The 1981 hunger strikes – as the culmination of the blanket protest and no-wash or “dirty” protest – are put in parallel with the dirty protest against forced strip searches in Maghaberry prison, involving throwing urine and excrement onto prison landings, as well as not washing or shaving (BBC).
Beechmount Avenue, Belfast
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Copyright © 2012 Peter Moloney
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“Cogús” (with a fada) means “conscience” in English. Cogús is the prisoners’ welfare unit of the RNU (Fb).
Northumberland Street, Belfast
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Copyright © 2012 Peter Moloney
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For the “International Day Of Peace – 21st September”, a collage of photographs from both sides of the “peace” line, the Shankill and the Falls. “Peace day – every day”.
Northumberland Street, west Belfast, has its own Visual History page.
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Copyright © 2012 Peter Moloney
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Abolitionist mural with quotes from Douglass (“It is easier build strong children than to repair broken adults.”), Abraham Lincoln (“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.”, Angela Davis (“We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society.”), Muhammad Ali (“Why should I drop bombs on brown people in Vietnam while so-called negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs …”), Steven Biko (“The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”), MLK (“I have a dream … black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last, free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.””), Bob Marley (“Until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race.”), Nelson Mandela (“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”), Paul Robeson “The artist must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I made made [sic] my choice. I had no alternative”, and (without attribution) James Connolly (“The worker is the slave capitalist society, the woman [female worker] is the slave of that slave.”) Also portrayed are Harriett Tubman, Barack Obama, Betty Sinclair, Mary Ann McCracken, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Haitian Revolution, Chief Joseph, El Salvador, CoMadres.
Northumberland Street, Belfast
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Copyright © 2012 Peter Moloney
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“East Tyrone remembers the “Clonoe Martyrs” – four IRA volunteers who were killed by the SAS after attacking Coalisland RUC station with a machine gun mounted on the back of a lorry on February 16th, 1992 as they were switching from the attack vehicles to getaway cars in Clonoe (WP).
Falls Road, Belfast
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Copyright © 2012 Peter Moloney
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“No PSNI”, “Slash Stormont, not services” – éırígí stencils on the site of the former RUC barracks at the Falls Rd/Glen Rd junction.
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Copyright © 2012 Peter Moloney
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“2012 Centenary year” – a history of Michael Davitt’s GAA (Belfast) can be found at its web site. Davitt was a central figure in the IRB, argued for land reform, and was an MP (WP | VP); he was one of the three original patrons of the GAA, along with Archbishop Croke and Charles Stewart Parnell (Cork GAA). The mural is at the club’s premises in Clonard Street; home games are played at St Mary’s Gardens.
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Copyright © 2012 Peter Moloney
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“Families Against Supergrass Trials demand human rights and justice!” The trials of fourteen (alleged) UVF members began in September, using supergrass witnesses (BBC | Guardian). A FAST banner is here seen in Spier’s Place. Extramural has images of the banners in Donegall Pass, Mount Vernon, and Newtownards Road. [The trial would largely collapse in February, 2012 (Guardian)]
For the mural on the left, see UVF Roadblock At Donaghadee; for the memorial on the right, see They Paid The Ultimate Sacrifice.
Spier’s Place, west Belfast
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Copyright © 2011 Peter Moloney
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“This tablet marks the site of Frizzel[l]’s Fish shop, where at 1:05 p.m. on Saturday 23rd October 1993 a terrorist bomb exploded. 9 innocent souls lost their lives and many more were injured.”
The Shankill UDA and LPA had their headquarters October 23rd above Frizzell’s (here “Frizzel’s”) fishmongers on the Shankill Road. The meeting whose attendees were the intended target had ended early and the bomb exploded prematurely, killing nine people, including the owner and three members of his family, and one of the IRA bombers (elsewhere memorialized by a plaque in Ardoyne), and injuring 57 others.
See also: Shankill Atrocities which (in one of its panels) reproduces the scene after the bombing.
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Copyright © 2011 Peter Moloney
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“Welcome to west Belfast”. West Belfast is portrayed as a place of music, sport, and dancing, whose landmark buildings and streets are under the watchful eye (and sword) of the goddess Érıu.
The image of the little boy with the “I [heart] Belfast” stickers and a bag of sweets, standing in the waste ground of Divis flats, is a photograph from the early days of Féıle An Phobaıl/West Belfast Festival.
On the Divis Street side, characters in the style of cartoonist Cormac (see e.g. Notes) are “Promoting west Belfast tourism” for “Fáılte Feırste Thıar”, “www.visitwestbelfast.com“. The attractions touted are: “Bop at the August “fleadh”. “Craıc agus ceol” (for Robert Ballagh’s dove coming out of the concrete block, see Féile An Phobail 2008), “The only thing you have here is “choice”. Tar ısteach agus (lıg do scíth)”. “Baın sult as. Tá mé ag éısteacht le Raıdıó Fáilte 107.1 FM”, “For more ideas on things to do, visit Oıfıg Fáılte at An Chultúrlann. There’s really nice food there too! at Caıfe Feırste”, “If it’s history you want go on a cemetery tour “City or Milltown””, “Enjoy a walk on ‘Slıabh Dubh’ (The black … … mountain)”, “Make sure you visit the “Irish republican history museum” at Conway Mill” (with ‘Long Kesh University Of Freedom’ sweater; “Sinn Féin touts” is not a sweater but graffiti.)
Some in-progress shots from May and July can be seen in the Seosamh Mac Coılle collection.
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Copyright © 2011 Peter Moloney
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Peter Moloney Collection 