From the late 1960s to the late 1990s, Northern Ireland was gripped by “The Troubles”, a bitter nationalist conflict. On one side were republican paramilitaries (like the IRA and INLA), predominantly Catholic, who fought for a united Ireland. On the other were loyalist paramilitaries (like the UVF), predominantly Protestant, who fought to remain part of the United Kingdom. For today’s photo, we travel to The Shankill Road in Belfast, which became the heartland of the loyalist groups.

Daily Photo – Memorial wall, where the wreaths Rest

Major William Marchant
On a rainy Tuesday afternoon in April 1987, William Marchant stood outside the UVF’s headquarters above a Shankill Road chip shop. A hijacked car pulled up, and Provisional IRA gunmen opened fire, killing him instantly before abandoning the vehicle nearby. The IRA targeted Marchant because he was a high-ranking UVF figure, historically linked through intelligence reports and rumour to major loyalist operations, including the devastating 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings. His assassination was a calculated strike by republicans against the UVF’s leadership structure during a decade defined by intense, cyclical tit-for-tat violence between the rival factions.

Lieutenant Colonel James Trevor King
On June 16, 1994, senior UVF commander Trevor King was standing near a public phone box at the corner of Spiers Place, deep in conversation. Suddenly, a gunman from the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), a republican splinter group, approached and opened fire. King was critically wounded and died of his injuries weeks later in hospital. The INLA carried out the hit to disrupt the loyalist command structure during a highly volatile period. With rumours of a ceasefire looming, paramilitary groups on both sides were aggressively targeting key figures to maximise their leverage before the political landscape shifted.

Volunteer David Hamilton
Davy Hamilton was standing beside Trevor King on that fateful June afternoon and was caught directly in the same sudden volley of INLA gunfire. He was rushed to hospital but died of his severe injuries the following day. King was the primary target of the attack, while Hamilton was an active UVF volunteer and part of the local command unit. The INLA struck them together, delivering a dual blow to the Shankill UVF’s operational core by capitalising on a rare moment when two key figures stood exposed on the open street.

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Daily Photo – Victoria Square Shopping Centre

To clean and tidy up the city, Belfast officials poured £400 million pounds into a new complex which they named Victoria Square Shopping Centre. The crowning glory of the entire complex was a huge glass dome that sat an impressive 45 metres off the ground and provided an impressive 360-degree panoramic view of the Belfast skyline.

As impressive as all this was, the thing about building a viewing platform 40 metres in the air, under 635 panes, providing a 360-degree view of the city, is that once it is there, you have to get people up there to use it! This was solved by constructing what looks like a space-age plant from a futuristic version of ‘Jack and the Bean Stalk’. So everyone could see the wondrous complex on their way to the top, a glass elevator was installed so shoppers could soak up the vista on the way up, while a glass spiral staircase was wrapped around the outside for those feeling a bit more enthusiastic.

Earlier in the day, my wife and I had met up with a close family friend from home who happened to be in Belfast too, largely because she grew up in a village just down the road. Faced with the choice of catching up over coffee or joining me for a hike to the top of the dome to see the skyline, they had opted for the coffee, agreeing we’d all regroup once I’d finished.

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