Paddy Duffy Collection

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

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“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.”

The Dead

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

Two poems of WWI in Ballykeel 2, Ballymena: above, “We are the Dead. Short days ago/We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,/Loved and were loved, and now we lie/In Flanders fields.” from ‘In Flanders Fields’ by John McCrae.

Below: “They shall not grow old/As we that are left grow old/Age shall not weary them/Nor the years condemn/At the going down of the sun/And in the morning/We will remember them.” from ‘For The Fallen’ by Laurence Binyon.

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John “Grugg” Gregg

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“South East Antrim Brigade UFF. In proud memory of Brig. John “Grugg” Gregg and all fallen comrades. 4th Batt. A B C Coys. Lest we forget.” Gregg is known for the attempted killing of Gerry Adams and for being killed on the orders of Johnny Adair, which led to the expulsion of Adair’s company from the lower Shankill (WP).

Orkney Drive, Ballykeel 2, Ballymena. Seen previously in 2010: M05987.

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Ballykeel 2 Remembers

2023-04-122024-11-13Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Ballykeel 2 remembers: 1690, VE Day (75th anniversary in 2020 – see also north Belfast | Caw, Londonderry), the Somme 1916, and “all the young lives tragically lost in the Ballykeel estate” (Ian Boyd took his own life in 2006 – anglican.org).

Crebilly Road, Ballymena

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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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The United Nations

2023-04-122024-07-04Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A trio of international causes aimed at the visiting Joe Biden, president of the United States, from Gael Force Art and People Before Profit. What’s new here is the “No 2 NATO” under the Irish Tricolour. The other two parts have been on the mountain previously: the Cuban flag with “unblock Cuba” reprises the maassive Cuban flag on the mountain in 2021, which was depicted in the La Solidaridad Invariable mural on Divis St, and the Palestinian flag with “BDS” [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions] in 2018’s #BDS.

The third image shows the Cuban flag being rolled out; Bayview Media has a video of the installation o n twitter.

For more on Biden’s visit, see Joe Biden, Globalist.

Per Ardua Ad Astra

2023-04-122025-07-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Through adversity to the stars” – in WWII the Belfast Telegraph conducted a campaign to raise money for spitfire aircraft. 17 were purchased with the roughly 89 thousand pounds raised, and each of them was named for a city or area of Northern Ireland, including one named for Ballymena, which is the site of this new mural recalling the effort. (BelTel | NIWorld)

The plaques to Jimmy Aberdeen on the right-hand side of the second image date back to the previous mural, which is included last below; previously on the wall were Fight To A Finish and, before that, I Can Stand Alone.

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.'”