Ulster Volunteers/YCV

South Belfast Volunteers

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Along the top are the emblems of the Royal Inniskilling (27th) Fusiliers (featuring Crom castle), Royal Irish Rifles (featuring the Maid Of Erin harp), Royal Irish Fusiliers (featuring the barossa eagle).

Wrapped around the left column are “Ballykinler, Finner, Clandeboye” – three of the training camps of the 36th. Wrapped around the right column is “Lest we forget”.

The central text reads: “Ravenhill – Village – Donegall Pass – Ormeau Rd – Sandy Row – Lisburn Rd. 10th infantry battalion Royal Irish Rifles, 36th (Ulster) Division, South Belfast Volunteers”

The Union Flag appears in the lower left, next to an unidentified medal, while the flag of Ulster (rather than Northern Ireland, which did not yet exist) appears in the lower right, next to a Victory medal. (In a previous version of this painting, the Union Flag was a VC and the medal was a Distinguished Conduct Medal.) Between them is the emblem of the 36th Division.

The main image shows three graveside mourners standing in a field of barbed wire and in front of ?mis-shapen tombstones?, all against a background of sunrise over a mountain on which have been superimposed (left) a map of the Somme and (right) a large UVF emblem.

Painted by Ron McMurry on boards. Donegall Pass, south Belfast

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Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T00251

36th (Ulster) Division

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“In remembrance of the 36th (Ulster) Division – For God and Ulster”. “1912” (on either side of the UVF emblem) refers to the founding of the Ulster Volunteers, who went on to join the 36th Division of the British Army, fighting at “Albert, Beaucourt, Thiepval, Grand Court, Passchendaele, Somme, Courtrai, Ypres, Cambreai [Cambrai], Rossieres [Rosières], Flanders, Baitleul [Bailleul], St Quentin, Beaumont[-]Hamel, Sch waden [Schwaben] Redoubt, Fricourt, Messines”. The stone in front reads, “At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.”

Cashel Close, Monkstown, Newtownabbey

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Copyright © 1996 Paddy Duffy (no date given)
T00241

Still Defending Ulster

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“Still defending Ulster – we will always be ready. 1912 – 1969. To the politicians: words are not enough for the peace and freedom of the children and the people of Ulster “deeds and actions”. To our volunteers: the supreme sacrifice is to lay down your life for your country. Some have given everything, others have yet to give.”

The modern volunteer, while hooded, is not in an active pose, reflecting the ceasefire. The word “to the politicians” perhaps express frustration with the peace process (and hint at the continued violence of the LVF, created after the dispute in July at Drumcree).

Kenilworth Place, east Belfast

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Copyright © 1996 Paddy Duffy
T00151

Then And Now

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“They fought then for the cause of Ulster, we will fight now.” The 75th anniversary of the Ulster Volunteers is celebrated in this mural in Dover Place, west Belfast. On the left of the Northern Island is an Ulster Volunteer in period (1912) garb standing on a patch of ground, on the right, a modern (1987) paramilitary in hood and fatigues standing on a city footpath. The Ulster Volunteers as such did not fight for Ulster – they instead joined the British Army and fought “for King and Empire” in WWI, after which Home Rule was applied only to 26 counties of Ireland and Northern Ireland was created and remained within the UK.

See also: UVF 75th Anniversary

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Copyright © 1988 Paddy Duffy
T00126 [T00115]

UVF 75th Anniversary

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This mural celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Ulster Volunteers, 1912, with a portrait of Edward Carson and a rifle mounted on the back of a car (based on an image from 1914, included below). The Ulster Volunteers joined the Royal Irish Rifles as part of Kitchener’s Army in WWI, and when the war ended some of the survivors joined the northern RIC and the post-partition RUC, but at that point it is impossible to track them as a cohesive group and the only connection to the Ulster Volunteer Force of 1965 is the name.

Shankill Road (on the wall of the PUP offices, just west of ACT and the Bayardo memorial), west Belfast

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Copyright © 1988 Paddy Duffy
T00128