London-/Derry

The Mainspring

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Seán Mac Dıarmada was born in Leitrim, left for Glasgow at age 15, and after two years returned to Belfast in 1905 and – according to the new mural above – spoke from the back of a coal lorry in Clonard Street, outside the Clonard branch of the Ancient Order Of Hibernians. Mac Dıarmada was for a short time an AOH member, before moving on to the Irish Republican Brotherhood and Irish Volunteers, which led to his participation in the 1916 Easter Rising and execution on May 12th of that year.

The title of today’s post is historian F.X. Martin’s assessment of Mac Dıarmada, quoted in a pamphlet on Mac Dıarmada from the National Library Of Ireland. The NLI made many letters from and to Mac Dıarmada available in 2016. (See also this Irish Times write-up).

Previously: A 2013 gable-sized board to Mac Dıarmada in Ardoyne and a 2009 small board, also in Ardoyne.

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Copyright © 2016 Peter Moloney
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Bloody Sunday

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Six photographs tell the story of Bloody Sunday (January 30th, 1972) and its aftermath:

“30 January 1972. A huge crowd gathers at Central Drive and Bishop’s Field in Creggan to attend an anti-internment march.”
“The marchers make their way from Creggan to the Bogside. The peaceful march, destined for the city’s Guildhall, was blocked by security forces creating agitation in the crowd and some rioting broke out.”
“British soldiers pursue fleeing marchers into the Bogside.”
“The British Army begin firing indiscriminately at the crowd, in the Rossville Street area of the Bogside, killing 13 and wounding 18 (one of whom later dies of his injuries.”
“2 February 1972. A city in shock attends the funerals of the Bloody Sunday dead at St Mary’s chapel in Creggan. Six of the dead were from the Creggan area.”
“Thousands line the streets to pay their respects to the families of the Bloody Sunday victims, as the funeral procession makes its way to the city cemetery.”

Central Drive, Creggan, Derry

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Copyright © 2016 Peter Moloney
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Unfinished Revolution

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There are currently three uses of the “Unfinished revolution, unfinished business” slogan in Derry.

First, a new mural is currently in progress in Creggan. On the right, a soldier raises the Irish Tricolour while trampling on Britain’s Union Flag and the “unfinished revolution” of 1916’s Easter Rising (reproducing a postcard of the era). The modern-day figure on the left is wielding a home-made rocket-launcher used in a 2014 attack on police. It also appears in the board immediately above, and in 2015’s Resistance in Ardoyne, north Belfast.

(The finished piece can be seen in the Seosamh Mac Coılle collection, with verbiage above and below reading, “Unfinished revolution, unfinished business” and “Resistance!”)

Central Drive, Eastway, and Westland Street, Derry.

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Copyright © 2016 Peter Moloney
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End British Internment

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“End British internment – strip searching, isolgation, controlled movement. End the torture in Maghaberry gaol. Smash Stormont. http://www.irpwa.com [irpwa.irish] Irish Republican Prisoners’ Welfare Association.”

Westland Street, Bogside, Derry, replacing Maghaberry Torture Camp.

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Copyright © 2016 Peter Moloney
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1916 – 2016

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The flag of the “Irish Republic” – the kind that was flown over over the GPO during the Easter Rising/Éırí Amach Na Cásca in 1916 – flies over Free Derry Corner (Visual History) ahead of the Rising’s centenary in 2016. The posters were added a few days later, announcing a commemoration on Monday the 28th; the parade advertised on the rear of Free Derry Corner is on the 27th, which is also the date of the march in Coalisland.

The graffiti is in the nearby Glenfada Park. The final board is in Lone Moor Road (and the same board appeared in Cromore Gardens).

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Copyright © 2016 Peter Moloney
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Yesteryear Derry

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A corrugated metal hut on the outside of Bishop’s Gate has been covered over with fake stone and a fake doorway containing an image of Derry in the old days. The re-model is perhaps part of the “Peacewall Reimaging Project” (Derry Journal) on the railings just out of shot to the right, which was unveiled on December 18th, 2015 (Shared History).

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Copyright © 2016 Peter Moloney
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Unfinished Business

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“IRA”, “God bless Óglach Vinnie Ryan”, “1916 – 2016 IRA Unfinished business”, “#JFTC2/Brits out”, “Kill all PSNI officers now!!”.

Vincent “Vinnie” Ryan, brother of Alan Ryan, was shot in Finglas, Dublin, on February 29th. In the graffiti above he is given the title “óglach” but his family denied that he was in the (Real) IRA (BBC). In 2019, two people were convicted for their roles in Ryan’s killing (Irish Times).

Graffiti on Lone Moor Road, Brandywell, Derry.

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Copyright © 2016 Peter Moloney
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End The Torture

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“End the torture in Maghaberry now!! Join IRPWA http://www.irpwa.com [irpwa.irish]” and “End internment and Britain’s torture of Irish POWs”.

Similar sentiments from the IRPWA/New IRA in Lecky Road (replacing Taobh An Bhogaıgh) and the RNU/ÓNH in Westland Street (which was previously on the rear of Free Derry Corner).

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Copyright © 2016 Peter Moloney
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