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.
A UVF roll of honour has been added in the apex above the small memorial garden (now reduced to a single stone) in the Caw, Londonderry: “In proud remembrance of our volunteers who defended this community with courage, dignity & pride: Billy Kirkwood, Noel Burke, Davy Moore, Raymond Miller, Jock Henderson, Gary Simpson, Willie Gurney, Davy Mills, Tommy Henderson, Sam Dickson”. None of these appear to have died during the Troubles itself. There was previously a plaque to four volunteers who died in 1975.
And Wilfrid Spender’s report on the 36th Division on the first day of the battle at the Somme (July 1st, 1916) is on the right – for the text, see Their Amazing Attack.
Sperrin Park, Caw, Londonderry, replacing Undefeated.
“In eternal memory, UVF Volunteer Jimmy Fee.” This entry updates 2023’s Pass Not This Spot In Sorrow, which showed a painted UVF flag in memory of Jimmy Fee. This has been replaced by a printed board which contains a photographic portrait of Fee. As reported in that earlier entry, there is no information readily available about Fee, who perhaps died around 2016, when the original mural was painted. The two upper boards (in the shape of gravestones) have been retained from the earlier work, while the “north Antrim/Londonderry battalion, south Antrim brigade – remember them with pride” board is new.
Parkhall Road, Steeple, Antrim. The WWII banner is in the nearby Steeple Park.
The UVF boards at the junction of London and My Lady’s roads in east Belfast have been completely replaced (compared to 2022). The hooded gunmen on the short side have been replaced by “Joy, peace, love” while a tribute to David Ervine now replaces the lettering reading “East Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force”. Ervine was a UVF member from 1972 to 1980 before turning to a career in politics. “He asked the question “why can’t I be an Irish citizen of the UK?” … “An architect of peace. An inspiration to us all.” Always remembered by his family, comrades, colleagues and friends.”
Next to Ervine is a UVF roll of honour in which Roy Walker joins Robert Bennett, James Cordner, Joseph Long, and Robert Seymour, who were previously portrayed (Ulster’s Brave). Walker was killed in a feud with the UDA in 1976. And around the corner the UVF emblem has been replaced by a board to the Ulster Volunteer Force Regimental Band, containing a controversial photograph of the band marching past the site of the 1992 Sean Graham bookies massacre (Crime World). Update: the photograph has been replaced – see the parallel entry in the Seosamh Mac Coılle Collection.
The largest panel remains a tribute to the dead of WWI, for which see again the parallel entry in the Seosamh Mac Coılle Collection.
These UVF and UDA board are on adjacent walls at the entrance to the Glen estate, Newtownards; above and directly below, a North Down UVF and graffiti, while directly above it (final image) two UDA hooded gunmen take aim at the viewer on the pavement.
“Remembered with pride – Stevie McCrea, Village, south Belfast”. A plaque has been added below the large board describing Stevie McCrea’s life in Kilburn Street (seen in 2022’s Here Lies A Soldier, which includes the text on the board).
Also included below are close-ups of the plaques to McCrea and Sammy Mehaffy in Tavanagh Street, (seen together in Village UVF).
On the anniversary of David Ervine’s death, January 8th, a new board was launched in his memory, with images of Ervine “yearning for peace” in the cages of Long Kesh, where he met Gusty Spence (the pair can be seen together in the middle of the first column of photographs).
After his release, Ervine turned to politics, running unsuccessfully as a PUP candidate for Pottinger in the Belfast City Council elections of 1985 (WP); he would eventually be successful in 1997. In 1998 he was returned by Belfast East in the Assembly election (ARK). He helped bring about the loyalist ceasefire in 1994 – which was read aloud by Spence (youtube) – and was pro-Agreement in 1998 (DIB | Guardian | Slugger).
The information about the Memory Chair sculpture makes mention of Ervine’s boots but it seems they have not survived the mothballing of the sculpture which was last seen on site – boots included – in 2014.
This entry updates 2024’s Here Dead We Lie – the plaque to Boyle and Somerville remains as before (it was originally mounted in 2005) but all three of the boards have been updated. The two on the extremes have the same content as before, while the central board marks the “50th anniversary” of the death of “Volunteer Harris Boyle”, “eternally remembered by the officers and volunteers of Mid-Ulster UVF”. Both Boyle and Somerville were members of both the UDR and UVF; they were “killed in action” when the bomb they were planting on the minibus of the Miami Showband went off prematurely. A parade in Boye’s memory took place in Portadown (BBC). Surviving Showband members and their sympathisers also marked the anniversary – on July 31st, 2025 – with a service at the spot of the attack (BBC).
The boards are at the junction of Gloucester Avenue and Princess Way in Portadown – Boyle was from the Killicomaine estate; Somerville is individually commemorated in Moygashel.
This is a freshly-repainted sign for “South Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force, 2nd battalion, A company Donegall Pass” on the back wall of the Hideout bar. The previous version was painted c. 2005.
“In loving memory of volunteer John Hanna, murdered by the enemies of Ulster 10th September 1991. Always remembered by the officers and volunteers South Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force. Lest we forget.”
UVF volunteer John Hanna was 19 years old when he was killed by the IRA as he tried to escape over his back-garden wall at his home on Donegall Road in the Village (UPI).
The small board to the left reads, “Volunteer John Hanna, 30th anniversary. Always remembered by the officers and volunteers South Belfast UVF. Sandy Row C Company.” On the side-wall, the poppies and the downcast soldiers come from the first World War but the names are all of modern UVF and RHC volunteers, from 1976 to the present day.
Prince Andrew Park, just off Donegall Road, south Belfast, replacing the printed board seen in He Died That We Might Live.