funeral volley/graveside mourner

Clós Ard An Lao

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Here is a gallery of the murals and plaques in Clós Ard An Lao/Ardilea Close in the Machaıre Botháın/Marrowbone area of north Belfast. A full repertoire of republican events is commemorated – the United Irishmen, Great Hunger, the Rising, the Troubles, the (modern) hunger strikes. What is most striking is the significant presence of religious icons, such as the Sacred Heart in the glass cases in front of the two main murals (above and last below).

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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The Dead

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Two poems of WWI in Ballykeel 2, Ballymena: above, “We are the Dead. Short days ago/We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,/Loved and were loved, and now we lie/In Flanders fields.” from ‘In Flanders Fields’ by John McCrae.

Below: “They shall not grow old/As we that are left grow old/Age shall not weary them/Nor the years condemn/At the going down of the sun/And in the morning/We will remember them.” from ‘For The Fallen’ by Laurence Binyon.

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Stoneyford Somme Association

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Boards have been added to the WWI memorial plaque in Stoneyford. On the right, the 36th Division go over the top in Beadle’s ‘Attack Of The Ulster Division’ (see Over The Top); the board on left more specifically commemorates the 2nd battalion of the South Antrim Ulster Volunteers, flanked by the leaders of the anti-Home Rule movement – Carson, Craig, Crawford, and Bonar Law.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Sources:
Image from North Antrim Horse of Viscount Masserene and other leaders of the Ulster Volunteers at Antrim Castle

Image from Balmoral Perspective of the gun-running at Donaghadee

Image from the South Antrim Unionist Heritage facebook page

It Grows In Fields Where Valour Led

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“We cherish too the poppy red/That grows in fields where valour led/It seems to signal to the skies/The blood of heroes never dies.” From Moina Michael’s poem We Shall Keep The Faith.

This is an update to the 2016 entry in the Seosamh Mac Coılle collection that showed the mural in new condition. Seven years on, there has been much fading and peeling of paint.

Ballyduff Gardens, Newtownabbey

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Ernie Dougan

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“Officer in command Vol. Ernest “Ernie” Dougan (30/04/65-22/03/20) Ballyduff/Glengormley Ulster Volunteer Force 1st East Antrim Battalion.” Dougan died at the beginning of lockdown and so the public commemoration of his passing did not take place until 2022. He was also involved in the Ballyduff Community Redevelopment Group (Fb). According to a Sunday World article, Dougan did not join the UVF until sometime after the Agreement, after he was given a punishment beating by the UDA in north Belfast (see Irish Times | Mirror) and moved out to Ballyduff.

Ernie was the brother of Robert Dougan, who was killed by the IRA in 1998 – see Everyone’s Friend | Gone But Not Forgotten.

The two long sides of the electrical box were seen The Ultimate Sacrifice and If Needed We Shall Rise Again. The Ulster Banner with charging soldier on the other short end replaces Carnmoney Remembers.

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Pass Not This Spot In Sorrow

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There has been a 36th Division board on this wall since 2003 (see Steeple Defenders) and this second one is now more than a decade old – see the 2013 post on Peter’s site. It is accompanied by two quotations:
“Pass not this spot in sorrow but in pride/That you may live as nobly as they died.” These lines are also used in a WWI memorial mural in Carlingford Street, Belfast.
“They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old./Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn./At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.” from Binyon’s For The Fallen.

The mural below, with YCV and 36th Division emblems and a “South Antrim 1st Batt” flag was added in 2016. There’s no mention on-line of “Vol. Jimmy Fee” of the 1st (and only) battalion of the South Antrim brigade.

The board and mural are on the gable next to the Steeple memorial mural to Denver Smith; between the two gables is the UVF flag shown below.

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Parkhall UDA Remembers

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“South East Antrim UDA UYM. In proud memory of Brig John Gregg, CO Gerry Evans, Andrew Gillespie, Billy Graham, Jamie Penny, Ken Thursby, T. Daly, J. McClure, B. Hobbs, B. Smyth”. Graham replaces William Hutchings, and Thursby is a new addition. The original version of the mural, dating back to 2004, included J. Kelly, W. Gordon, G. Fittis, A. Helm (M05230) – these are perhaps below the fence-line.

Gregg was a hero to loyalists for seriously injuring Gerry Adams in 1984; he was killed in the Adair feud in 2003 (Guardian). Evans was killed by the INLA on April 27th, 1994, shot at his shop in the Northcott centre. (Lost Lives 3472. Sutton describes Evans as a “civilian”.) He was remembered first/long ago (1996) in a Cloughfern mural – see T00217.

Compare to the similar SEA UDA murals in Ballymena and (formerly) Glengormley.

Kilgreel Road, Parkhall, Antrim

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Here Lies A Soldier

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UVF volunteer Denver Smith was killed in the early morning of January 1st, 2000 by a gang of six men with machetes and pikes; the incident was perhaps drugs-related (Guardian | BBC-NI | Irish Times). The iconography, however, is all related to WWI, with soldiers moving across the fields of Flanders in the mural, above, and mourning by a graveside in the memorial garden, below.

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INLA Roll Of Honour

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“Irish National Liberation Army, Belfast Brigade, roll of honour. For national liberation and socialism in Ireland.” With the named of 22 volunteers who died between 1975 and 2021: Ferguson, Loughran, McNamee, Daly, Bunting, Little, Power, McLarnon, Craven, McCann, Power, O’Reilly, Kearney, Gargan, Gallagher, McColgan, Campbell, McWilliams, O’Hara, McMullan, McElkerney, McWilliams.

This is an extension, to the right, of the yellow-backgrounded panels seen in For A Socialist Republic (2021-05), Defund The Police (2022-09), and Bap McGreevy (2022-11).

Falls Road, Belfast.

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