The Irish Hungerstrike

The 20th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike is commemorated on the side of the Felons club with Bobby Ballagh’s Legacy Of The Hunger Strikes, showing ten doves breaking out of a H-Block. For the controversy over the image, see this Guardian article. Falls Road/Lake Glen Drive.

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Copyright © 2001 Peter Moloney
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St James’s Support The Hunger Strikers

In-progress shots of the St James community mural in Hugo Street, Belfast, including posters of 1981 hunger strikers Bernard Fox and Pat Sheehan. A blanketman would be added at the top and a funeral scene – with child leaning on coffin – to the left.

Click here for the completed mural.

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Copyright © 2001 Peter Moloney
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Comhıonannas Do Gach Duıne

Scots Guardsmen Mark Wright and James Fisher, who served six years of a life sentence for the killing of Peter McBride and then rejoined the army, are compared to republican POWs: “An open letter to the British Secretary of State: Why does your government show preferential treatment to ‘state murders’ while discriminating against Irish POWs – we are denied employment, PSV license, no adoption, compensation, visas. Why? Signed St James’s POWs. Co[m]hıonannas do gach duıne” (equality for everyone)

Donegall Road, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2001 Peter Moloney
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St Patrick’s Day Funding Denied

In this board from “St James’s youth” and “St James’s ex-prisoners and carnival choas” St Patrick at the head of a parade of children is blocked from city hall by an Orangeman. The first St Patrick’s day parade to be held in Belfast city centre was in 1998 but funding for this and parades until 2006 was denied on the grounds that it was not inclusive of Protestants (Bryan & Skinner). The event “Tús maıth leath na hoıbre” [a good start is half the work].

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Copyright © 2001 Peter Moloney
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Our Revenge Will Be The Laughter Of Our Children

For the 20th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike, this freestanding “H” was constructed along the Falls Road, Belfast. Across the centre bar are the words (usually attributed to Bobby Sands) “our revenge will be the laughter of our children” and images of IRA (Tricolour) and youth (Sunburst) volunteers firing over a lark encircled in barbed wire.

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Copyright © 2001 Peter Moloney
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Na Cımí Poblachtánacha

“I ndıl chuımhne na gcımí poblachtanacha a fuaır bas ı ngéıbheann ı rıth na coımhlınte reatha seo.” A lark bursts through prison bars of Long Kesh, Portlaoise, and prisons in England, in which republicans have died from the 70s to 90s.

Beechmount Avenue, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2001 Peter Moloney
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