printed board/placard

Kevin McKeeman

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As can be seen from the photography, Kevin McKeeman was a flute band member, perhaps part of the local Dervock Young Defenders (Fb) though the patch shown is not the current one.

He is named here alongside six “North Antrim, Londonderry, And Tyrone” UDA members – “Benny Redfern, Gary Lynch, Ray Smallwoods, Cecil McKnight, Lyndsay Mooney, William Campbell” – who are named (together) on a number of murals in Londonderry and along the north coast – for background on them, see UDA Memorial.

The memorial board is now accompanied by a poppy wreath and blue background on the substation in McArthur Avenue, Dervock – compare with the images from 2019 in Tony Crowley’s collection.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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The Journey Of Heritage And Culture

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Here are two boards in Riverside Park, Dervock, celebrating the town’s “heritage and culture”.

Above: “Kennedy Kane McArthur, Dervock born and bred. 1912 Stockholm Olympics marathon gold medal winner, new World Record.” Ken McArthur emigrated to South Africa at age 20 and ran his first marathon at 28. Four years later, he represented South Africa at the Olympics and was victorious in the marathon (WP). There is footage of the race at olympics.com. There is a display of boards honouring McArthur on an abandoned building in Dervock.

Below: “The journey of heritage and culture has shown us who we are, the memory of our past will let a new future begin.” Members of the (contemporary) Dervock flute band (Fb) stand on the Scottish St Andrew’s Saltire, above a black-and-white photograph (from NI Archive) of drumming – including Lambeg drumming (Discover Ulster Scots) – from about 1920.

Also in Riverside Park: a tribute to US president Andrew Jackson.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Attack Of The Ulster Volunteers

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The uniforms of the graveside mourners are from WWI and the image on each side is JP Beadle’s Attack Of The Ulster Division (Royal Irish) at the Battle Of The Somme in 1916, but the names on the pillar (in the image immediately below) are from the modern UVF. Little information about any of those listed is available on-line, but ten of those listed were also on a plaque in Abbot Crescent, which was similarly in front of a 36th Division mural.

Castlereagh Way, Bowtown, Newtownards

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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The Rising Of The Moon

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This RNU (Fb) board features the closing words from Sands’s prison diary, from March 17th, 1981:

“They won’t break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the Irish people, is in my heart. The day will dawn when all the people of Ireland will have the desire for freedom to show. It is then that we will see the rising of the moon.”

In the corners, funeral volleys are being fired over the coffins of Kieran Doherty and Joe McDonnell, two of the deceased 1981 hunger strikers who were local to the area. For background information, see the board that this one replaces: To Whom Do We Owe Our Allegiance Today?

Bingnian Drive, Andersonstown, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Wear Your Easter Lily With Pride

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These Saoradh (web) boards calling for attendance at the national march from Creggan to the new (2022) “People’s Monument” in Rossville Street are in Hugo Street (above) and Beechmount Drive (below):

“National Republican Commemoration Committee national Easter commemoration: assemble at Creggan shops – 2pm Monday 21st April 2025 for march to the People’s Monument — Free Derry Corner. Wear your Easter lily with pride.”

For a full list of this year’s commemorative marches, see Republican News.

Easter Monday falls late this year – April 21st – though still not as late as it did in 1916, when it was on the 24th. The event is typically celebrated at Easter, regardless of its proximity to the 24th, though for the centenary in 2016, anti-Agreement republicans commemorated the Rising on April 24th, specifically, while others paraded at Easter (which was at the end of March).

For the Finucane board, see Pat Finucane.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Illegal Occupation

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This Lasaır Dhearg (web) board in Lenadoon is explicit in defending the use of physical force by Palestinians (specifically by the Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine – WP): “Palestine has a right to resist. The Palestinians have a legal and moral right to resist the illegal occupation of their land by the Zionist settler entity known as ‘Israel’. We support a one-state solution: Palestine, free, from the river to the sea.”

At the Suffolk Road end of Falcarragh Drive/Céıde An Fháıl Charraıgh, formerly the site of Car Crime Is A Growing Problem.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Ag Croí An Phobaıl

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Gort Na Móna CLG (Fb) has been “at the heart of the [Turf Lodge] community”, inculcating “muıntearas, mısneach, féınluach, bród [friendship, bravery, self-esteem, pride]” in its young people “ó/since 1974”.

The text and emblem appear here against a montage of photographs over-washed in the club colours of maroon, saffron, and blue.

[A small typographic note: different fonts are used for the Irish on the left and the Irish in the middle; the font in the middle (correctly) lacks tittles/dots on the letter “ı”.]

Springfield Road, at the upper entrance to the estate and across the road from the electrical boxes seen in Lóıste Na Móna.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Forever In Our Ranks

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This entry updates 2023’s Leaders Of Unionism Against Home Rule, which shows portraits of Carson, Crawford, and Craig, and describes their efforts in 1912, with creation of the Ulster Volunteers and the importing of arms into Larne and Donaghadee.

To the original board have been added the two plaques (shown above and immediately below), one on either side:

On the right: “In memory of our absent friends. Forever remembered by 1st East Belfast Mens, Cosy, East End and Laganville Somme groups. ‘They live in our hearts forever'”

On the left: “Jim Holt – forever remembered – forever in our ranks [of the UVF]. West End Somme Association, Glasgow.” There is a large board to Holt in Beechfield Street.

Isthmus Street, east Belfast

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Soldiers Of The Republic

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“In our hearts your memory lives on”: the sixteen republicans executed in connection with the Easter Rising (in 1916) and the ten hunger strikers who died in the second (1981) hunger strike are remembered in a new board on Northumberland Street, west Belfast (Visual History).

64 republicans died during the Rising (An Phoblacht) and 3,500 arrested. 187 people were tried by court martial and 90 were found guilty and sentenced to death. Of these, 14 were executed over a period of ten days in May, 1916, including all seven of the signatories to the Proclamation (WP). Tomás Ceannt did not take part in the Rising; he was executed in Cork for shooting dead one of the RIC officers who were sent to round up the brothers Ceannt (WP). Roger Casement was executed in August, convicted of treason for attempting to smuggle weapons from Germany for use in the Rising. (Irish Times)

The sixteen are: Pádraıg Pearse, Thomas Clarke, Thomas McDonagh, Joseph Plunkett, Edward Daly, Michael O’Hanrahan, Willie Pearse, John Mac Bride, Eamonn Ceannt, Seán Heuston, Michael Mallin, Con Colbert, Tomás Ceannt, Seán Mac Dıarmada, James Connolly, Roger Casement.

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Inár gCroí Go Deo

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“West Tyrone Brigade, Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann. Vol. Charles Breslin, Vol, David Devine, Vol. Michael Devine”. The three were killed on February 23rd, 1985, in a hail of 100-200 SAS bullets, as they returned arms for an aborted mission to a dump near the Fountain area of Strabane; their families were later (2002) awarded compensation. (An Phoblacht | WP | UTv)

The board shown above is in the Fountain Street memorial garden, which centrally features a stone-wall enclosure to the trio. Individual stones have also been added to the garden, to Danny McCauley (TPQ | An Phoblacht), Tobias Molloy (An Phoblacht), and Eugene Devlin (An Phoblacht) (shown below). The local SF cumann is named after Molloy/Devlin/McCauley (Fb).

For the gravestones of many of the volunteers, see Strabane’s Republican Graves.

Fountain Street, Strabane

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Anocht a théam sa Bhearna Bhaoıl