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
M00202 M00203
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
M00222
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
M00221
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
M00217
This mural features an unusual representation of Ireland divided into its four provinces. Also seen: Irish Tricolour and Sunburst flags sticking out of the island and the lark in barbed wire. Clonard Street, Belfast
See also: The Lark And The Freedom Fighter
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00215
The Falls Road, Belfast, just below Dunlewey Street, is scarred from a burnt-out vehicle and on the walls of Adoration Convent: Support The Prisoners And Their 5 Demands.
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00214
The quote on the left is from Sean O’Casey, not “Bobby Sands MP”: “You cannot put a rope around the neck of an idea; you cannot put an idea up against the barrack-square wall and riddle it with bullets; you cannot confine it in the strongest prison cell that your slaves could ever build.”
(The quote is reportedly from O’Casey’s prose lament for Thomas Ashe, either the initial pamphlet in November 1917 (?entitled “The Story Of Thomas Ashe”?) or the expanded version of 1918 (entitled “The Sacrifice Of Thomas Ashe” (auction site)), though no copy of this can be found on-line, only the two poems ‘Thomas Ashe’ and ‘Lament For Thomas Ashe’ (eastwallforall).
On the right, an H-Block blanketman is on his knees, protesting for (political) “status now”, surrounded by barbed wire and two flags on halberds: the Irish Tricolour and the Starry Plough.
Rockmore Road, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00211
A phoenix rising from blue, green, and red flames, flanked by an AK-47(?) and an armalite and tricolours on halberds.
Lenadoon Walk, Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00209
The Starry Plough provides a backdrop for the tricolour and the sunburst. There is also an early appearance of some Celtic knotwork, at the top of the mural, along with the shields of the four provinces in the corners. Whiterock Road, Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00208
Peter Moloney Collection 