A mixture of modern and latter-day Ulster Volunteers: the names of WWI dead are listed on both sides, while six modern volunteers are portrayed above the central panel of soldiers in a trench. J1835 lists the men (in the previous version of the mural) as J. Shaw, T. Mawhinney, J. Cordner, C. Logan, S. McCrea, W. Millar.
Inniscarn Drive, Rathcoole, Newtownabbey
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Copyright © 2011/2012 Paddy Duffy
T00645 [T00653]
Young Citizen Volunteers/Ulster Volunteer Force/Protestant Action Force mural in Rathcoole.
Inniscarn Drive, Rathcoole, Newtownabbey
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Copyright © 2011/2012 Paddy Duffy
T00644 [T00652]
“In memory of a fallen comrade Vol. Mark Quail ‘Murdered by the enemies of Ulster’ 1st November 2000 3rd Belfast Battalion Ulster Volunteer Force. Lest we forget.” Quail was shot by the UDA in the feud (Sutton).
Innis Park, Rathcoole, Newtownabbey
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Copyright © 2011/2012 Paddy Duffy
T00612
There are three murals (each with a plaque) to UVF volunteers from 1st battalion, B company, on three consecutive gables in Disraeli Street, presented here from south to north (i.e. heading towards Ohio Street).
First: “In proud and loving memory of Vol. Samuel Rockett, ‘B’ Coy 1st Belfast battalion, Young Citizen Volunteers. Murdered by cowards 23rd August 2000. ‘At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.’ ‘Here lies a soldier’”
The “cowards” in this case are the members of the UDA who killed Rockett (born June 21st, 1979) in front of his girlfriend and 18 month old child in an attack on her house in the lower Oldpark, during the feud between the UVF and UDA, sparked by Johnny Adair’s “loyalist day of culture” and removal of the UVF from the lower Shankill. In response to the purge (and attacks on the Rex bar), the UVF killed Bobby Mahood and Mr Jackie Coulter. Rockett was killed by the UDA in retaliation for their deaths; 1,000 people attended Rockett’s funeral (Irish Times). After Rockett died, the UVF killed David Greer, and the UDA then killed PUP member Bertie Rice in Tiger’s Bay on October 31st.
Second: Lt Col Trevor “Kingso” King served time for his part in the Battle At Springmartin in 1972, in which seven people, including a British soldier, died. In 1994, having been shot by the INLA and paralysed from the neck down, King took the decision to remove his own life-support (WP).
The words on the left are from Suicide In The Trenches by WWI poet Siegfried Sassoon:
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads pass by
Sneak home and pray you’ll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go
Third: Brian Robinson was shot by the British Army in 1989 immediately after he had shot and killed a Catholic (Paddy McKenna) walking along Crumlin Road. This is the fifth version of the Brian Robinson mural in Disraeli Street, Belfast.
The plaque reads, “UVF 1st Batt B Coy Vol Brian Robinson killed in action 2nd Sept 1989. For his country and his people he took up the gun, a volunteer to the end and a true Ulster son. Robbed of his life’s blood in Sept ’89 but the name Brian Robinson will live for all time.
The plaque includes “Also his loving mother Margaret Robinson died 3rd September 1989”
Disraeli Street, Woodvale, west Belfast
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Copyright © 2012 Paddy Duffy
T00687 T00688 T00689 [T00690]
“We seek nothing but the elementary right implanted in every man: the right if you are attacked, to defend yourself.” Hooded gunmen return to east Belfast, replacing a mural for the Glentoran Community Trust.
It’s not clear who the UVF felt attacked by in 2011; it is possible that this mural is also about local muscle-flexing in addition to sectarian politics or attention from the police.
Newtownards Road at the old Bright Street, east Belfast
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Copyright © 2011/2012 Paddy Duffy
T00662 [T00667] [T00709]
“Men whom the lusts of office do not kill/Men whom the spoils of office do not buy/Men who possess opinions and will/Men who love honour; men who cannot lie” – part of a poem by Josiah Gilbert Holland.
The men on the left of the mural are Captain James Craig (who fought in the Second Boer War before becoming a unionist leader, organiser of the the Ulster Volunteers, and first Prime Minister Of Northern Ireland) and Major Frederick Crawford, who fought in both Boer Wars and organised the Larne gunrunning.
The four others, listed both on the plaque in front of the mural and on the stone in the memorial garden (constructed in 2003) are UVF volunteers Robert Seymour, shot dead by the PIRA; James Cordner and Joseph Long, who were killed in a premature explosion, and Robert Bennett, killed by the British Army during a riot. (Seymour and Long are on the right of the mural.)
Fraser Pass, Ballymacarrett, east Belfast
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Copyright © 2011 Paddy Duffy
T00617
“Lay them away on the hill side/along with the brave and the bold/Inscribe their names on the role [sic] of fame/in letters of purest gold.” The Ulster Tower at Thiepval commemorates the WWI dead of the 36th (Ulster) Division. The words, however, come from a song about James Daly, who was executed by firing squad for taking part in a 1920 mutiny of the Connaught Rangers in India in protest of the activities of the Black and Tans.
Below the board is a roll of honour for the “UVF South Belfast 2nd battalion”: “A salute to the brave/to those men we hold dear/they fought for our freedom/south Belfast volunteers.”
Compare this mural to the previous (Here Lies A Soldier), which does not include any reference to the Great War.
On the side of The Hideout, Pine Street, Donegall Pass, south Belfast
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Copyright © 2011/2012 Paddy Duffy
T00609
Red Hand Commando volunteer Stevie McCrea was sentenced to 16 years for the murder of James Kerr in 1972 (Behind The Mask) and was subsequently “murdered by the enemies of Ulster” on February 18th, 1989 in an IPLO attack on the Orange Cross (see M00560 | WP). “For he shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary him nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember him.”
This is a repaint of the mural seen in 2007, which is itself a repainting of the original mural to McCrea – see T00152.
McCrea is included on murals in south Belfast’s Frenchpark Street and Broadway (dating back to at least 1993).
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Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
T00472
“A UVF roadblock at Donaghadee, April 24/25th 1914, during gunrunning.” The main landing was at Larne, but two small boats transported arms from the Clyde Valley in Larne to Donaghadee. Motor cars were used (for the first time in history) to distribute the rifles and ammunition across the north.
“Preparing to bear arms 1914 – Prepared to bear arms 2004.” The Ulster Volunteers/36th Division and the modern UVF are put in parallel.
The wide shot includes a UVF memorial plaque seen in the Peter Moloney Collection.
Spier’s Place, west Belfast
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Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
T00479 T00478
“This mural is dedicated to the fallen volunteers of No 4 Pltn A Coy, 1st Belfast Battn, Ulster Volunteer Force who dutifully served this community in the years of conflict. It pays tribute to those who died in active engagement and to the many who passed peacefully from service having fulfilled their duties. Their names and deeds are eternally venerated by their comrades in arms who humbly serve in their honour. They remained staunch to the end against odds uncounted, they fell with their faces to the foe, their name liveth forevermore.“
The plaque reads, “In memory of our fallen comrades No 4 platoon, A coy, 1st battalion, Belfast. Lest we forget”.
Glenwood Street, west Belfast
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Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
T00484
