On the left of the lightning bolt are the soldiers of the 36th Ulster division (U.V.F.) R.I.R (Royal Irish Rifles) on the western front in 1916; on the right are “UVF prisoners of war, Long Kesh”.
This mural/A similar mural is described by Billy Hutchinson (in his 2011 piece “Transcendental Art“) as being painted in the compounds of Long Kesh: “My favourite mural was one inspired by the British anti-war poet, Siegfried Sassoon. Suicide in the Trenches depicts a UVF volunteer split down the middle by a bolt of lightning. Half of him depicts a 36th Ulster Division soldier under heavy fire in a rainsoaked WW1 trench. The other half shows a ’70s volunteer incarcerated behind barbed wire and over-shadowed by watch towers.” Hutchinson also describes the importance of the Orange Cross welfare organisation in selling prisoner art produced inside the prison.
Craven Street, Belfast.
M00560
Copyright © 1988 LC
peter moloney collection 
2 thoughts on “70th Anniversary Of The Somme”