The Sergeant Lindsay Mooney Memorial Flute Band was formed in 1973 after the St. Patrick’s day death of Lindsay Mooney, a UDA member killed by the premature explosion of a bomb near Lifford, County Donegal (Sutton). The band was not in operation between 1993 and 2013 (NI World) but re-formed some time around 2021. This new piece replaces the faded board seen in 2023’s In A Foreign Land.
“‘Nothing great and durable can be created without the presence of an elite’ – SLMMFB” with a list of battalions from the Londonderry And North Antrim brigade of the UDA: Londonderry, Coleraine, Ballymoney, Ballymena, Bushmills, and “South Londonderry & East Tyrone”.
The quotation (“Nothing great and durable …”) seems to be a UDA creation; it has been used in other UDA murals in east Belfast (T00245) and Larne (J1611/J2039).
The house in Bond’s Place that had been home to an Eddie mural for many years was torn down in the summer of 2021; it had been used since at least 1982 for images of the Commonwealth, King Billy, and, since 1996, Eddie The Trooper. The final Eddie board that was on the wall has been moved one neighbourhood over, into Lincoln Court. It was the first to include the words “Spirit Of ’93” – presumably a reference to the Greysteel Massacre in which eight people in the Rising Sun bar were killed in reprisal for the Shankill Bombing (BelTel). The “raid” was planned in – and both gunmen rented rooms at – the UDP office on Bond’s Place, just across Bonds Street (NI Judiciary).
“SLMFB” is the Sergeant Lindsay Mooney Flute Band, though it is more fully the “SLM Memorial FB“.
“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.”
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
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).
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 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.
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.”
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.
Paddy Duffy Collection 