“HMP Maghaberry = Stormonts’ best kept secret. “Where ’81 never happened” – 32CSM” and a list of “Six County POWs”. First appearance of both 32CSM (32-county Sovereignty Movement) and IRPWA (Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association).
Whiterock Road, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
M01662 M01661
Volunteers in Cumann Na mBan (or youth wing Cumann Na gCaılíní) from Ballymurphy and Springhill are remembered in a mural in Ballymurphy Road, Belfast. Anti-clockwise, they are Maura Meehan, Anne Marie Pettigrew, Dorothy Maguire, Eileen Mackin, Catherine (Cathy) McGartland, Anne Parker. All but Mackin are included in the Greater Ballymurphy plaque.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
M01660
“In loving memory of volunters [sic] John Stone, Jason McWilliams, Kevin McCracken, and John Dougal.” The four IRA members are shown in front of the Springhill shops, with a Sınn Féın banner above the windows. With additional portraits of local activists Annie McWilliams, Mary Austin, Kathleen Clarke.
Springhill Drive, Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
M01658 M01659
“In memory of [IRA] volunteers Jim Bryson and Patrick Mulvenna. Died on active service 1973”. The pair were killed by undercover British Army soldiers firing from above the Ballymurphy shops (Broken Elbow). Mulvenna died immediately (August 30th), Bryson three days later. Another plaque will later be added to the centre of the mural.
Ballymurphy Road, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
M01656 M01657
IRA volunteer was interned in the cages of Long Kesh and died on July 2nd, 1974, at 20 years of age, after a delay in treatment after a beating.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
M01655
“When the story of the Belfast Brigade of the IRA is told, when the war is over, is ended, among that story the names, the stories, the tales, the sacrifices, the actions of the volunteers from the Greater Ballymurphy area will be written large.” “This monument was erected by the republican people of Greater Ballymurphy in proud and loving memory of all those volunteers from the area who their lives in the fight for Irish freedom.” “Unveiled by Gerry Adams 12th May 1985.” “I ndıl cuımhne [chuimhne] ı gcónaı ag na poblachtánaıgh ón cheantar Barr Cluanaı.” “Also in memory of the civilians who died at the hands of the British Army, RUC, UDR and loyalist extremists.” The plaque was featured previously but the surrounding mural, with phoenix and volunteers with lowered rifles, is new. Ballymurphy Road, Belfast.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2002, 2004 Peter Moloney
M01653 M01654 M02238
“Comrade, councillor, cara [friend].” Pat McGeown was a 1981 IRA hunger striker whose family intervened when he lapsed into a coma. After his release in 1985 he also worked for Sınn Féın and was elected to Belfast City Council in 1993. He died in 1996 of a heart attack. He is also remembered by a plaque on the Sınn Féın office on Falls Road.
Ballymurphy Road, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
M01652
Four IRA volunteers “who gave their lives for Irish freedom”, John Stone, Jim McGrillen, Tommy Tolan, and Michael Kane, eat in the kitchen of a Ballymurphy house, perhaps belonging to one of the “republican activists Kathleen McCullough, Elizabeth McGovern.” The large image of Tolan would later be changed to show him in a brown suit and without the assault rifle – see X05055.
Ballymurphy Crescent, west Belfast.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
M01649 M01650 M01651
“And all around are monuments that bear a martyr’s name/True patriots who fought and died to kindle freedoms flame/Jimmy Quigley, [Eamonn] McCormick and [Teddy] O’Neill with [Michael] Magee brave/Remember them, they died for us and found a martyr’s grave.” The words of Ray McAreavey’s song are modified to include four Ballymurphy IRA/Fıanna volunteers. With additional portraits of local stalwarts Alice Franklin and Mary Fegan.
Divismore Way, Ballymurphy, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
M01648
Copyright © 2004 Peter Moloney
M02239 M02240
” … but not the revolution”. Images of a modern IRA volunteer, hero of the 1916 Rising James Connolly (both painted by Mo Chara), Zapata, and a member of the United Farm Workers (both painted by Rubén Ortiz-Torres from the University of California, San Diego). Also, a phoenix and a Mexican eagle, and the colours of Ireland and Mexico. Dedicated to the San Patricios, an Irish battalion in the Mexican-American war.
Ballymurphy Road, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
M01647
Peter Moloney Collection 