UVF/RHC/YCV

Conspicuous Gallantry

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“Dedicated to the memory of the men and women who served with the UDR C.G.C (Conspicuous Gallantry Cross) under OPERATION BANNER during the Troubles. Lest we forget. Also in memory of local veteran Geoffrey Lindsay who passed away on the 12th November 2022.”

The Conspicuous Gallantry Cross is shown (in the close-up below) at the top of the board; it was awarded to the UDR retroactively in 2006 for its role in ‘Operation Banner’, i.e. the deployment of British Army troops to Northern Ireland – the regiment had been folded into the Royal Irish Regiment in 1992. The mural is specifically to the 5th (Co. Londonderry) battalion – here is a list of the 11 battalions (and bases).

There is also a UDR information board (and an Ulster Volunteers board) in the green-space in front of this mural – see Leckagh Remembers The Fallen.

The memorial mural to the 36th (Ulster) Division on the end wall has also been completed since last (2023) year – in-progress images for both murals from last August are included below. For the previous murals on these walls, see C07766.

Two other pieces are included, below: the UVF mural was seen last year in Pause, Reflect, Remember; the ‘Ignite the fire’ board appears to be new.

Leckagh Drive, Magherafelt

August 27th green-washing of previous mural:

August 27th in-progress image of mural immediately above:

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Welcome To Bowtown

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Here are some more UVF boards (in addition to those seen in 2022’s Bowtown UVF) that have been added along the length of Abbot Drive. Both “East Belfast” and “North Down” rival factions are included.

The “Lest we forget” board in the final image has been seen before, but has been moved to the location shown after being in the memorial garden.

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Pride Of Whitehill

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Here is a gallery of the smaller boards in the Whitehill area of Bangor – other specific pieces can be found in The Elite and Long To Reign Over Us.

The area is a UVF stronghold but split between the North Down and East Belfast battalions – see Welcome To Bowtown and North Down UVF. The very bottom of the estate is UDA – “RUFF touts” is on the border-line, Skipperstone Road.

Two flute bands are mentioned: Pride Of Whitehill (Fb) and Bangor Protestant Boys (Fb).

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The Elite

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“Armed and ready – Protestant Action Force [PAF] – ‘The Elite'”. The PAF name was used to cover semi-independent sub-groups of the UVF, active in the 1970s and 1980s in mid-Ulster and Newtownabbey (WP). The name was given in connection with rioting in Newtownards in late 2021 (BelTel).

These new boards claiming that the PAF was an “elite” are in in the Whitehill area of Bangor. The second such board, shown below, is covering up a memorial to David Gordon Dalzell (for background see Pride Of Whitehill).

The Red Hand Commando – another UVF sub-group/cover-name – also claim to be “the elite”; see e.g. 99.9% Need Not Apply.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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If Our Shores Are Threatened

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“If our shores are threatened/We will take up arms/To defend our loyal cause/Our culture and our heritage/Our freedoms and our laws.” Moygashel’s own (William) Wesley Somerville, a member of both the UVF and UDR, was killed by a bomb prematurely exploding as he placed it on the minibus of the Miami Showband in July of 1975. Three members of the band died, one of them Protestant, along with volunteers Somerville and Harris Boyle from Portadown (WP). “He died for Ulster” (on the plaque).

“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.”

Moygashel Park, Moygashel

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Meet The New Boss

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These UVF posters urge residents of east Belfast who owe money to loan sharks not to sell drugs or find some other way to pay it back, but instead to get in touch with a political representative.

The Sunday World reported that repayments are being withheld after the Shankill UVF ordered the leadership in East Belfast UVF to stand down (in November 2023 – IRN | BBC) and took over the operation. The posters thus come from the old (East Belfast) guard, trying to thwart the new bosses and hoping to resume collection themselves.

SDLP councillor Séamus De Faoıte commented (in the Irish News), “Anyone who has knowledge of criminal activity or exploitation of vulnerable people should report it to the relevant authorities, but people do not need to take any lessons from the UVF when it comes to upholding the law.” (Also: BelTel)

Meanwhile, the endingtheharm.com campaign (part of the Executive/DOJ’s programme designed to tackle “paramilitary activity and organised crime”) continues. See They Control You for a 2019 version.

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Still Undefeated

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The UVF mural in Carlingford Street, east Belfast, that the one shown here replaces was controversial at the time (2013) because of its proposed inclusion of two hooded gunmen in fatigues firing into the air. In response to the concerns expressed, the final version put both figures in WWI uniforms and had only one firing into the air – the other gazed downward in prayer – and the modern UVF was referenced only in the forms of the towers and cages of Long Kesh and of a roll of honour. (See Years Of Sacrifice for both the draft and final murals.)

The cages are retained in this new board but the depiction of violence is more explicit here than in the proposed mural a decade ago: at the centre of this piece is a hooded gunman carrying an assault rifle.

For the wider context of re-imaging and re-re-imaging (that is, the disappearance and return of PUL hooded gunmen), see Visual History 11.)

Long Kesh’s cages are also included in a Shankill board to Stevie McCrea – A True Soldier Of Ulster.

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Ulster Volunteers 1912 Ulster Covenant In memory of all friends & comrades of the cosy bar east belfast

Armed And Ready Again

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This is the UVF/RHC memorial garden in Ballybeen, with individual plaques to “East Belfast battalion commander” RJ ‘Mickey’ Wilson (died 2022), Jim ‘Jonty’ Johnston (killed in 2003 BelTel), M. Walker, G. McCartney, David Brown. While most of the plaques and stones are to the modern UVF, there are three pieces to the 36th (Ulster) Division.

“Too many names to mention, but I will certainly try./Tears run down my face as I try not to cry./Their names written in gold of Volunteers gone by./These men they died heroes in battles, fought and won./They may be gone, but in our hearts remain./The Ulster Volunteer Force. The People’s Army./Armed and ready again.”

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Pause, Reflect, Remember

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“Always remembered by the officers and volunteers of South Londonderry/Randalstown Ulster Volunteer Force.” This memorial mural and plaque in Magherafelt names Charlie Wright, Jonathan Wallace, Ken Wilkinson, and Ian McArthur.

Of these, Wilkinson seems the most well-known, as he served as a PUP representative for the area. He commented on sectarian tensions in Randalstown in 1999 (An Phoblacht) and in Coleraine in 2009 (Irish Examiner), and spoke against sueprgrass trials in 2011 as a member of FAST (Irish Times | see previously FAST and FASTing For Human Rights And Justice); he was accused of intimidation of Catholics in Antrim in 2003 (An Phoblacht). He stood for a number of elected positions (e.g. 2013) but was unsuccessful.

Ostensibly for his stand against drug-sellers, in 2010 a pipe-bomb (BBC), and in 2011 a make-shift car-bomb (BelTel), were placed against his home and he received death threats in 2013 (politics.ie). He died in 2021 (BelTel | News Letter | Irish News).

The plaque in the memorial garden (shown below) reads, “This plaque is dedicated in memory of all of the loyalist people of Ulster who have suffered at the hands of the enemies of our land. Lest we forget.”

The mural in the background can be seen in Leckagh Remembers The Fallen.

Also included is a nearby bench celebrating the platinum jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

Leckagh Drive, Magherafelt.

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