East Belfast Murals

This mural shows East Belfast Brigade, then known as ‘G. Division ’, of the Ulster Defence Association marching down Templemore Avenue before attending a rally at Stormont in May 1972. Marches like this one where synonymous of the time, when the U.D.A. was a legal organisation with a membership of 40,000 at its peak. The march was led by the UDA’s ‘police unit’ who are distinguished by their helmets. Some of the members pictured are still alive and involved with the murals project to this day.

This mural depicts women volunteers of the Loyalist Prisoners Aid, preparing food in the Gateway Club in Wilton Street off the Shankill Road 1972 - in order be sent out to UDA/UFF prisoners incarcerated in Crumlin Road & Long Kesh Prisons. Women played a pivotal role throughout the conflict in supporting prisoners welfare, and retaining their family structure whilst they were inside.

This mural shows a uniformed UDA volunteer maintaining a road block with a guard dog in 1972. The UDA Land Rovers, such as the one shown in the background, would patrol Loyalist areas daily to protect their people from the threat of Republican violence and to block off roads when necessary.

This mural depicts a young boy dressed in UDA Military uniform assisting at a road block, at the corner of Wilton Street, opposite the Berlin Bar on the Shankill Road - 1972. The image shows how everyone young and old had their part to play in defending their areas and the influence that the conflict had on kids’ daily lives.