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
A phoenix in the colours of the Irish tricolour.
Shaw’s Road, west Belfast.
With “INLA” on the shutters of the off-licence next door.
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00200
Portraits of Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh, Patsy O’Hara, Joe McDonnell, and Martin Hurson (or possibly Brendan McLoughlin). Whiterock Road (at Carnmore Place), Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00199
The names of four hunger strikers – Bobby Sands RIP, Patsy O’Hara RIP, Raymond McCreesh, and Franky Hughes RIP – with an “H” made of barbed wire and two Irish tricolours.
Falls Road (at Fallswater St), Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00198
Republican prisoners, one with a raised fist: “I’ll wear no convicts uniform, nor meekly serve my time, that Britain might make Ireland’s fight 800 years of crime.” It appears from the fist in the top of the gable that a larger version was initially attempted but then scaled back. The figures are based on a 1981 poster urging the restoration of political status for republican prisoners.
According to Bill Rolston, this is the first mural painted in Belfast, in the spring of 1981. For a history of (republican) proto-murals and murals, see Visual History 02.
Whiterock Road, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 LC
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In the first two of these three images from (somewhere on) the Andersonstown Road, nine hunger-strikers are named — Bobby Sands M.P., Joe McDonnell, Francis Hughes, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty T.D., Ray McCreesh, Martin Hurson, Patsy O’Hara, and Tom McElwee — while in the third, Michael Devine’s name has been added and the bottom of the wall painted black. “Smash H-Block” is on the right; “Victory to the prisoners” is on the building on the other side of the road.
Andersonstown, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 LC
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Peter Moloney Collection 