UVF/RHC/YCV – Page 2 – Paddy Duffy Collection

Loyalist Village

2025-07-062025-08-01Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Loyalist Village, south Belfast.” UVF markings in the Village continue to proliferate with the recently-added board shown above (from the top of Tavanagh Street) alongside a slew of other boards, some of which are included below.

The “Village team” is not Linfield FC but the UVF (the phrase was also used by the Village UDA); “VTOT” (standing for “Village team on tour”) has previously been used as graffiti – see Welcome To Hell!!!

The purple hoarding below gives “1913” as a creation-date for the battalion. The Ulster Unionist Council organised the signing of the Covenant in September, 1912, and in January 1913 voted to bring together the militias that had been formed in various places into an Ulster Volunteer Force. One of these was a South Belfast battalion that had formed in 1912 (History Ireland). Hence, both “1912” and “1913” are given as dates for the creation of the battalion. When the Volunteers were integrated into the Ulster Division for the Great War, the South Belfast Volunteers joined the 10th battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles.

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“The prevention of the erosion of our identity, our culture and our heritage. We will preserve this no matter the cost. We will not be the generation to fail Ulster. No surrender. 2nd battalion South Belfast” “What we have we hold”

UVF South Antrim Battalion

2025-07-042025-08-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Denver Smith mural in the Steeple, Antrim, has been replaced with the printed board (shown above and immediately below) which retains the same elements of the mural, including the WWI soldiers and the emblem of the 36th (Ulster) Division. (For information about Smith, see Here Lies A Soldier.)

Memorial boards in the same style and palette have also been mounted on adjacent walls to two members of the modern Ulster Volunteer Force. To the left, Mark McCausland, who died in 2024 (Wray’s); the board in his memory replaces a UVF flag (seen in Pass Not This Spot In Sorrow). To the right, Davy Langley, who died in 2018 (Funeral Times); there was previously a mural to his memory in the same spot (see Ulster Volunteer Forces)

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If England Drive Us Forth

2025-06-292025-07-14Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Rudyard Kipling’s 1912 poem ‘Ulster’ (Kipling Society) predicts destruction for Protestants under Home Rule and calls for violent resistance, even if it means sacrificing one’s own life: “Believe, we dare not boast/Believe, we do not fear/We stand to pay the cost/In all that men hold dear”.

As is well known, the Ulster Volunteers were founded and smuggled in weapons, but before they could be used, the Great War began and the Volunteers signed up for Kitchener’s Army – the flag on the left includes the battles in which the Central Antrim Regiment of the Royal Irish Rifles (as part of the 36th Division) participated, fighting “For King and Empire”.

The graveside mourner on the right, the 1st East Antrim Battalion UVF, and all of the smaller panels on the right, belong to the Troubles era. There is no information about Jim Curran in 1975; the image of Curran’s funeral appears to be AI-generated.

In The Larches, Carrickfergus, replacing the mural and boards seen in Comply With Your Country’s Demands.

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Property Of East Belfast UVF

2025-06-292025-07-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This notice is on the outside of the Belvoir Bar in east Belfast: “Property of east Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force – Not for sale” alongside a plaque to “fallen comrades” Robert Bennett, Roy Walker, Joseph Long, James Cordner, and Robert Seymour. It seems that the bar has been shuttered since 2011 (Belfast Telegraph | Irish Times).

Newtownards Road, east Belfast, next to the WWI VCs memorial.

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Recovery

2025-06-262025-07-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The UVF mural overlooking the entrance to Mount Vernon has been repainted after Storm Darragh back in December (2024) knocked down part of the wall it was painted on (see Taken By Storm) and the remainder of the wall was subsequently knocked down (see Prepared For Space, Ready For Wall).

There were local voices against the repainting of the mural (Sunday World) but after the wall (which is owned by the Housing Executive) was rebuilt, scaffolding went up at the end of March (BelTel) and painting began in June.

