CNR

Notes

Extramural Activity1 Comment

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

Blessed Are Those Who Hunger For Justice

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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
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Blessed Are Those Who Hunger For Justice

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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

Ireland’s Cross To Bear

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Here are four panels on Beechmount Avenue (Belfast) in 1981 depicting (from left to right) Ireland in the grip of a fist with a Union Flag cufflink, a prison guard whose mouth holds prison bars, a naked figure in a tricoloured scarf crucified on a Union Flag, and Ireland carrying a cross “Made in Britain”.

At least three of the original images are by Jack Clafferty, a founder member of the Troops Out Movement, and can be found on-line.

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Copyright © 1981 LC
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The Final Salute

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The first names of six hunger-strikers — Bobby, Francis, Patsy, Raymond, Joe, Martin — on a ribbon held by a tricoloured phoenix against a sunburst, flanked by Starry Plough and Tricolour and volunteers firing a final salute. The ribbon would be expanded to include the first names of all ten 1981 hunger strikers – see the Paddy Duffy Collection.

Painted by Con in Rockdale Street, west Belfast.

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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00116

We Must Grow Tough

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“We must grow tough, but without ever losing our tenderness.” Three female activists, one with a rifle, proclaim “Resistance” on the Falls Road, Belfast “painted by Sınn Féın Youth”. The phrase is attributed to Che Guevara. Rolston (1991 p. 94) claims this mural was done for International Women’s Day 1982 (March 6th). An in-progress image can be seen in the Paddy Duffy Collection.

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Copyright © 1981 LC
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