Here is a 1982 image of the Break Thatcher’s Back mural in Rockmore Road, Belfast, showing a blanket man with outstretched arms demanding “status now”, framed by a large “H” and surrounded by barbed wire, Tricolours, and the Starry Plough. In 1981, there was a Sean O’Casey quote on the left, rather than a lily and the year of the Easter Rising — 1916. “Free Belfast” in the top left.
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Copyright © 1982 LC
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This mural celebrates the IRA (“Óglaigh Na hÉıreann” at the top) from 1919 (the army of the independent Dáıl Éıreann) to the “present” day of 1982. In the centre, a lark flies against a Tricolour, with the word “Saoırse” (“freedom”) beneath.
According to AP/RN of 1982-04-29, the (earlier) paint-bombing visible in the bottom image was the handiwork of “marauding Coldstream Guards”.
Islandbawn Street, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1982 Peter Moloney
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A phoenix rises from a pair of disembodied hands tearing apart an “H” made of brick, illustrating the lines “and then I prayed I yet might see/our fetters rent in twain/and Ireland long a province be/a nation once again”. Also with the lark in barbed wire, four provinces, and names of six hunger strikers: Bobby Sands MP, Francis Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Patsy O’Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson. Falls Road in Andersonstown, Belfast.
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00223
A trio of flags on halberds: Starry Plough, Tricolour, Sunburst.
0222?Beechmount Avenue?, Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 LC
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An armalite on the corner of Falls Road library in Sevastopol Street, Belfast (and visible at the edge of 13 Gone But Not Forgotten) points at a saracen (or Humber Pig) parked on the pavement. “Provos” graffiti is on the abandoned houses on the Falls Road.
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Copyright © 1981 LC
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A large celtic cross flies the Tricolour and Starry Plough. Beechmount Avenue, Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 LC
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The four provinces are named in Irish/Gaelic — Uladh/Ulster, Laıghean/Leinster, Muman/Munster, Connacta/Connaght — around a (vandalised) image of an IRA (óglaıgh na hÉıreann) volunteer.
unknown street, (Beechmount?) Belfast.
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00219 (see also X05727)
locationunknown
The red star and the hammer-and-sickle make an appearance alongside the Tricolour, Starry Plough, a fist grasping barbed wire, and the names of four hunger-strikers: B. Sands, P. O’Hara, R. McCreesh, F. Hughes. Turf Lodge shops, Monagh Road/Monagh Gardens/Norglen Road, Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 LC
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This is the oldest continuously maintained mural in Belfast. It was touched up in 1987 and 1990, and was repainted in 2013. It features a central phoenix and the shields of the four provinces, and two rhyming couplets: The people arose in 69/they will do it again at any time. Maggie Thatcher think again/don’t let our brave men die in vain.
Clowney Street, Beechmount, west Belfast.
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Copyright © 1981 LC
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Martin Luther King in 1966 (in an interview on CBS) said “A riot is the language of the unheard” and in 1967 (in “Beyond Vietnam“) wrote “I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government.” Misquoted and taken out of context, his words are used approvingly in this INLA/IRA mural.
Gransha Avenue, Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 LC
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Peter Moloney Collection 