The mural will be officially launched at the Twelfth celebrations. The repainting has been criticised by the father of one UVF victim (BelTel). One (very) small mercy is that neither of the gunmen – from the North Belfast UVF – is directly confronting the viewer (including the drivers coming off the M2 at Fortwilliam.

Images of the completed mural are from June 26th; the in-progress images are as dated below.

June 18th

June 11th

June 9th

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prepared for peace ready for war

Volunteer Sam Rockett

2025-06-182025-07-05Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A few changes have been made to the Sam Rockett mural (compared to the 2023 original): Rockett’s hair has been lightened, the “Prods out” graffiti on the row of burned-out houses has been brightened, a simple “B Company” has replaced the smaller “1st Belfast Brigade, B Company”, and “Murdered by cowards 21.06.79 – 23.08.00” has been added on the left.

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When The Ranks That Are Thin Shall Be Thinned

2025-05-052025-05-21Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“English Brigade Ulster Volunteer Force.” “England and Ulster – the ties that bind.” “United we stand.”

On the left are the words from William Blake’s poem, which also serve as the lyrics to the hymn Jerusalem.

“Let our flag run out straight in the wind/The old red shall be floated again./When the ranks that are thin shall be thinned/When the names that were twenty are ten.” [from Swinburne’s A Song In Time Of Order which was also used as a socialist song]

The images along the bottom illustrate the connection between Northern Ireland and England. From left to right: Edward Carson in Liverpool in 1912; 10,00 pledges from Liverpool men; Carson addressing 100,000 people in Hyde Park, London; a banner reading “City of London supports loyal Ulster”; “Field Marshall Sir Henry Wilson opens the Ulster Tower in 1921. Sir Henry was killed by the IRA in 1922 at his home in London”; GS Cather, VC winner with the Ulster Division; evacuees to Liverpool in 1973.

Spier’s Place, middle Shankill, west Belfast. For the memorial on the right (in the wide shot) see A Fisherman, An Entertainer, A Shankill Road Man.

Attack Of The Ulster Volunteers

2025-04-042025-04-19Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The uniforms of the graveside mourners are from WWI and the image on each side is JP Beadle’s Attack Of The Ulster Division (Royal Irish) at the Battle Of The Somme in 1916, but the names on the pillar (in the image immediately below) are from the modern UVF. Little information about any of those listed is available on-line, but ten of those listed were also on a plaque in Abbot Crescent, which was similarly in front of a 36th Division mural.

Castlereagh Way, Bowtown, Newtownards

Forever In Our Ranks

2025-03-082025-03-21Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This entry updates 2023’s Leaders Of Unionism Against Home Rule, which shows portraits of Carson, Crawford, and Craig, and describes their efforts in 1912, with creation of the Ulster Volunteers and the importing of arms into Larne and Donaghadee.

To the original board have been added the two plaques (shown above and immediately below), one on either side:

On the right: “In memory of our absent friends. Forever remembered by 1st East Belfast Mens, Cosy, East End and Laganville Somme groups. ‘They live in our hearts forever'”

On the left: “Jim Holt – forever remembered – forever in our ranks [of the UVF]. West End Somme Association, Glasgow.” There is a large board to Holt in Beechfield Street.

Isthmus Street, east Belfast

Winky Rea

2025-01-312025-02-13Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A portrait of Winston Winky/Winkie Rea has been added to the gallery above the Red Hand Commando board in the upper Shankill, taking the place of a pesudo-Mark Twain quote that has been reproduced in a horizontal format above the quartet. (See the previous iteration.)

Like the other three, Rea was a RHC (or UVF) member who then became a member of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP). On the basis of his interview with the Boston College project, he was charged with crimes including two murders and two attempted murders (BBC | BBC). The trial was still on-going when he died in December of 2023.

“With courage and vision you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity. – Mark Twain [Keshavan Nair].”

Glenwood Street, upper Shankill, west Belfast