Compromise Or Conflict

“Compromise” in “Compromise or conflict” hints at the potential of the peace process but loyalist muraling continues to present hooded gunmen (in this case from “1st battalion, west Belfast UVF”) engaged in physical-force activity. In the same vein, see Prepared For Peace, Ready For War.

The first appearance of Eddie The Trooper – a definite increase in the intensity of violent imagery – will be in 1996.

Later with a side-wall (to the right of image) that read simply “A. company / 1st battalion”

Dover Place, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00133c

Village RHC

“YCV/Red Hand Commando/PAF – 4th battalion, south Belfast brigade, Village”

Hooded gunmen fire over a modified UVF emblem, with four quadrants of flowers, which appear to be (top left) a poppy (or rose?) with one shamrock leaf and some thistle leaves, (top right) three shamrock leaves and a thistle, (bottom right and left) thistles.

Broadway, in the Village. There was also a side-wall, to the left, dedicated to Stevie McCrea – see the Peter Moloney Collection.

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Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00119

Freedom’s Sons

The writing – D coy, 2nd batt, Belfast Brigade [IRA] – has been added where the volunteer’s legs used to be – see the Peter Moloney Collection for the original. A small plaque has been added at the top. Otherwise, the mural remains as before, with a hooded volunteer raising an assault rifle in front of a sunburst and Tricolour, with a row of barbed wire and the four provinces named in Irish.

Falls Road, west Belfast, now the site of the Garden Of Remembrance

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Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00088

Saoırse

“Freedom.” On the left, a Starry Plough (of the INLA) is attached a spear of ancient Ireland, next to two pikes (of the 1798 Rebellion), behind an ancient shield filled in with the Gal Gréıne of the Fıanna; on the right, a volunteer from the modern “Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann” aims an assault rifle, all against a large Irish Tricolour.

Kashmir Road, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1988 Paddy Duffy
T00175

Striking At Republican Targets

Hooded UVF volunteers from “1st battalion, B company” armed with an assault rifle and an Uzi take aim at unspecified targets.

On the side-wall to the left it reads, “The UVF reserve the right to strike at republican targets where and when the opportunity arises” – see also the Peter Moloney Collection.

Ohio Street, Woodvale, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1988 Paddy Duffy
T00146 T00229

Final Salute

Volunteers in simplified clothing fire a funeral volley over an unseen coffin. The mural was later made more complex – see Slán Go Fóıll in the Peter Moloney Collection.

For the side wall, see Long Kesh in the Peter Moloney Collection.

South Link, Andersonstown, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1988 Paddy Duffy
T00085

Tiger’s Bay UVF

UVF volunteers in balaclavas take aim other across a free-floating Northern Ireland with an Uzi and an assault rifle. The emblem supported by flags on the right is unusual for its inclusion of a ?large daisy? and pink ribbon.

The location of this wall is unknown, which suggests the site of the Community Centre – please get in touch if you know where it was.

Tiger’s Bay, north Belfast

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Copyright © 1988 Paddy Duffy
T00226 T00125

Then And Now

“They fought then for the cause of Ulster, we will fight now.” The 75th anniversary of the Ulster Volunteers is celebrated in this mural in Dover Place, west Belfast. On the left of the Northern Island is an Ulster Volunteer in period (1912) garb standing on a patch of ground, on the right, a modern (1987) paramilitary in hood and fatigues standing on a city footpath. The Ulster Volunteers as such did not fight for Ulster – they instead joined the British Army and fought “for King and Empire” in WWI, after which Home Rule was applied only to 26 counties of Ireland and Northern Ireland was created and remained within the UK.

See also: UVF 75th Anniversary

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Copyright © 1988 Paddy Duffy
T00126 [T00115]

This Is Loyalist West Belfast

These are three of the murals painted in Percy Place, west Belfast, painted by Alan Skillen in 1984. For a gallery of all eleven piece, see the street’s Visual History page.

The murals combined traditional PUL themes and iconography, such as King Billy and the monarchy, with the emblems and hooded gunmen of paramilitary groups.

The piece above is unusual in that it takes a familiar UDA device of four emblems in the quadrants of an Ulster Banner shield (see e.g. Sans Peur) but replaces three of them with the emblems of the UVF, PAF, and YCV. A crude outline of Northern Ireland has also been applied.

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Copyright © 1988 Paddy Duffy
T00141 T00153

Our Day Will Come

The main panel, of three IRA volunteers with raised weapons, was painted by Sean ‘Conker’ Connolly, presumably based on or inspired by the poster below.

Also on the wall are (below right) a Tricolour and (below left) “Sinn Fein/Gerry Adams” and a small board (at the top) with a raised fist and the slogan “Unity is strength”.

Westrock Drive, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1988 Paddy Duffy
T00069