Countess Markievicz, carrying a flag of Cumann Na mBan, and Ethel Lynch, carrying a flag of the Derry IRA, take centre stage in the Mná Na hÉıreann mural in London-/Derry/Doıre’s bogside. Markievicz is famous for her role in the Easter Rising of 1916 (WP); Lynch died in December 1974 of injuries sustained when a bomb exploded prematurely. Between them, “Liberty leads the people” waving an Irish Tricolour.

To their left are three Derry women protesting the conditions in Armagh Women’s Prison and in the H-Blocks. This article on Mary Nelis (the protester on the right, with Kathleen Deeny and Theresa Deery) describes the photograph on which this part of the mural is based. The women in Armagh prison were allowed to wear their own clothes and so were not ‘on the blanket’ as their male counterparts in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh were. However, they did engage in a “no wash” protest, which lasted from February 1980 until March 1981, and three of them – Maıréad Farrell, Mary Doyle, and Margaret Nugent – joined the 1980 hunger strike.

To their right (beyond the coffin scene) members of Cumann Na mBan are on parade; the photo of on which this is based can be seen in Mothering Sunday In Beechmount, though the faces have been changed here, presumably to those of more contemporary volunteers.

The figure wearing a cloth cap and holding a rifle is Eithne Coyle, a leader and later president of Cumann Na mBan, imprisoned both by the Black and Tans before the treaty and after it by the Provisional Irish government (WP). For the photograph on which her pose here is based, see An Phoblacht‘s History Of Cumann Na mBan.

In the four corners are circles of Betsy Gray, Anne Devlin, Mary Ann McCracken, and Máıre Drumm. Gray and McCracken were Presbyterians; Gray fought (or at least, was killed) in the 1798 rebellion, as did McCracken’s brother Henry Joy; Mary Ann went on to work for the poor of Belfast and lobby against slavery. Anne Devlin assisted in Robert Emmet’s 1803 rising. (National Graves Assoc) Máıre Drumm was vice-president of Sınn Féın and commander of Cumann Na mBan, who are shown marching on the right-hand side.

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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