Various flags are flying or hanging on the Ballyduff bonfire prior to their removal and its incineration, including the flag of the Paratroop regiment. On the fencing in front are two UVF hooded gunmen boards and an Ulster Volunteers (1913) flag.
Forthill Drive, Ballyduff, Newtownabbey
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“We won’t have Home Rule.” Here is another view of the “Ulster Day” board seen previously in a gallery of five others. The heroes of the anti-Home Rule movement are Edward Carson (left) and James Craig (right). Carson and Craig were the first and third people to sign Ulster’s Solemn League And Covenant on September 28th, 1912.
For Ballymena during the Home Rule crisis, see History Ireland.
A few months later, in January 1913, the pair would found the Ulster Volunteers. The flags of the third (left) and second (right) battalions of the Central Antrim regiment of the Ulster Volunteers are in the bottom corners – see The Central Antrim Regiment. Ballymena men, however, joined the first battalion.
Painted by Dee Craig and mounted in Queen Street, Harryville, Ballymena.
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The colours of the third (Carrickfergus) battalion of the Central Antrim regiment of the Ulster Volunteers can be seen at Sam’s Flags. They are very similar to the piece shown above, except for the addition of the emblem in the top right corner (close-up immediately below) which shows the Ulster Volunteers drilling with a machine-gun mounted in a car, preparing to resist Home Rule – see this 1988 mural and the photograph in this History Ireland article. (See also UVF Motor Car Corps.) In the Royal Irish Rifles of WWI, however, Central Antrim became the 12th battalion (War Time Memories Project).
Next to the Central Antrim flag is a board marking the “110th anniversary of the Battle Of The Somme 1 July 1916 – 1 July 2026. Honouring their courage, remembering their sacrifice. Lest we forget.”
Hawthorn Avenue/Sandes Court, Sunnylands, Carrickfergus, replacing Remembering Our Fallen.
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“The Tandragee company of the Ulster Volunteer Force were formed in 1913 as part of the wider Ulster fight against Home Rule. Tandragee ‘B’ Company where [were] part of the third battalion of the County Armagh Regiment UVF with headquarters in Tandragee Castle. Upon the outbreak of the Great War many of the Tandragee Volunteers joined the 9th Service Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers of the 36th (Ulster) Division.”
The 9th battalion comprised volunteers from Armagh, Monaghan, and Cavan.
For a fuller version of the photograph, see Cyberprod.
Montague Street, Tandragee
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These faded Armagh murals have the titles “UVF Gun-Smuggler 1913” and “Arms Training 1913”.
The gun-smuggling mural features not the 1914 gun-running on Clyde Valley – the ship that brought in the weapons and ammunition into Larne – but a motor-car. There was earlier gun-running or bulk gun-purchasing – 175 rifles were bought from Harrods by the Earl Of Lanesborough and sent to Enniskillen (Balaclava Street) and 500 rifles were brought from Manchester in August 1913 (Irish Bayonets). (See also History Ireland.) These perhaps used automobiles for distribution, and the Larne gun-running is described as the first time that the horseless carriage was used in a military operation – there were about 350 vehicles in the “Motor Car Corps” (Angelsey p. 3).
The location of the car, and of the ‘arms training’ in the second mural, are unknown. Here is a 1914 image (Getty) showing tents and a single machine-gun at Ballywalter. The sources of both paintings are unknown.
The murals date back to at least 2012 (see the Peter Moloney Collection).
Gough Avenue, Barrack Hill, Armagh
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These flags – one to the Ulster YCV (14th RIR) and two to the Blues And Royals flute band, Sydenham (Fb) – are on the fence below the Northern Ireland Centenary board in Mersey Street, at the junction of Parkgate Drive in east Belfast.
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Here are two new small boards on the fence where Hawthorn Avenue and Sandes Court meet between Woodburn and Sunnylands. Above, “Remembering our fallen everyday [sic]” with images of soldiers from the World Wars and UVF emblems in the corners. Below, an Ulster Grenadiers flute band (Fb) board, similar to the large board mounted last year (2024) in St Bride’s Street – see Never Forget, Always Remember.
The main board, on the gable beyond – “Loyalist Woodburn celebrates 100th anniversary Northern Ireland” – and Captain Sir Tom Moore remain as in 2022’s entry – see Maintain The Union.
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This entry updates 2023’s Harryville Says No with images of two additional boards/plaques erected by the 12th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles Memorial Association (Fb), “in honour of the men from Harryville [Ballymena] who made the ultimate sacrifice during the Battle Of The Somme from 1st July to 18th November 1916”.
“Remembering 57386 Sergeant John McNabney, formerly of No 9 Larne Street, 36th Divisional signal company, awarded the distinguished conduct medal, military medal with bar, and mentioned in despatches.” McNabney’s career and many decorations are described in Ballymena Guardian | Your Lurgan.
Larne Street and Waring Street, Ballymena
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This is a printed version Wilfrid Spender’s report of the first day of the Battle Of The Somme, replacing a previously painted instance that was in the same style as the adjacent mural.
“‘I am not an Ulsterman but yesterday the First of July, as I followed their amazing attack, I felt that I would rather be an Ulsterman than anything else in the world. My pen cannot describe adequately the hundreds of heroic acts I witnessed, the Ulster Volunteer Force, from which the Division was made, has won a name that equals any in history. Their devotion deserves the gratitude of The British Empire’ – Captain Wilfrid [not “Wilfred”] Spender, The Somme 1916″
Spender’s words are superimposed upon JC Beadle’s Attack Of The 36th Division (see Over The Top).
Carlingford Street, east Belfast
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The image above shows a unified and wider view of the two pieces seen previously in Bloomfield House and In All Theatres Of Conflict: on the left, a board marking the centenary of the Ulster Volunteers’ ‘Larne Gun-Running’; on the right, a board commemorating the casualties from the 36th (Ulster) Division in WWI; above them both are small boards from the ‘Poppy Trail’ collection of deceased locals.
A close-up of the circular plaque above ‘Gunrunners’ can be seen in the Peter Moloney collection.
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Paddy Duffy Collection 