“Her name is publicly announced in April 1908. Designation begins in March 1909. On May 31. 1911, the Titanic was launched here in Belfast, April 10, 1912. She left Southampton for New York. April 14, 1912 disaster struck in the North Atlantic ocean, 1523 people lost their lives in the disaster, 705 passengers and crew survived.” “This mural is respectfully dedicated to the men, women and children who lost their lives in the waters of the North Atlantic on the night of April 14, 1912: to those who survived – whose lives from that night on were forever altered; and to those who built the Titanic [at Harland and Wolff]. We forget them not.”
Pictured in the centre of the mural is Captain Edward John “Ted” Smith.
“It’s hard to know what way to behave when a friend and a comrade is slowly dying on Hunger Strike just a few cells away, everyone of course tries to put on a brave face and act normal but both he and we know that it is only make believe. We’ve organized story telling and sing songs to keep up his moral[e], ours too, but it’s hard, very hard. It won’t be long now until he’s taken away to join the other Hunger Strikers in the prison hospital and then?
Well it seems that only slow terrible death awaits them all. We try to shout words of encouragement but what can you say to a dying man[?] The screws for their part keep him as isolated from us as possible and go out of their way to taunt and belittle him, yet in their midst he, like his comrades is a giant. If they even had one ounce of their courage if even they had a spark of decency, decency from these who have tormented us all these years? Compassion from these who have made all this suffering necessary?
No, not even a friendly word, not even a word of sympathy during the long days and nights of agony but then neither he nor we expect it. We know only too well that these people have been put here to torment and persecute us and they have done their job well but not well enough. They have served their British masters, the poor pathetic fools, they think that inhumanity and cruelty can break us, haven’t they learnt anything? It strengthens us, it drives us on for then more than ever we know that our cause is just.
Bobby Sands, Frank Hughes, Patsy O’Hara and Raymond McCreesh hunger for justice, they have suffered all the indignities that a tyrant can inflict yet still they fight back with their dying breath. Only a few yards from here, four human skeletons lay wasting away and still the fools the poor pathetic fools cannot break them. Even death will not extinguish the flames of resistance and this flame will without doubt engulf these who in their callousness and in greed have made all this necessary. Britain you will pay!”
“He died as he lived – a republican socialist. Remember his sacrifice with honour and pride.”
“Unbowed, unbroken.” This is a version of the earlier Éıre/Ireland mural (depicted as a female in the centre of the mural) seen in 2005. Portraits of 18 local republicans are included, beginning with Charlie Monahan and Murtagh McAstocker. This mural is similar to the earlier one on the shop gable (which had 16 portraits).
The plaque to the left reads “Dedicated to the memory of the volunteers of B company 3rd battalion Belfast brigade Óglaıgh na hÉıreann who died fighting for an Irish socialist republic. Fuaır sıad bás ar son saoırse na hÉıreann.”
“I have hope, indeed. All must have hope and never lose heart. My hope lies in the ultimate victory of my people [for my poor people] – Bobby Sands, March 5th, 1981.” Robert Ballagh was commissioned by Sınn Féın to produce a piece for the 20th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike and came up with the ten doves escaping an H Block (see the Visual History of “Hawks” & Doves).
Charlie Monahan (Cathal Ó Monacháın/Ó Muıneacháın) died along with Con Keating and Daniel Sheehan in a motor accident in Kerry, when their car was driven off a pier on the way to help guide Roger Casement (shown in the top left) land a ship full of weapons. “T’was on Good Friday morning before the break of day/A German ship was signaling way out there in the bay/With 20,000 rifles already for to land/But no answering signal did come from the lonely Banna Strand … And the wild wind sings their requiem on the lonely Banna Strand.” “This mural was sponsored by the Brehon Law Society USA.”
Michael Stone is removed from the central circle (see T00637) and replaced by an UYM fist. Jonathan “JJ” Gray – son of Jim Gray – died on holiday in Thailand in 2002. Jim Gray, who once owned the pub at the top of the street (Avenue One), himself would be shot in October 2005 after being expelled from the UDA in March. Rab Brown is perhaps the UVF commander – it’s not clear why he’s on a UDA mural. The flag of the ‘Ulster nation’/independent Northern Ireland is retained alongside the Ulster Banner.
“Release east Belfast’s loyalist prisoners”. This mural of Maze/Long Kesh watchtowers and barbed wire dates back to at least 1997, during the peace process.
These two murals face one another in the mouth of Martin Street at Templemore Avenue, in east Belfast. Gertrude Star flute band (Fb) was formed in 1961. The southern mural features Spike (from Tom And Jerry) dressed as a band member above an Ulster Banner in the shape of Northern Ireland. The mural on the northern side shows a coat of arms with six-pointed star and red hand, below a crown.
Peter Moloney Collection 