cultural

The Men From Ballyclare

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The Men From Ballyclare & District was launched without the board along the fence/wall in front of the mural. The original post shows “UDA reserved” graffiti on the wall to the right. In 2021, there was some South East Antrim lettering to the right – see A0835. (For the SEA UDA in Ballyclare, see previously the companion WWI mural and 100 Loyal Men. Also, Belfast Live | Bel Tel.)

There is now a long board along the front. The two info plaques profile Edward Girvan and John Erskine, whose portraits are also featured in the larger mural, and between them are the emblems of the branches of the British Army: Merchant Navy, Navy, Army, and Air Force.

To the right of and out of frame in the image above, there is a Union Flag painted for the 75th anniversary of VE Day – see Street View.

Erskine Park, Ballyclare

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Copyright © 2023/2025 Paddy Duffy
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We Band Of Brothers

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This is a UVF/YCV mural in Grange Drive, Ballyclare, celebrating and commemorating soldiers from the Ulster Volunteers who went on to serve in the 36th (Ulster) Division in WWI and in particular at the Somme. The central panel shows soldiers bearing the Division’s standard (painted in colour in an otherwise black-and-white mural and in the style of the (US) Marines ‘Iwo Jima’ Memorial (WP)) which comprises the Union flag, harp insignia of the Royal Irish Rifles, and the red hand of Ulster on a field of shamrocks.

The other panels show uniforms of the Ulster Volunteers, a Protestant woman defending the fields, soldiers going over the top, and soldiers bowed at a UVF memorial.

Also included, below, is an ‘over the top’ image from a substation at the very top of the estate.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Staunch We Will Remain

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This is an update to the WWI ‘Ballyclare & District’ mural in Charles Drive. Originally, in 2016 there was ‘South East Antrim’ lettering on the side-wall to the right; in 2019 the orange board with words from Binyon’s For The Fallen (shown last below) was added to the left; on the right now is the board shown above: “The blood of our comrades shed/Shall not have been in vain/We honour Ulster’s dead/And staunch we will remain.” The same lines were used in Ballymoney and in Cloughfern.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Pride Of Ballybeen

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The Pride Of Ballybeen is a flute band formed in 2014. Their band mural features the Union Flag and Ulster Banner flanking the red hand of Ulster on a six-pointed star against an orange field, surrounded by a crown and a garland pinned by a rose; the titular banner, below, is supported by shamrock and thistle. 

Video of the band in action on youtube.

Craigleith Drive, Ballybeen, Dundonald.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Tullycarnet Memorial

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This is a three-stone memorial to army soldiers from both World Wars in Tullycarnet, featuring a line from the gospel of John (“Greater love has no-one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” 15:13) and a song by Randall Wallace for the 2002 movie We Were Soldiers called ‘The Mansions of the Lord’: To fallen soldiers let us sing, where no rockets fly nor bullets wing, our broken brothers let us bring, to the mansions of the Lord. No more weeping, no more fight, no prayers pleading through the night, just divine embrace, eternal light, in the mansions of the Lord. Where no mothers cry and no children weep, we will stand and guard though the angels sleep, Oh through the ages safely keep, the mansions of the Lord.”

By Ross Wilson with support from the International Fund For Ireland (IFI)

Behind the memorial is a mural reading “Time for peace – invest in kids …… not war!”

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Remembered As Of Yesterday

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The Tullycarnet flute band (Fb) murals on the hill were repainted for Remembrance Sunday in November 2021 but vandalised shortly thereafter (Belfast Live) with graffiti naming an alleged paedophile which was then whited out. One year on and the mural has not been repaired.

(For the previous murals, see Fighting For The Crown and Absent Friends)

Melfort Drive/Lochinver Drive, Dundonald. The tarp is on the main King’s Road.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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