London-/Derry

Deserted! Well – I Can Stand Alone

Extramural Activity3 Comments
m00558c

m00559

m00557c

These two murals are side-by-side in Craven Street. On the right, a farmer’s wife defends the farm (the stone wall) in order to preserve it as part of the UK (the Union Flag) despite the threat of Home Rule; on the left, “in proud and loving memory” of three UVF volunteers assassinated by the IRA: Shankill Butcher Lenny Murphy, John Bingham, and William “Frenchie” Marchant. “Lest we forget.”

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1988 LC
M00558 M00559 M00557

Bobby Sands – Che Guevara

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Like the “Heroico” image of Che Guevara – see the Visual History page on Jim Fitzpatrick – the smiling Bobby Sands would become the standard one. They differ in that Che is in his uniform (attending a funeral service) while Sands is in civilian clothes, and the attire indicates that Che is a military hero while Sands, who was an IRA volunteer, would become an icon primarily as a hunger-striker. (See the Visual History page on the Sevastopol Street mural of Sands.)

In this mural, which pre-dates the refinement of Sands’s image, the two portraits are combined. Sands is accompanied by flag-bearing Irish volunteers and Che by a Soviet orator (Lenin?) on a tank. perhaps to emphasise the socialist dimension of the republican (and particularly INLA) struggle.

Westland Street, Bogside, Derry

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1988 Peter Moloney
M00522