“Remembered with pride – Stevie McCrea, Village, south Belfast”. A plaque has been added below the large board describing Stevie McCrea’s life in Kilburn Street (seen in 2022’s Here Lies A Soldier, which includes the text on the board).
Also included below are close-ups of the plaques to McCrea and Sammy Mehaffy in Tavanagh Street, (seen together in Village UVF).
The middle of the three upper plaques in the image above, as well as the blue plaque above them (in the third image), is dedicated to Thomas Raymond Kelly, a merchant seaman who died as he attempted to rescue a third person from heavy seas in the Bay Of Biscay. He was awarded the George Cross for his efforts (Newry Maritime Association).
The other plaques commemorate the SS Upas (Irish Wrecks); the Quo Vadis fishing boats (Mourne Maritime); SS Orior (Wrecksite); the “merchant seamen from Newry And Mourne who served with courage and valour through both World Wars”; SS Clew Bay, which took part in Operation Dynamo in Dunkirk; SS Dingle; the “Carlingford Lough Disaster” in 1916 – the collision of the SS Connemara and SS Retriever with the loss of 94 lives (BBC).
“We salute all those who have fought, died and assisted in the fight for Irish freedom. Ar dheıs Dé go raıbh a n-anamacha. West Tyrone remembers.”
Above is a recent (2025-06) mural painted in Clady of IRA volunteers c. 1971 defending the bridge a stone’s throw outside the town, to prevent it from being blown up by the British Army. A history of the bridge, and the photograph which the mural reproduces, can be found at The Pensive Quill. The work of painting the mural and refreshing the window-boards of the building has been undertaken by the Joseph Plunkett 1916 Society Clady/Grebe (Fb).
The two monuments, to volunteers generally and Neal Lafferty (d. 1975) specifically (Fb), stand together at the junction with Cluney Gardens. There is also a memorial to James McPhelimy (d. 1988) on the other side of Urney Road, and one to Jim McGann (d. 1973) on the bridge.
A pair of wooden lilies – symbol of the 1916 Easter Rising – are painted in the colours of the Palestinian flag and are placed below Palestinian flags on the Greater Ballymurphy memorial garden. (For the the names on the plaque, see the Peter Moloney Collection.)
The electrical boxes (below) are from the community mural at the bottom of Springhill. The imagery on the second one is by Emmalene Blake – see Seas Leıs An Phalaıstín.
This entry updates 2024’s Here Dead We Lie – the plaque to Boyle and Somerville remains as before (it was originally mounted in 2005) but all three of the boards have been updated. The two on the extremes have the same content as before, while the central board marks the “50th anniversary” of the death of “Volunteer Harris Boyle”, “eternally remembered by the officers and volunteers of Mid-Ulster UVF”. Both Boyle and Somerville were members of both the UDR and UVF; they were “killed in action” when the bomb they were planting on the minibus of the Miami Showband went off prematurely. A parade in Boye’s memory took place in Portadown (BBC). Surviving Showband members and their sympathisers also marked the anniversary – on July 31st, 2025 – with a service at the spot of the attack (BBC).
The boards are at the junction of Gloucester Avenue and Princess Way in Portadown – Boyle was from the Killicomaine estate; Somerville is individually commemorated in Moygashel.
The seventh anniversary of the murder of Ian Ogle is approaching: “Big O” was killed on the evening of January 27th, 2019. Five people received sentences in March 2025, having been found guilty of murder – see In Memory Of Ian Ogle.
Also included is a small memorial plaque to British forces, which seems to have been generated by AI.
“In loving memory of John Fulton [and] Stephen Goatley, died 15th March 1975. Will always be remembered by their family and friends. Quis separabit.” UDA members John Fulton and were Stephen Goatley were killed together in the Alexandra Bar on York Road (close to the Mervue Street location of this memorial) in revenge for the stabbing of the UVF’s Joe Shaw in the North Star Bar, by the UVF as part of the UDA-UVF feud in 1975.
The two men named on the other board were also killed in a feud between the UDA and UVF, in 2000 – see Inky & Candy. “In loving memory Thomas (Inky) English & David (Candy) Greer Annesley. Together in the same old way/would be our dearest wish today./Silent memories true and tender/just to show we still remember.”
The upper Woodvale plaque “in memory of all those Protestants and members of the security forces who lost their lives in the greater Shankill area as a result of conflict” has sat unadorned since at least 2008 but now has a pair of boards to accompany it.
On the left, a reproduction of the “Faithful Unto Death” stained-glass window in the Museum of Orange Heritage in Schomberg House on the Cregagh Road (also reproduced in Newbuildings in 2022), along with the emblem of the Country Grand Orange Lodge Of Belfast (Fb).
On the right, a memorial to “all local residents whose lives were cruelly taken by Republican terrorists. Also those who selflessly gave their lives in the service of our country, and those who continue to do so.” (LOL “423” appears to be Banbridge Bible And Crown Defenders.)
The brothers in question are Raymond and Brian McCreesh, from Camlough, Co Armagh. Raymond is third in the list of the ten deceased 1981 hunger strikers on the large stone at the top of the slope: “In memory of the volunteers who died on hunger strike in H-Blocks 1981.” The quote along the bottom reads, “H-Block is rock that the British monster shall perish upon for we in H-Block stand upon the unconquerable rock of the Irish socialist republic – Bobby Sands”; the source of the quote in unknown.
The lower stone reads “These men made the supreme sacrifice for their country by dying on hunger strike from 1917 to 1976: 1917 Thomas Ashe; 1920 Michael Fitzgerald, Joseph Murphy, Terence McSwiney; 1923 Joseph Whitty, Denis Barry, Andy Sullivan; 1940 Tony Darcy, Sean McNeela; 1946 Sean McCaughey; 1974 Michael Gaughan; 1976 Frank Stagg. “It is not those who can inflict the most but those that can suffer the most who will conquer” – Terence McSwiney.”
The final image is a call from “Independent Republicans Armagh [Fb]” to commemorate Dessie Grew and Martin McCaughey, who were riddled with bullets fired by the SAS as they moved weapons near Moy, Co Tyrone, in 1990 (RN | youtube).
The background to the Avenue Road “Memorial to the 36th (Ulster) Division and to other men of Ulster who served in the Great War 1914 – 1918” has been repainted in the purple and orange of the UVF and the wall simplified by the removal of two smaller boards to each side of the main board (above) which shows soldiers looking out over the edge of a WWI trench. (For the the previous boards, see the Peter Moloney Collection.)
The seat is dedicated to “Jack”, an 11-year-old member of the Avenue Road Memorial flute band who died in 2019 (News Letter), with boxing gloves and emblem of the NI soccer association. 2 Timothy 4:7 says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
Avenue Road, Lurgan
The final image is of a board in nearby King’s Park Mews to a soldier who died on “the homefront” – Dublin during the 1916 Rising – Second Lieutenant James Howard Calvert of the 6th Royal Irish Rifles.Calvert lived at 41 Avenue Road, Lurgan.