printed board/placard – Page 33 – Paddy Duffy Collection

To All Who Fought In The Great War

2023-04-232026-04-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Dedicated to all who fought in the Great War”.

This board presents imagery and information about WWI, centrally including the statement (shown above) that “The 16th Irish Division, the Connaught Rangers [7th battalion] and the Irish Rifles [7th battalion], all fought side-by-side throughout World War I.”

The Ulster Tower on the left is familiar from many other murals and boards. In the top left, we see “The Memorial Plaque (Death Penny” which was also known as the “Dead Man’s Penny”. It was issued after the First World War to the next of kin of all British and Empire Service personnel who were killed as a result of the war. The “penny” was in fact five inches in diameter and cast in bronze. It showed Britannia with a trident and two dolphins swimming around her, and a lion on oak, along with the name of the deceased (here, Ronald Mitchison) without indication of rank. (Here is a close-up of a plaque from WP.)

The second piece (mis-)attributes the quote “Play is the highest form of research” to Albert Einstein and shows children playing ring-a-ring-o’-roses. Painted by Ed Reynolds (steadyhanded.com).

Both boards are on the community centre in the lower Shankill estate.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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The Passing Of Queen Elizabeth II

2023-04-162024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A traffic cone provides a makeshift flower holder in front of this board Clara Street board: “Grove Community Group [Baptist Church (web | Fb)] mourns the passing of Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022″. Charter NI has images from last September of more bouquets and a piper at the board (tw).

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Harryville Says No

2023-04-122024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a gallery of six boards from Harryville (four from Larne St/Larne Rd and two from Queen Street). The newest one is shown above; it celebrates Colonel Saunderson, a founder of the Ulster Defence Union, and organisation formed in 1893 to resist the second Home Rule bill. As mentioned on the board, the UDU initially met in Belfast in March and Saunderson was among the signatories of the UDU manifesto (see page 5 of the [Sydney] Freeman’s for 1893-04-29). For more on Saunderson, see Union Is Strength. The second bill was passed by the Commons but defeated in the Lords. The champions of resistence against the third Home Rule bill were Carson and Craig, shown in the penultimate image with the “Ulster Covenant” of September, 2012.

The name “Ulster Defence Union” is being used by some anti-Agreement factions of the UDA as a name for the organisation (starting in 2007 – see WDA on Peter’s site). The second board, just below, is a 4th Battalion South East Antrim UDA/UDU board. The UDA was formed in September 1971 and hence was 50 years old in 2021. The remaining two images show the UDA on parade at Harryville Bridge and in front of Pentagon House.

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Father Of The Protestant Reformation

2023-04-122024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“My conscience is captive to the Word of God. To go against conscience is neither right nor safe. I cannot and I will not recant. Here I stand; I can do no other.” Luther’s last name has fallen off the wall above the main board in Waveney/Doury Road – the installation is about a decade old and replaced a South East Antrim UDA emblem (see Keresapa). Luther’s signature was also painted into the strained glass window of an old Martin Luther mural in the lower Shankill – see Here I Stand I Can Do No Other.

Martin Luther, Father of the Protestant Reformation, 1483-1546. “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness – Romans 10:10”

Camberwell Way, Ballymena

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“Martin Luther was a German priest and theologian, a man of faith and conscience he protested against the corrupt man-made teachings within the Roman Catholic Church and questioned the authority of both Pope and priests. Luther’s writings inspired the Protestant Reformation and helped establish the Protestant Church worldwide. Luther refused to retract his writing at the demand of the Pope. Luther’s call to the people was to return to the teachings of Jesus Christ, to protest and reform away from man made teaching back to the authority of Biblical truth. SOLA FIDE – FAITH ALONE was Luther’s call to the common man, that by faith alone we access salvation. FAITH ALONE in CHRIST ALONE. Martin Luther stood for truth, one voice that helped create freedom, inspiring countless millions to seek and find redemption. When the heart is right one voice can make a difference, we can never underestimate the power of truth in the heart, in the mind, and it’s [sic] effect within our community. We must continue to maintain this freedom.”

Cú Chulaınn Please Protect These Things

2023-04-122024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Cú Chulaınn is revered as a living god who might watch over children and their pets, homes, food, and toys in these devotional panels in Dunclug, Ballymena. As the info board says, “It was prophesied that his great deeds would give him everlasting fame.” Cú Chulaınn has his own Visual History page.

Dunclug Park, Ballymena.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Death August And Royal

2023-04-042025-06-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

JP Beadle’s painting “Battle of the Somme: Attack of the Ulster Division” hangs in Belfast City Hall (Royal Irish has a history of its purchase) but is reproduced here in a new Rathcoole memorial to the dead of the Great War. (A list of “Ulster’s VC Heroes” can be found at the bottom of The Dead We Honour Here, from the east Belfast memorial garden. For the King George V quote, see How Nobly They Fight And Die.)

“Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal/Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres./There is music in the midst of desolation/And a glory that shines upon our tears.” This is the second verse of Binyon’s For The Fallen, a poem whose fourth verse – “They shall not grow old …” – is used in dozens of murals and memorials. (And in one case, the fifth verse: They Sleep Beyond England’s Foam.)

John McCrae’s poem concludes the board to the left: “In August 2019 a group from Rathcoole Protestant Boys [Fb] travelled to the battlefields of World War 1 to respect the fallen. The images represented pay homage to that visit, which prved to be and continues to be a journey of discovery and appreciation for the sacrifices made by those brave souls who fought during the Great War and who paid the ultimate sacrifice. As a group and society we look to a better future in the knowledge that those who do not learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat it. ‘If ye break faith with us who die/We shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders fields.'”

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Dieu Et Mon Droit

2023-03-262025-06-29Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Above is a trio of boards on a wall behind the Antiville community centre, softening (somewhat) the very aggressive set of six UDA boards next to it.

The experts’ best guess is that the gentleman on the white horse (on the right of the painting) is James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, at the siege of Maastricht in 1673. Scott was commander of the English forces fighting with the French during the Franco-Dutch war. It’s not clear, thus, what the connection is to the Antiville area of Larne or the wars fought in Ireland over the English crown. It was painted by Jan Wyck, who also did a painting of the Battle of the Boyne. On either side (as shown below) are a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and the English version of the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom.

Eddie The Trooper has his own Visual History page.

Hampton Crescent, Antiville, Larne

Battle Of Jutland

2023-03-242024-08-27Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

HMS Caroline re-opened in March, post Covid (Royal Navy). It opened as a floating museum in 2016, in time for the centenary of the Battle Of Jutland on May 31st-June 1st, 1916. There were almost 10,000 casualties and 25 ships were sunk that day but the Caroline survived. She served as a Navy headquarters during WWII, in Belfast habour, before being returned to reserves. (WP)

These eight panels are in Tennent Street in the Shankill. There was previously a painting of HMS Caroline at the Battle Of Jutland off the Shore Road in north Belfast – see HMS Caroline.

Welcome To Craigyhill

2023-03-192026-04-15Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Bullets and bonfires in Craigyhill, Larne: the hooded gunman shown above is next to the boards shown in The Loyalist Executioner in Glenfarne Place, Craigyhill (Larne).

Both it and the second image (from the top of Cairngorm Drive) have been added since July, 2022. For the claim to be the “world’s tallest bonfire”, see Commonwealth Handling Equipment.

The image of a pair of assault rifles is in Fanad Drive.