This entry updates 2023’s Harryville Says No with images of two additional boards/plaques erected by the 12th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles Memorial Association (Fb), “in honour of the men from Harryville [Ballymena] who made the ultimate sacrifice during the Battle Of The Somme from 1st July to 18th November 1916”.
“Remembering 57386 Sergeant John McNabney, formerly of No 9 Larne Street, 36th Divisional signal company, awarded the distinguished conduct medal, military medal with bar, and mentioned in despatches.” McNabney’s career and many decorations are described in Ballymena Guardian | Your Lurgan.
“Loyalist Village, south Belfast – Village team on tour.” This is a new printed board at the eastern edge of the Village in south Belfast. The association with the Northern Ireland soccer team (governed by the Irish Football Association) is perhaps an attempt to rehabilitate the name from the graffiti that appeared in 2015 (Welcome To Hell) and 2016 (Taigs Will Be Dealt With).
There is a “Linfield” version of this board, in red, white, and blue, in Tavanagh Street.
The new Rangers supporters club in Donegall Pass is named after Alex “Doddie” MacDonald, who played midfield for Rangers from 1968 to 1980, which included the team’s victory in the European Cup-Winners’ Cup in 1972. (A full biography can be found on the Rangers web site.)
The new board announces the “Alex MacDonald Loyal RSC (Donegall Pass)” and the photographs show various high-points in MacDonald’s career: “Signed for Rangers 19 November 1968”, “Hampden Park on 25 October 1975 when MacDonald scored the winner in the Old Firm League Cup final”, “Rangers hall of fame”.
Also included beneath the main board are the crests of “Southbank True Blues” and “Kirkintilloch RSC” (Fb).
Pine Street, Donegall Pass, south Belfast. Launched on September 13th – Facebook.
“Japanese prisoner of war and inventor of the portable defibrillator” – Frank Pantridge was born and died in Hillsborough, outside Lisburn and there is a statue of Pantridge with a defibrillator – his key invention – at the Lisburn Civic Centre and he is now remembered by this pair of printed boards on the Shore Road, unveiled on August 16th. He is also included in the nearby gallery of Great Ulster-Scots.
“Major Frank Pantridge, MC, ‘Ulster Hero’. Around the world tens of thousands of people have survived cardiac arrest, this would not have been possible without Professor Frank Pantridge surviving almost 4 years in a Japanese Prisoner of War camp. On the outbreak of WW2 Frank and colleagues at Belfast Royal Victoria Hospital enlisted in the British Army, taken prisoner in 1942 he endured horrendous conditions and deprivation. Frank won the Military Cross. His citation read “Frank was absolutely cool under the heaviest fire, completely regardless of his own personal safety at all times.” Returning to the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1945, basically as a walking skeleton he dedicated his life to treating heart disease, going on to invent the worlds first portable defibrillator in Belfast in 1965 saving the lives of countless men, women and children including Lyndon Johnston. A portrait of Frank initiated by Dame Many Peter’s hangs in Queens University and a statue of Frank sits proudly in the grounds of Lagan Valley Civic Centre.”
Here are two IRSP (web) boards and one IRPWA (web) board at Camlough Road on the edge of Derrybeg, Newry. Above, “Stop the genocide – Newry supports Palestine” (Teach Na Fáilte is the IRSP’s ex-prisoners division – Newry Fb); immediately below, “For a socialist republic – ‘He was the only one who truly understood what James Connolly meant when he spoke of his vision of the freedom of the Irish people’ – Nora O’Connolly O’Brien on Seamus Costello”; last below, “End internment – Portlaoise, Maghaberry, Hydebank”.
This is one of four Celtic crosses raised to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Burning Of Long Kesh in 1974 and, in this specific instance, to pay tribute to local Derrybeg volunteer Davey Morley, camp OC of the Provisionals, who gave the order for the camp to be burned (Pensive Quill).
Morley died in 1987, at age 46, possibly suffering the aftereffects of CR gas (The Blanket | Only Our Rivers).
Images of the December 2024 launch can be seen on Newry.LN’s Fb page.
“There are special people in our lives who never leave us even after they are gone. In loving memory of all the men that have passed away since the burning of Long Kesh 15th & 16th October 1974. Rest in peace. Also remembering the blanket men and women, all republicans who have lost their lives in our fight for freedom. Rest in peace.”
