Various flags are flying or hanging on the Ballyduff bonfire prior to their removal and its incineration, including the flag of the Paratroop regiment. On the fencing in front are two UVF hooded gunmen boards and an Ulster Volunteers (1913) flag.
Forthill Drive, Ballyduff, Newtownabbey
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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Here are images of this year’s (2026) Craigyhill bonfire, shrouded in sea-fog. The bonfire was finished on July 5th, a week in advance of its lighting, which will be at midnight on Sunday, amid two days of entertainment by DJs, dancers, and flute bands. The kids’ bonfire (in the fifth image) will be lit on the 11th at 10 p.m. (Fb)
The banner on the fence celebrates an “International bonfire community” between Craigyhill and Scheveningen, in the Netherlands, which holds the official record for the world’s largest bonfire by volume (Guinness). The largest bonfire by height – officially recorded – was in Lustenau, Austria; for Criagyhill’s claim to the title, see the entry on the 2024 bonfire.
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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Shore Crescent prepares for Eleventh Night with a bonfire and a large sign explaining the positive impact of the tradition:
“Shore Crescent bonfire – a proud loyalist tradition. Standing firm in our heritage, our loyalty & our values. Faith – loyalty – respect – heritage. [The bonfire …] Celebrates our heritage – honours our history, culture and the sacrifices made by those who went before us; strengthens our community – brings families, friends and neighbours together, building unity, pride and a sense of belonging; affirms our loyalty – a clear and proud expression of our loyalty to the Crown and the United Kingdom; educates & remembers – teaches future generations the importance of our traditions and the true meaning behind them; promotes respect & pride – shows respect for our values and beliefs and promotes pride in being Loyalist; supports local [groups] & raises funds – helps support local groups, charities and initiatives that make a real difference; secures our future – by standing together today, we protect our identity, freedom and way of life for tomorrow. One tradition. One community. One loyal people. Shore Crescent loyal.”
Next to Loughside Playground, Shore Road, north Belfast
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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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“In memory of the lost, 15 April, 1912.” The majority lifeboats on the RMS (not “SS”) Titanic were made of wood, constructed at Harland & Wolff at the same time that Titanic was built. Of the 2,209 people on board the ship at the time of her collision with an iceberg late in the evening of April 14th, 706 people survived in lifeboats that could have carried 1,178 people. (WP)
This tribute to those who died in on a short section of pedestrian railings on the Cupar Way “peace” line (Visual History). In the background are the specially designated spots for tourists to sign the wall (see Collecting Signatures).
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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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The Cavan County Museum (web) in Ballyjamesduff includes a “WWI trench experience”, with 350 metres of trench and more than 6,000 sand-bags. The Cavan volunteers joined the 9th battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers (108th brigade of the 36th). The officer commanding of the Division, Oliver Stewart Wood Nugent, was from Cavan (History Ireland).
“Battle Of The Somme 1st July – 18th November 1916”, “”Comrade, friend, foe/come home, come home/tired, broken bones.//Remember them,/remember them all,/comrade, friend, foe.//After war comes peace/and when peace comes/never let it go.//And never ever forget/to remember them,/comrade, friend and foe.” – Jim Cleary, Virginia.”
“”The 36th (Ulster) Division had 5,500 casualties on July 1st 1916 and were men drawn mostly from one community in the province of Ulster. Nearly 2,000 soldiers from cities, towns, villages and town lands of the North were killed in the first few hours of fighting. The 16th (Irish) Division had 4,330 casualties in September 1916, of whom 1,200 were killed. These casualties came mainly from the other three provinces of Ireland.” – Department Of An Taoıseach”
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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg are presented along with the ten deceased 1981 hunger strikers on the cross-beam of a large wooden “H” at the top of Turf Lodge.
IRA volunteer Michael Gaughan died in Parkhurst prison in 1974 after 64 days on hunger strike. Gaughan’s coffin was draped with the Tricolour used to bury Terence McSwiney in 1920. He was force-fed seventeen times during the strike and his family alleged that he died from food stuck in a punctured lung. The practice was ended after Gaughan’s death.
Frank Stagg was on the Parkhurst hunger strike with Gaughan, and another in Long Lartin prison, and a third in Wakefield in December 1975. He died after 62 days on February 12th, 1976.
