Cormac (Brian Moore) was a cartoonist for Republican News, whose “Notes” (Notes For A History Of Ireland) cartoon began appearing in August 1976. The first comic suggested there would be “a handful of comic strips” but Notes went on appearing almost weekly in Republican News and An Phoblacht/Republican News for a total of 28 years, until 2004. During the first decade, Cormac was also a cartoonist for Socialist Challenge (producing a strip called “Bad Taste” from 1978-1983) and then Socialist Action (“A Piece Of The Action” from 1983-1987).
In the strip above, a republican dares to be happy despite the Troubles and “a bleak and hopeless future of poverty and unemployment”, taking delight in “three British soldiers sent to eternity/The M-60 kettling so merrily”.
The strip itself appeared in the AP/RN of 1982-04-01, and perhaps also in an earlier edition.
“Painted by Sınn Féın Youth” next to Let Us Rise in Beechmount Avenue, west Belfast.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1981 LC
M00134
Peter Moloney Collection 
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