An anti-drug-dealing message (see Peace Impact Programme) has been added below the (2nd battalion North Antrim & Londonderry) UDA emblem (seen previously in 2012) in Linden Avenue, Coleraine.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T03271 T03272
These two boards from the Armagh True Blues flute band (Fb) in Barrack Hill commemorate the Ulster Volunteers of 1912 who went on to join the 9th (County Armagh) battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers (Wartime Memories).
The “1st batt” emblem (in the third image) applies to both the Ulster Volunteers of the Home-Rule era and the Troubles-era Mid-Ulster UVF.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T03388 T03387 T03389 [T03390]
“Marching into the future”. The 35th anniversary board – and the Pride Of The Bann flute band (Fb) itself – is still going over a decade after it was mounted in Harpur’s Hill, Coleraine; here is the board in 2012. It has now been joined by a board aimed at young people, designed by members of Sunlea Youth Club.
Tullyarton Road, Coleraine.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T03333 [T03332] T03334
The more familiar mythological figure in Northern Irish muraling — both CNR and PUL — is Cú Chulaınn (Visual History) but this Bushmills board features another larger-than-life figure, from slightly later mythology, Fıonn Mac Cumhaıll/Finn MacCool. In legend, Fionn ate the salmon of knowledge and became leader of the Fianna. His connection to the north Antrim coast is that he is the supposed creator of the “Giant’s Causeway”, the basalt columns that stretch out into the Atlantic Ocean, seemingly towards Scotland.
The Causeway and Finn are both used in the board shown above as symbols of the UDA North Antrim & Londonderry brigade’s 5th battalion/Giant’s Causeway Protestant Boys flute band (Fb) in Dundarave Road, Bushmills, which is about three miles from the Causeway. The board is also notable for its use of the flag of the proposed ‘independent Northern Ireland’, for which see (e.g.) We Must Share The Responsibility | One Island, Two Nations | Freedom Corner which features Cú Chulaınn.
The second image is a UDA/UYM emblem at the entrance to the estate. The third is further along. The last is not from Dundarave but from the exterior of a pub on Main Street.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T03314 T03319 T03318 T03313
“North Antrim & Londonderry brigade, UFF, Ballymoney 3rd battalion” – hooded men with assault rifles remain on the walls in Alexandra Avenue/The Crescent, Ballymoney.
See also: Fifty Years Of Service.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T03237
There was previously a mural of the UDA emblem and flags on the substation on the Loughanhill side of Ballysally (Coleraine) (seen in The Hell They Call Highwood) which has now been replaced by the painting of a daughter greeting her father who is returning home after “Victory 1914-1918”. There is also a new version of the painting of the attack on Highwood, as seen below.
The style of the paintings and their frames is the same as the panels in Footsteps Through Our History.
Click image to enlarge
T03282 T03281
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
Ciaran Gallagher (web) chronicled the various contests for the leadership of the Conservative party involving Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak, and Boris Johnson. The panels originally appeared in Hill Street, outside The Friend At Hand, (e.g. Circling Sharks) but have now been moved to the courtyard of the Dark Horse, replacing the Klondyke Bar. This level of panels ends with Sweet Rockall.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T03184 T03186 T03187
This is Ciaran Gallagher’s (ig) take on McBride’s pub in Cushendun. Around the outside are a verse from Moira O’Neill’s ‘To W.C.S.’ in More Songs Of The Glens Of Antrim (pdf at Google Books): “I dreamt of gentle Ireland beneath the northern light/The waves that broke on Ireland were callin’ me at night/Till back across the salt sea, back against the sun/I took the way the birds know, and woke in Cushendun.”
For the exterior of the pub, surrounded by famous individuals, see Kathryn Bannister’s painting from the Dark Horse pub, Belfast.
Below the painting (and shown below) is Derek Mahon’s poem ‘Everything Is Going To Be All Right’: “How should I not be glad to contemplate/The clouds clearing beyond the dormer window/And a high tide reflected on the ceiling?/There will be dying, there will be dying/But there is no need to go into that./The poems flow from the hand unbidden/And the hidden source is the watchful heart/The sun rises in spite of everything/And the far cities are beautiful and bright/I lie here in a riot of sunlight/Watching the day break and the clouds flying/Everything is going to be all right.”
Main Street, Cushendun
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02968 T02969
Good Morning Ballymena (Fb) is a telephone helpline for the elderly. Emic has drawn a pair of wrinkled hands radiating a signal for the organisation in the Alexander Street car park.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02519 T02518
Paddy Duffy Collection 