Cumann Na mBan was founded on April 2nd, 1914, and it is being commemorated in various ways, including a mural on Ascaıll Ard na bhFeá/Beechmount Avenue.
Cumann Na mBan was the women’s division of the Irish Volunteers and is best remembered for its role in the Easter Rising of 1916. Its members were involved in the occupation of many locations. Some, including (non-combatant) Winifred Carney, were in the GPO, while Countess Markievicz, the main figure of the mural, was in St. Stephen’s Green. (Here is an RTÉ gallery of vintage photographs, including one of Markievicz surrendering.)
The letters “Cnamb” on a rifle formed the badge of Cumann Na mBan. The Irish “Ní saoırse go saoırse na mban” means “[There is] No freedom until the freedom of women”.
“Rem[ember] 80/81”. Here is a vintage nail-up on the Falls Road (at the Rock streets). It’s at least eight years old, and perhaps more. It notably includes the 1980 hunger strike.
Electioneering is under way in Northern Ireland, ahead of the local and European parliament elections on May 22nd.
“Vótáıl Éırígí #1 Pádraıc Mac Coıtır, Máıre Drumm”. This “Máıre Drumm” is the daughter of Sınn Féın vice-president and 1976 RHC victim Máıre Drumm.
“Think Independently, Vote Independent #VoteMulholland1 Cıarán Mulholland. Neamhspleách/Independent candidate for the Black Mountain ward. The political parties have failed the people of west Belfast. Have your say and change things on the 22nd of May #VoteMulholland1”. Mulholland is an independent (socialist).
A new mural, above, on the International Wall commemorates the fortieth anniversary this year of the ‘Burning Of Long Kesh’ or the ‘Battle Of Long Kesh’, which took place on the night of October 15, 1974 and day of the 16th (when British Army units retook the camp).
The most comprehensive account available on-line of the conditions at the camp prior to the riot, the burning, and the battle on the morning of the 16th appears to be this 2004 piece in An Phoblacht by Joe Doherty and Christy Keenan. (For a virtual tour of the camp, see this video. Seamus Keenan’s Over The Wire (on again this month at the Derry Playhouse) attempts to recreate the scene.) Other accounts include those by Ronan Bennett, another inmate, in The Guardian. Here is a brief BBC News report from the 16th.
All accounts mention the use of gas and republican accounts state that CR was used on the morning of the 16th in addition to CS, dropped from helicopters as at the top of the mural. The Guardian, in 2005, confirmed that CR had been authorized for use in controlling riots and was available at the prison. CR is a carcinogen (WP) and in a post on his blog (now removed) Mairtin Óg Meehan suspects that exposure to CR is a cause of recent cancers among former prisoners.
In the lower left corner is a quoted telegram from Fr. Denis Faul, Fr. Raymond Murray: “To international Red Cross … Visited Long Kesh today with others … Request immediate investigation into use of CR gas … sub-human conditions … SOS … come immediately …” 20 Oct. 1974. These two wrote an 80-page report on the conditions at the camp following the event, entitled The Flames Of Long Kesh. See this 1999 An Phoblacht page for an image of the shelters constructed after the battle.
Actor and activist Margaretta D’Arcy (here, “Margaritta” D’Arcy) was arrested in October, 2012, for climbing the perimeter of Shannon airport and standing on the runway, in protest at the use of the airport by US military planes. She was jailed – aged 79 – for nine-and-a-half weeks in 2014. (Irish Times | Journal)
“Free Leonard Peltier – An honourable man who has spent 10yrs longer in jail than Nelson Mandela”. Peltier has been in jail since 1977, convicted of killing two FBI agents (WP).
This board at the junction of the Falls and Glen roads (on the site of the former Andersonstown RUC station) commemorates the death of Pat Finucane (on February 12th, 1989), alleging collusion between the MI5, the UDA, the UDR, and the RUC, and asking for an inquiry.
“25 years on & no truth. Why no public inquiry? Time for justice, time for truth!”
The gable wall at the end of Columbia Street (on Ohio Street) has been rebuilt and the old WDA/Duke Elliott mural has been replaced. The right side of the piece describes the transition from the Woodvale Defence Association to the Ulster Defence Association to the Ulster Freedom Fighters, and grounds all three in the Ulster Defence union of 1893. Ernie “Duke” Elliott was killed in 1972, at age 28, in a dispute with other UDA members; he lived one street over from the site of these new boards, in Leopold Street (WP).
“Nor meekly serve my time” (in red on the right) is from Francie Brolly’s ‘The H-Block Song’ (youtube) and the “H” at the centre of “Maghaberry” has been painted in red.
At the end of the footbridge from Divis to the city centre, off Durham Street, Belfast.
Peter Moloney Collection 