Clyde Valley Memorial

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A cast iron lamp standard mounted on a battered concrete plinth as a memorial, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the ‘gun running’ of 1914. Standard is ornamentally decorated with acanthus leaves and garlands in relief; no light in lamp itself and not functioning; commemorative plaques affixed to plinth. The memorial stands on an open area of grass on the shore of Larne Lough directly accessible from the main road, and in visual proximity to two other memorials on the same side of the road.

Historical information

Lamp manufactured by James Allan Senior and Son, Elm Bank Foundry, Glasgow, as inscribed on a plaque on its base. Memorial unveiled on 25th April 1964 by Right Honourable Terence O’Neill, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, “to commemorate”, as the inscription plaque states, “the arrival at Larne Harbour of the S.S. ‘Clyde Valley’ re-named ‘Mountjoy’ on the 24th April 1914 with a shipment of arms for the Ulster Volunteer Force formed to defend the Union of Ulster with Great Britain. The lamp surmounting this plinth was the leading light which guided the vessel to port. UVF. For God and Ulster”. Formerly the memorial stood on Olderfleet Road opposite the Olderfleet Hotel but has been relocated.

References - Secondary

1. Belfast News-Letter, 27 April 1964, p 7.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
C. Ornamentation

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

A memorial which is of little special architectural merit but is of national historic interest although this may have been lessened by its relocation.