“Londonderry west bank loyalists still under siege – No surrender”. The original siege of Derry began in 1688 and ended in July 1689.
Repainted version of signage seen previously in 2009.
The Fountain, Londonderry
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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“End internment – end forced strip searching [in] HMP Maghaberry”. For background, see The Detail | BBC | Socialist Worker.
IRPWA (web) board on Eastway, Derry.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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“Immediate expulsion of all Israeli diplomats from Éıre”. Gazans flee ahead of smiling soldiers from homes set ablaze by a tank flying the Israeli flag. This new mural on the international wall associates the current Israeli invasion of Gaza (which the Israelis call “Operation Protective Edge“) with the US/South Vietnamese attack on the village of Trang Bang during the Vietnam war by modelling itself on Nick Út’s 1972 Pulitzer prize-winning photograph for the Associated Press of villagers fleeing a napalm bombing (the photo can be seen at Wikipedia).
The mural is on the International Wall, Divis Street, west Belfast, as are the pavement stencils. “Free Gaza” is on Northumberland Street.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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“Welcome to Creggan – watch your back on the way out” and “Welcome to the Bogside – RUC beware”. The (anti-Agreement/perhaps “New”) IRA volunteers are shown wearing balaclavas and holding an RPG and an assault rifle.
Eastway and Westland Street, Derry
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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“Derry women made more than shirts – they made communities”.
Here is a Derry mural celebrating the role of women in society, both locally and world-wide.
On the left of the main panel, women march out of one of the city’s gates. The information sheet reads as follows: “On International Women’s Day, March 8th [1991, not 1981 as the hand-written addition suggests], the first ever women’s mural in Derry was unveiled on the back of Free Derry Wall. It was designed and painted by Patricia Hegarty and Joe Coyle, and helpers, both men and women. The mural takes its inspiration from a march in November 1968, after Minister for Home Affairs Bill Craig banned all civil rights marches in the walled city. Women factory workers walked out and spent the afternoon marching in and out of every gate in the city, deliberately “breaking the ban”. Men marched in from DuPont to join them, and a rally was held in the Diamond. In the mural you can find the faces of some of those marching on that historic day, as well as other women who played their part in the ongoing struggle for justice. Civil rights workers Bridget Bond and Women’s Aid refuge founder Cathy Harkin march alongside republicans such as Ethel Lynch, Bridget Sheils, Peggy Derry, prisoners’ rights activists Susie Coyle, and many others. You may find images of your granny, sister or aunt. The mural is dedicated to all those women whose energy and determination have changed their lives and the world about them.”
The board on FDC can be seen in Woods’s Seeing Is Believing?, plate 19.
In the centre of the main panel, a tapestry of images and posters is being sewn by a woman at a sewing-machine in one of Derry’s large shirt- and collar-making factories (one of which, attached to “Fabric World”, is shown on the right).
The tapestry includes flyers/posters of local women banging bin lids at the death of Tom McElwee, marching past the ‘Free Derry’ slogan on Free Derry corner, striking, and protesting; there are also posters supporting Palestine and gay rights, celebrating femininity, and one of Wonder Woman.
Lecky Road, Brandywell, Derry
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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Here is a gallery of graffiti from the Bogside (Meenan Square and around the Bogside Inn): “Death to Israel – God bless Hamas”, “RUC scum”, “All touts will be shot dead!”, “End loyalist marches now”, “Kill all RUC members now!”
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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This is an interesting set of images from Main Road, Moygashel.
The first three employ familiar imagery of the UVF and the 36th Division (the Home-Rule era “Deserted! Well – I Can Stand Alone” is less familiar but goes back to at least 1988; the UVF flag also references the anti-Home Rule movement in the “1912” date of the founding of the Ulster Volunteers).
The stencil (“It is not racist to protect your own community”) and hand-painted board (“Don’t be DUPed”) indicate a recent change in attitudes.
In the May elections for the European Parliament, UKIP received the most votes and the most seats (24), campaigning on an anti-immigrant and Euro-skeptical message; this is its best electoral performance to date (WP). Perhaps in response to UKIP’s increasing popularity, Conservative leader David Cameron last year (2013) promised (gov.uk) a referendum on EU membership, should the Conservatives be elected in next year’s (2015) general election.
The source of dissatisfaction with the DUP is less clear. The party won the largest number of seats in the local elections in May (WP).
These are perhaps the first appearance in the Peter Moloney Collection of both sentiments.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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A Palestinian wearing a keffiyeh sheds a tear in the colours of the Palestinian flag, along with additional tears of blood, over the “genocide” in Gaza due to the long-running Israeli blockade of Gaza, forbidding movement by air and sea and controlling what enters and exits via the three (land) border-crossings, and sanctioning the Palestinian Authority (led by Hamas). The mural has perhaps been prompted more specifically by the recent Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and arrests of Palestinians in the West Bank – see the WP page on the 2014 Gaza War.
‘Free Derry Corner’ has its own Visual History page | Click here for previous Gaza entries.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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Cut-out boards in the shapes of the red hand of Ulster (both left and right hands!), the five-pointed orange star (usually purple) of the Williamites, the crown of the British monarch, and King Billy on his steed line the fence along Bute Park in Ballybeen, Dundonald.
Also included are images of the nearby bonfire on Davarr Avenue, festooned with election posters for Martina Anderson, Nuala Toman, and (from Alliance) Anna Lo.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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The boards on the left celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1914 Clyde Valley gun-running; material from the operation was held for the East Belfast battalion of the Ulster Volunteers at Bloomfield House (web), site of these boards. See also: John Henry Patterson’s involvement in Operation Lion.
“When the 3rd Home Rule Bill was passed by Parliament in 1912, Ulster Unionists under the leadership of Edward Carson and James Craig realised that armed resistance was the only resort left to them to remain British. The Ulster Volunteer Force was formed in January 1913 and comprised of 100,000 men. East Belfast Regiment was the largest in the UVF with over 10,000 men divided into 6 Battalions: 1st. Ballynafeigh & Newtownbreda, 2nd. Willowfield, 3rd. Mountpottinger, 4th. Victoria, 5th. Avoniel, 6th. Strandtown & Knock. Major Fred Crawford was tasked with procuring weapons and ammunition. On 24/25th April 1914 he did just this when landed 25,000 rifles and 3,000,000 rounds of ammunition from Clyde Valley at Larne and Donaghadee in Operation Lion. These munitions were taken all over the country, and a consignment was sent to East Belfast UVF. Part of this consignment was concealed in the grounds of Bloomfield House, which stood on this location.”
“This plaque marks the occasion in early May 1914 when over 2,000 men of the East Belfast Regiment, Ulster Volunteer Force paraded to the grounds of Orangefield House for an inspection to celebrate the success of Operation Lion when weapons and ammunition were landed at Larne and Donaghadee. For God and Ulster.”
The boards on the right read: “‘Tis thy flag and my flag;/The best of flags on Earth,/So cherish it my children,/It’s yours by right of birth.//Your fathers fought,/Your fathers died,/To raise it to the skies,/And we like them must never yield,/But keep it flying high.” from The Union Jack, by Edward Shirley, in Little Poems For Little People, and “In memory of the men and women from the Orangefield area, who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the defence of our freedom in all theatres of conflict, both foreign and at home.” These memorial boards are to local men who “stood to the fore to defend the Empire as the 8th Battalion (East Belfast) Royal Irish Rifles” in the 36th division, formed from formed from the “8th Battalion (Avoniel) and the 6th Battalion (Strandtown)” of the Ulster Volunteers.
Grand Parade, east Belfast.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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Peter Moloney Collection 