Portrait of Thomas McIlwee [McElwee] “IRA Vol. POW 1958-1981” and a tricoloured wall on Strabane Old Road, Derry
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Copyright © 1981 Peter Moloney
M00153
1958-1981
Month: March 1981
A Political Prisoner Of War
Parts of a 1979 Bobby Sands An Phoblacht/Republican News article — The Lark And The Freedom Fighter — are featured in a 1981 mural in Gobnascale, Derry. “I refuse to change to suit the people who oppress, torture and imprison me, and who wish to dehumanize me. I have the spirit of freedom that cannot be quenched by even the most horrendous treatment. Of course I can be murdered, but while I remain alive, I remain what I am, a political prisoner of war.” B. Sands. MP. POW. OC.
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Copyright © 1981 Peter Moloney
M00152
The Last Post
A bugler plays The Last Post over a grave of hunger-strikers from the early part of the 20th century: Thomas Ashe May 25, 1917; Michael Fitzgerald October 17, 1920; Joseph Murphy October 25, 1920; Terence M[a]cSwiney October 25, 1920; Joseph Whittey [Whitty, Witty] September 9 [or 2nd], 1923; Denis Barry November 20, 1922 [1923]. Not included is Andrew Sullivan, who died two days after Barry. Dan Downey died in June 1923 having earlier been on hunger strike.
Beechmount Drive, Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00149
Plastic Death
Civil Order, Plastic Death: “in memory of those murdered by plastic bullets”. A British Army soldier stands to the right of mural in (the old) Linden Street, next to the spot where Nora McCabe was shot in the back of the head by a plastic bullet by the RUC at 7:45 a.m. on July 9th, 1981, the day after hunger striker Joe McDonnell died. The poster on which the mural is based is below.
The soldier on the left was originally painted with boots on both feet (X05495) but repainted with a peg-leg after the IRA blew up the car of the Marine’s Commandant General Steuart Pringle on October 17th, 1981 – he lost his right leg (WP).
“Done by Springfield Youth [Against H-Block & Armagh]”
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00148
The Conveyor Belt
The conveyor belt of British justice is depicted as inexorably moving arrested republicans from questioning at Castlereagh to jail in Crumlin Road to sentencing in front of Diplock court to prison in the H-Blocks. (For a small board in Derry see The Conveyor Belt.)
Beechmount Avenue, Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 Peter Moloney
M00126
The Training Ground
Jeff Perks’s 1979 linotype “The Training Ground” was reproduced on Beechmount Avenue circa 1981. It depicts the history of the British Army in Ireland. Rolston (“Politics, Painting and Popular Culture: the Political Wall Murals of Northern Ireland”, Media, Culture and Society 9.1, 1987) claims (p. 19) that the image would have been familiar to nationalists from the cover of “Ireland: Voices For Withdrawal” (shown below). The baton-wielding policeman on the right was also reproduced in a famous 1996 Derry mural (“68-96 Nothing Has Changed” M01279).
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00123 M00124 M00125
Notes
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.
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00134
Let Us Rise
“The great only appear great because we are on our knees – let us rise”. The quote – also used by Jim Larkin – appeared in Connolly’s article on Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee visit to Ireland. His portrait is flanked by the tricolour and the starry plough.
“Sponsored by trade union group”, painted by Digger.
Beechmount Avenue, west Belfast.
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00135
Rolston 1991 p. 95 gives 1982.
Blessed Are Those Who Hunger For Justice
Three images of a mural on the Whiterock Road, Belfast, showing a blanketman/hunger-striker and a uniformed volunteer on a tricolour cloth at the feet of an angel holding a banner reading “blessed are those who hunger for justice“. Above are the words “Their hunger, their pain, our struggle“. The shields of the four provinces of Ireland and two shamrocks complete the mural. The third image shows the mural in progress, and it looks as though it has already been vandalised.
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00129 M00130 M00127 [M00128]
Blessed Are Those Who Hunger For Justice
A hunger-striker lies in bed praying with rosary beads and bathed in beams of light coming from the hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
(Painted by Con, who describes the mural as an attempt to break through with nationalists (as distinct from republicans), though one source says “by a Ballymurphy man, named something like Tim Skillen/Skelly”.)
Rockmount Street, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00131
Peter Moloney Collection 