Here, side by side, are a UDA East Belfast Brigade, 5th battalion board, and a jaunty “Tullycarnet Youth” piece of aerosol art.
Facing the library in Granton Park, Tullycarnet.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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An anti-drug-dealing message (see Peace Impact Programme) has been added below the (2nd battalion North Antrim & Londonderry) UDA emblem (seen previously in 2012) in Linden Avenue, Coleraine.
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“In proud [and] loving memory: Vol William Campbell, a true Ulsterman who paid the supreme price for the love of his country. William Campbell, who lost his life on active service 3rd January 2002. Quis separabit. 2nd Batt Coleraine.”
This is the third memorial board to Campbell – who died at the age of 19 when a pipe-bomb exploded prematurely – replacing others seen in 2013 and in 2007.
Tullyarton Road, Harpur’s Hill, Coleraine
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T03335 anti-Agreement
The more familiar mythological figure in Northern Irish muraling — both CNR and PUL — is Cú Chulaınn (Visual History) but this Bushmills board features another larger-than-life figure, from slightly later mythology, Fıonn Mac Cumhaıll/Finn MacCool. In legend, Fionn ate the salmon of knowledge and became leader of the Fianna. His connection to the north Antrim coast is that he is the supposed creator of the “Giant’s Causeway”, the basalt columns that stretch out into the Atlantic Ocean, seemingly towards Scotland.
The Causeway and Finn are both used in the board shown above as symbols of the UDA North Antrim & Londonderry brigade’s 5th battalion/Giant’s Causeway Protestant Boys flute band (Fb) in Dundarave Road, Bushmills, which is about three miles from the Causeway. The board is also notable for its use of the flag of the proposed ‘independent Northern Ireland’, for which see (e.g.) We Must Share The Responsibility | One Island, Two Nations | Freedom Corner which features Cú Chulaınn.
The second image is a UDA/UYM emblem at the entrance to the estate. The third is further along. The last is not from Dundarave but from the exterior of a pub on Main Street.
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“North Antrim & Londonderry brigade, UFF, Ballymoney 3rd battalion” – hooded men with assault rifles remain on the walls in Alexandra Avenue/The Crescent, Ballymoney.
See also: Fifty Years Of Service.
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“Loyalist Glebeside Stands by Soldier F – Our veterans are HEROES not criminals.” Despite the support of Ballymoney loyalists, a court in Derry ruled in mid-December that Soldier F would stand trial on two murder charges and five attempted murders (BBC | BBC video), ahead of the forthcoming implementation of new legislation that would exempt former British Army personnel from prosecution (see Bill Of Shame).
The tarp is next to the Causeway-style UDA memorial in Alexandra Avenue: “This garden of reflection is dedicated to the sacred memory of all patriots from North Antrim who in times of danger rose up in defence of their beloved Ulster – Let us who follow remember them with pride. Quis separabit. Lindsay Mooney, Benny Redfern, Cecil McKnight, Gary Lynch, Ray Smallwoods, William Campbell.”
The same six are listed in The Terror, Threats, And Dread, In Defence Of Our Civil And Religious Liberties, and In Glorious Memory.
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Here is a survey of the UDA boards in Carnany estate, Ballymoney. Many of these have been seen before (in Ulster’s Past Defenders, Ulster’s Present Defenders, The Terror, Threats, And Dread, and Ballymoney UDA). The anti-drugs board in the final image is new (see previously the one in Londonderry: Peace Impact Programme) and the one shown above and immediately below is an updated version of the board shown in Past, Present, For All Time. The dates given in the earlier version were 1972 and 2016; in this one, for “50 years of service”, they are 1971 and 2021. 1971 is the typical date given for the formation (in Belfast) of the the UDA; the 1972 date might have been a specific reference to the North Antrim And Londonderry brigade or the beginning of the Londonderry UDA’s actions, with bomb attacks on a factory and a pub in Donegal in October and November, 1972 (WP).
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“The blood our comrades shed shall not have been in vain. We honour Ulster’s dead and staunch we will remain.” better to die on your knees than live in an Irish republic don’t let drugs destroy your community declaration of arbroath
This UDA board on the eastern side of the Leckagh estate names six men who “gave everything in defence of our civil and religious liberties”: Lindsay Mooney (remembered also in the Fountain and Lincoln Court areas of Londonderry), Benny Redfern (this board replaces a board dedicated to Redfern alone), Cecil McKnight (Waterside), Gary Lynch (Waterside), Ray Smallwoods (Lisburn), William Campbell (Coleraine).
“North Antrim – Londonderry – Tyrone brigade”, “Remembered by all South Londonderry & Tyrone 6th batt.”
For the Ulster Volunteers/UVF memorials in the middle of the estate, see Leckagh Remembers The Fallen and Pause, Reflect, Remember.
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Cloughfern Young Conquerors flute band (Fb) was founded 50 years ago this year – 1973, the same year as the UDA began using the name “UFF.
The ‘wigned-maiden harp’ emblem is used on both sides. With “Quis separabit” is the Royal Irish/Ulster Regiment/Rifles, but perhaps the UDR is intended. On the left, the style and surround imitates the emblem of the UDA; the right-hand side reproduces a former mural to the UDA’s John “Grug” Gregg and Rab Carson on the nearby gable – see Gregg & Carson. Gregg was a bass drummer in the band; he and three other bandsmen were fined in 1997 for assaulting police officers at an Apprentice Boys march (Bel Tel). Gregg was shot, along with Carson, in 2003, in the feud with Adair’s west Belfast C Company (WP).
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02818 T02816 T02817 T02814 [T02815] absent friends lest we forget
Here is a gallery of six boards from Harryville (four from Larne St/Larne Rd and two from Queen Street). The newest one is shown above; it celebrates Colonel Saunderson, a founder of the Ulster Defence Union, and organisation formed in 1893 to resist the second Home Rule bill. As mentioned on the board, the UDU initially met in Belfast in March and Saunderson was among the signatories of the UDU manifesto (see page 5 of the [Sydney] Freeman’s for 1893-04-29). For more on Saunderson, see Union Is Strength. The second bill was passed by the Commons but defeated in the Lords. The champions of resistence against the third Home Rule bill were Carson and Craig, shown in the penultimate image with the “Ulster Covenant” of September, 2012.
The name “Ulster Defence Union” is being used by some anti-Agreement factions of the UDA as a name for the organisation (starting in 2007 – see WDA on Peter Moloney’s site). The second board, just below, is a 4th Battalion South East Antrim UDA/UDU board. The UDA was formed in September 1971 and hence was 50 years old in 2021. The remaining two images show the UDA on parade at Harryville Bridge and in front of Pentagon House.
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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