The People’s Army

“The arming, the training, and the sacrifice of The People’s Army.” The arming (left) comes from the guns smuggled into Larne on the Clyde Valley. The training shown here (right) is probably Ballywalter. The sacrifice (bottom) is the 36th (Ulster) Division going over the top in James Beadle’s painting ‘Charge of the 36th (Ulster) Division, Somme, 1st July 1916’. Inverary Drive, Belfast.

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Copyright © 2009 Peter Moloney

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Wheatfield Action Project

This is the second generation of a series of boards on Ballysilland Road depicting (as the info board states “a series of scenes from the 20th century which have strong resonance with the local community”. The first generation can be seen in 20th Century Northern Ireland. Most of the changes are at the start/left-hand side: the info board replaces the first two panels, which were of the Cavehill Road and the Clyde Valley, and (next in line) only one of the three scenes of Belfast on Ulster Day survives. Carson signing the covenant is followed by a new double-sized panel of Fernhill House, specifically of “the 2nd West Belfast Battalion of the UVF … on parade”, and then the rest as before, but with the order of the “Sunningdale Agreement of 1973” and “Ulster Workers Council’s ‘Constitutional Stoppage’ of May 1974” panels reversed (i.e. now in chronological order). “Parliament Buildings at Stormont, opened by the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII) on 16 November 1932, completes the mural.”

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney

We Won’t Have Home Rule

“Presentation of colours to South Belfast Volunteers by Edward Carson 1913.” Broadway, Belfast. According to the Digital Repository Of Ireland, however, the scene depicted on the left is Carson and the Central Antrim Volunteers in 1914.

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney

Mid Ulster Brigade Ulster Volunteer Force

This Portadown mural combines the Ulster Volunteers of 1912 with the contemporary UVF. The panels show “UVF gun-smuggler 1913”, “Firearms training 1913”, and “Sir Edward Carson about to address troops at Portadown railway station” while the roll of honour lists modern-day volutneers Joey Neill, Horace [Harris] Boyle, Wesley Summerville [Somerville], Derek McFarlane, Jackie Marshall, Wilson “Winky” [also “Winkie”] Fry, Robin Jackson, Richard Jameson, Mark “Sqid” Elliott. This is progress compared to the previous mural, shown below, which had hooded gunmen active in the centre of the mural, with the crest of the 36th (Ulster) Division on the side-wall.

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney

Ulster Volunteers

From left to right: a Union Flag, the emblem of the USSF [Ulster Special Service Force, elite units within the Ulster Volunteers], Carson and the Covenant, the gunrunning ship Clyde Valley, a red hand in a garland, crossed “1914” rifles, the memorial to the gunrunning near Chaine Memorial, soldiers going over the top, Ulster Tower, and a cross marking a grave.

Drumahoe Gardens, Larne.

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney

Rex Bar

This is the scene in the outdoor seating to the Rex Bar on the Shankill Road. The arch is dedicated to the 36th (Ulster) Division at the Battle Of The Somme. On the side of the betting office, Carson signs the Ulster Covenant (Mo2454), Carson reviews the Ulster Volunteers (Mo2453), and a farmer’s wife protects the farm, both during WWI and from “sectarian attack from across the border” (M02452). The Union Flag to the left is in progress. Shankill Road at (formerly) Moscow Street.

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney

Ulster Volunteers

The Ulster Volunteers were formed in response to the Home Rule bill of April 1912 and the Covenant signed in September 1912, first by Edward Carson and then by almost half a million others. Guns were smuggled into Larne on the Clyde Valley in April 1914 but the advent of the World War saw the volunteers instead joining the British Army. Shankill Road, Belfast. Previously seen, in better shape, in 2005.

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney

The People’s Army

The title of the post comes from the previous location of this Ulster Volunteers/UVF board. The image above is from Seymour Gardens, Londonderry, but previously the board was on the main road (Sperrin Park) in the Caw with a black background and title-board above, and side-fence of insignia. From the period of the Ulster Volunteers, the board features the Carson, the Clyde Valley, the Covenant, and the UDU (Ulster Defence Union) manifesto of 1893.

Previously in this location: McFadzean.

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Copyright © 2007 Peter Moloney

UVF Liverpool No 4 Battalion

A paramilitary mural in Monkstown (see J1042) is replaced by one of the statue to Sir Edward Carson at the entrance to Stormont. The names from the previous mural (John Webber/Webster and Lee Irwin) are retained and Steven Cook’s added, though this name was not on the original version of this mural (X05396).

Here is a memorial video to John Webster/Webber who died in 2000. Lee Irwin, who died from cancer at age 16, was the son of Liverpool UVF leader John Irwin (BelTel). Steven Cook is unknown except for a Young Carson’s Volunteers memorial parade in 2014.

The plaque reads “In memory of volunteers John Webster, Lee Irwin & Steven Cook. Lest we forget.” Tynan Drive, Monkstown.

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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney

The Peoples Army

This Ulster Volunteers/UVF board in Sperrin Park, Londonderry, includes familiar imagery from the Covenant to Long Kesh. The most unusual element is the inclusion of the Ulster Defence Union manifesto from St Patrick’s Day 1893 behind the hooded gunmen in the top right (for more on the UDU, see Bygone Days).

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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney