UVF Scottish Brigade Volunteer Scott “Boab” Kerr, from the Govan area of Glasgow and Sons Of The Somme FB (Fb), died in 2015 and is remembered with a plaque on the corner of Beechfield Street in east Belfast.
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This mural to William “Buster” Keenan was unveiled on July 8th (2017), coincidentally the anniversary of wife Eileen’s death. Both are listed on the UVF memorial stone in front of the mural, along with David Ervine and the Long-Cordner-Bennett-Seymour quartet.
According to ACT, Keenan was involved in the Battle Of St. Matthew’s (in which Bobby Neill and James McCurrie were killed, along with Henry McIlhone). To the left is another “Ulster Volunteers” stone, a “Sydenham roll of honour – to those who gave their lives in the Great War”.
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“We seek nothing but the elementary right implanted in every man: the right if you are attacked, to defend yourself.” Re-imaging took a decisive turn into re-re-imaging with the return of hooded gunmen to east Belfast, at the junction of Newtownards Road and Dee Street (at the old Bright Street), replacing a mural for the Glentoran Community Trust. It’s not clear who the UVF felt attacked by in 2011; it is possible that this mural is also about local muscle-flexing in addition to sectarian politics or attention from the police. Eleven years later, the mural is still standing, though somewhat the worse for wear.
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After almost fourteen years the long-standing Rising Sons Flute Band mural off Newtownards Road (at the old Bright Street) has been replaced with a mural to the (modern) YCV, the youth division of the UVF. The vine of flowers in yellow includes the shamrock, thistle, and Tudor rose (but not the daffodil of Wales, which is named along with Scotland, England, and the YCV battalions of east Belfast extending to Newtownards and Bangor) .
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East Belfast Protestant Boys (Fb) mural “dedicated to Gareth Keys” with the statement (on the side wall): “Our message is simple: where our music is welcome, we will play it loud; where our music is challenged, we will play it louder.”
In the old Hemp Street, nearly opposite Derwent Street, east Belfast.
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Manchester duo Nomad Clan (web) – seen painting Harland & Wolf at the Dirty Onion during Culture Night/Hit The North 2017 – returned a year later to paint on the Newtownards Road. In keeping with the previous piece at this site – Deirdre Robb’s flax flowers – they painted a “female flax gatherer from a bygone era” (East Side Partnership).
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“The dead we honour here made the noble sacrifice for a cause that should never be forgotten.” A new board has been added to the memorial to the Ulster Volunteers on the Newtownards Road at St Leonard’s Crescent (the old Newcastle Street) over the bricked-up windows of the Belvoir Bar (see previously Not For Sale). The annual parade of the Belvoir Somme Association took place at the end of September (youtube)
The portrait of Carson was previously on the corner of Welland Street. The UVF Band mural is to the right of the memorial: see The Great War and They Said We’d Never Last.
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Ulster’s VC Heroes david nelson ernest wright alexander william mcfadzean edmund de win richard annesley west hugh colvin james somers jams duffy robert morrow edward barry stewart bingham thomas hughes robert hill hanna robert quigg john spencer dunville eric norman frankland bell james crichton geoffrey st. george shillington cather james anson otho brooke john alexander sinton dedicated to the women of east belfast that served in wwi and wwii
Three months after it was initially whitewashed (mid June, 2022), the repaint of so-called “Freedom Corner” was completed, with a new mural on each of the 11 panels that make it up. Here is a gallery of fifteen images from the wall. The main gables reproduce photographs of the UDA (and more specifically the East Belfast brigade) during the 1970s. The side walls celebrate the formation of the UDA/LPA/UFF/UYM in 1971-1974 and the role of women in supporting prisoners.
By Blaze FX (Fb | ig) on the Newtownards Road. Here is a small gallery of in-progress images: Waiting For The Wall.
Newtownards Road, east Belfast
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Four members of the East Belfast UVF are commemorated by a new mural in Fraser Pass, Ballymacarrett. The four named are: Robert Seymour, shot dead by the PIRA in 1988; James Cordner and Joseph Long, who were killed in a premature explosion in 1977; Robert Bennett, killed by the British Army during a riot in 1973.
In a previous version of the mural, Seymour and Long were featured alongside Crawford and Craig (of the Home Rule era) – see God, Give Us Men! (which also includes a close-up of the small plaque embedded in the front wall).
These same four are commemorated in the controversial 2013 mural featured in Years Of Sacrifice.
In-progress image:
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“The past is behind, learn from it. The present is here, live it. The future is ahead, prepare for it.” 2016 mural and board-cut diamond (which is lit from behind at night) in Lord Street, replacing the old LPA mural which lasted from 1997 to 2015.
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Paddy Duffy Collection 