildings on the left, only the brick building housing “Castle jewellers” remains standing – Street View.) The original photograph can be seen at Alamy.
“This memorial is dedicated to the memory of the officers and members of our organisation who were murdered by the enemies of Ulster and to those who paid the supreme sacrifice whilst on active service during the present conflict. Quis separabit.” Four of the 1st battalion dead are named in the mural across Devenish Drive – see Monkstown UDA.
Ards Park, Monkstown, Newtownabbey. For the previous mural in this spot, see Murals Irlande Du Nord.
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Ulster’s Conflict
“In proud [and] loving memory of our fallen comrades during Ulster’s conflict. ‘Some gave all, all gave some.’ South Belfast Brigade.” According to Sutton, 91 UDA members died during the Troubles (CAIN).
The text on the side-wall reads, “Death is not an honour but a sacrifice and those who gave that sacrifice are remembered by those that followed. Quis separabit.”
Replacing the mural of a UDA barricade.
Rockview Street, Village, south Belfast.
September 1st:
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War And Peace
After a long spring and summer of inaction, a new tribute to UDA assassin Stevie “Top Gun” McKeag has been put in place in the lower Shankill, replacing the flat-capped version of 2016.
In Tolstoy’s War And Peace, the prince Andrei Bolkonsky at one early point remarks, “It is not given to people judge what’s right or wrong. People have eternally been mistaken and will be mistaken, and in nothing more so than in what they consider right and wrong.” But after he is wounded at the Battle Of Austerlitz in 1805 and again in 1812 at the Battle Of Borodino, he loses his admiration for the blood-thirsty Napoleon and for war in general, and comes to think that events are a function of many individual decisions.
Stevie McKeag, hit-man for the UDA’s second battalion (west Belfast) ‘C company’, killed at least a dozen Catholics between 1990 and 1998 (WP). The version presented on the left-hand side-wall (just below) begins, “It is not given to people to judge what’s right or wrong. People have internally been mistaken and will be mistaken …” which seems to be contradictory, and then continues “… and in nothing more than in what they consider right and wrong” which is difficult to parse so as to give the intended meaning.
The mirrored hooded gunmen on either side of the quote come from an old mural in the estate – see UDU-UFF-UDA.
The smiling McKeag is here shown in the main panel wearing a green beret (as is the anonymous volunteer in the side-wall) and commando jumper (with shoulder patches) as though he were a “military commander” in the Commandos or Royal Marines of the British Army. The UDU, the poppies, and the graveside mourners in the right-hand side-wall are used to put McKeag’s actions in the context of resistance to Home Rule and the British Army’s role in the Great War.
For the composition of the main panel, as well as its use of boards on top of the background, compare with the UDA piece in the Woodvale. The translation into English of the UDA’s, UFF’s, and UYM’s Latin mottos – [Quis separabit] / None shall separate us | Feriens tego / Striking I defend | Terrae Filius / Son Of The Soil – is unusual, as is the bouquet of flowers behind the poppy.
For more, including the mourning soldiers, see the entry at Extramural Activity.
“Land of the free because of the brave”. “Remember with pride”. “Those we love don’t go away/They walk beside us every day”. “Dedicated to our fallen comrade”.
April 25th, 2024: The boards were taken off, revealing an older version that stood 2010-2015.
[In the middle circle there were, over the years, a series of printed portraits of McKeag (and one painted version). For the version from 2014, see M11119; see also the image 2011, which links back to other versions from 2010, 2009, 2008, and 2007).]
May 3rd, 2024: Scaffolding in front of the wall
This layer of paint (and plaster?) was also taken off, to reveal the remains of the original King Rat mural on the wall – see X15041 in the Seosamh Mac Coille collection.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Paddy Duffy Collection 