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Preparations for Eleventh Night bonfires are underway in many estates, including Ballycraigy in Antrim which is getting help from an AI-generated Popeye. Ballycraigy used to boast the biggest Bonfire (see Lead The Way); you can keep track of this year’s build on the bonfire’s Facebook page.
Hollowburn Road, Ballycraigy, Antrim
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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The Denmark Street arch (at the top of the lower Shankill estate and next to the Clifton Street Orange Hall) returns for the 2025 marching season.
For each of the 12 panels, see Upward. Each side of the arch features a quote from scripture: on the outside, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel – Psalm 41 v. 13”, and on the estate side “Love the brotherhood, fear God, and honour the King – [1st] Peter 2 v. 17”
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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The News Letter reports that the new arch at the junction of Templemore Avenue and Beechfield Street is the first new arch in east Belfast for fifty years (News Letter). There was long ago an arch in Dee Street (Fb).
On the northern side are the emblems of local lodges – Ballymacarrett Junior District LOL No. 3, Royal Arch Purple District Chapter No. 6, Ballymacarrett District No. 2 Women’s LOL, Ballymacarrett District LOL No. 6, Royal Black District Chapter No. 4 Ballymacarrett, Apprentice Boys Of Derry Belfast Browning Club – as well as “Marching Bands of east Belfast”.
On the southern side, we see (l-r) “Faith & Loyalty”, the Relief Of Derry, the Battle Of The Boyne, JP Beadle’s painting of the 36th Division going over the top at the Battle Of The Somme, King Charles III, the stained-glass window in Schomberg House in memoriam (not: “in memorium”) murdered OO members.
The arch was officially dedicated on June 30th. Ballymacarrett Orange Hall is a bit further down Templemore Avenue, on Albertbridge Road.
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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“The ‘Ulster Military Memorial Arch’ was funded by the generosity of the local business community, local residents, and our friends from Scotland. The arch was designed entirely by the people of the Greater Shankill, and erected to coincide with the 80th anniversary of VE Day 8th May 1945 – 8th May 2025. Our servicemen and women are proudly remembered.” For images of the VE Day launch, see the BelTel.
Pictured on Peter’s Hill side of the arch (bearing the quote “With pride and loyalty they served this land”) are (left to right) …
Private Bernard McQuirt (a VC winner in 1858 during the Indian Rebellion) and Lt Colonel John Henry Patterson
Monica De Wichfeld (raised in Fermanagh and Danish resistance member), Jessie Roberts (a nurse for the Ulster Volunteers and (in WWI) for the Volunteer Aid Detachment, serving in Birmingham and in Wimereux, France; she gets a very long entry on the info panels (see below), as her biography is not available on-line), a (unidentified) nurse, Corporal Channing Day (a medic killed in Afghanistan, 2012), Princess Elizabeth
Private William Frederick McFadzean and Sergeant Robert Quigg
the tomb of “the unknown warrior” (central panel)
Leading Seaman James Joseph Magennis and Lt Colonel Robert Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne
Field Marshal Alan Francis Brooke and Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery
Field Marshal Sir Henry Hughes Wilson and Sir James Craig
On the other/Shankill side of the arch, bearing the quote “Throughout the long years of struggle … the men and women of Ulster have proved how nobly they fight and die”, the ‘WWII’ panel includes (top right) Warrant Officer David O’Neill, a Canadian Air Force pilot hailing from Ballymena, lost in 1943, and the ‘Northern Ireland’ panel features (left) Corporal Heather CJ Kerrigan, a UDR Greenfinch killed by the IRA in 1984. These two are also profiled in the info panels around the legs of the arch, along with Corporal Bryan James Budd, a 3rd Para soldier killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan, 2006.
Also included is JF Willcocks’s poem Poppies (sometimes called The Inquisitive Mind Of A Child): Why are they selling poppies, Mummy? Selling poppies in town today./The poppies, child, are flowers of love. For the men who marched away./But why have they chosen a poppy, Mummy? Why not a beautiful rose?/Because my child, men fought and died in the fields where the poppies grow./But why are the poppies so red, Mummy? Why are the poppies so red?/Red is the colour of blood, my child. The blood that our soldiers shed./The heart of the poppy is black, Mummy. Why does it have to be black?/Black, my child, is the symbol of grief. For the men who never came back./But why, Mummy are you crying so? Your tears are giving you pain./My tears are my fears for you my child. For the world is forgetting again.”
At Conor’s Corner, and next to the (increasingly incongruous) Geisha street-art, on the Shankill.
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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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