“This cross is to commemorate the burning of Long Kesh 1974 on the 50th anniversary of that event. Strategically placed here in Derrybeg, the home of Vol. Davey Morley officer commanding (OC) of the 4th battalion IRA Long Kesh. Vol. Davey Morley ordered the burning of the camp on the 15th Oct 74 after years of provaocation [sic] from prison authorities and their screws against POWs and their visitors. This was the largest head-to-head combat between the British Army and republican POWs since 1916. Republican POWs took on the might of the well-armed British forces that were firing baton rounds and CR gas flares from helicopters causing serious injuries to unarmed POWs and potentially the death of hundreds of men years after from the effects of CR gas (an illegal substance) i.e. chemical warfare the use of which is still denied to this day by the British government. Through the efforts of the burning and CR gas group we continue to fight for the truth. This memorial is jointly dedicated by the CR gas and the Burning of Long Kesh Newry Felons association. Unveiled by the widow of Davey Morley, Eilish Morley.”
A poem on the back of the cross reads:
“Oh mother of mine, I committed no crime So please do not weep when they bury me deep Because here in this ground with my comrades I sleep The spirit of freedom they can never defeat.
No defeat in the battle, no defeat in the war No defeat as in death, just our hearts you have tore
Continuing tears our people do shed For this country of ours and its patriot dead But one day we will be free, my comrades and me
So dear mother don’t weep, I am only asleep Put a kiss on my head and a flower at my feet And remember together we can never be beat!”
Here are three pieces (two boards and a statue) celebrating Willie Maley, who was born in Newry barracks in 1868 – his father was a sergeant in the 21st Regiment Of Foot. The following year the family moved to Scotland. Maley played in midfield for Celtic and made two international appearances for Scotland. He became manager in 1897 at the age of 29 and steered the club to sixteen league championships and fourteen Scottish Cups.
The board (above) in Mourne View Park (Mourne View is built on the site of the infantry barracks – the old walls are still standing): “The man who made Celtic – Willie Maley – founder member & player 1888, Celtic manager 1897-1940.” “It’s not the creed nor his nationality that counts. It’s the man himself.” “A man must be a Celt on & off the field, otherwise he is no value to this Club.”
The board is at the bottom of Mourne View Park in Erskine Street, on the south side of the barracks: “The Celtic vision was born here. William Patrick Maley born here 25th April 1868, the military barracks, Newry, died 2nd April, 1958, Glasgow.” “My love for Celtic has been a craze, without it my experience would be empty indeed.”
The statue is at the junction of Camlough Road and Monaghan Row and was launched in 2023 (Newry.ie): “”Mr. Celtic” William Patrick Maley. 43 years as Glasgow Celtic’s first ever manager, winning 19 league titles & over 40 other trophies as player/manager. “It’s not the creed nor his nationality that counts. It’s the man himself.” Born in Newry 25th April 1868. Glasgow Celtic fans will always fondly remember Mr Willie Maley.”
These are just four out of the scores of placards that lined the Falls Road on August 24th for the National Hunger-Strike Commemoration march to Milltown Cemetery, where Sınn Féın president Mary Lou McDonald gave the address (available at Belfast Media | video of the march is available on youtube).
Many of the placards show front pages from Republican News and An Phoblacht/Republican News, perhaps thanks to the Irish Republican Digital Archive (web), which has lately added scans of the newspapers from 1970 to 1984.
“We stand with Lıam Óg”, that is Lıam Óg Ó hAnnaıdh (on the left of the image above), a.k.a. Mo Chara, a member of the rap group Kneecap who appeared in court (in London) on Wednesday August 20th on “terrorism” charges and was bailed for a further month while the judge rules on a technical issue about whether the trial can go forward (BBC). (See previously The Magic Within and Seasaımıd Le Kneecap.)
The night before (the 19th) this board featuring images of the band-members and the band in its early days was unveiled on the Whiterock Road. (Video of the launch can be found on the Glór Na Móna instagram account.)
In the background is a Palestinian flag and “Saoırse don Phalaıstín” [Freedom for Palestine] is written along the bottom.
Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg are presented along with the ten deceased 1981 hunger strikers on the cross-beam of a large wooden “H” at the top of Turf Lodge.
IRA volunteer Michael Gaughan died in Parkhurst prison in 1974 after 64 days on hunger strike. Gaughan’s coffin was draped with the Tricolour used to bury Terence McSwiney in 1920. He was force-fed seventeen times during the strike and his family alleged that he died from food stuck in a punctured lung. The practice was ended after Gaughan’s death.
Frank Stagg was on the Parkhurst hunger strike with Gaughan, and another in Long Lartin prison, and a third in Wakefield in December 1975. He died after 62 days on February 12th, 1976.
Paddy Duffy Collection 