These anti-Agreement graffiti are in Foylehill (mostly Kildrum Gardens and Southway): “Smash Maghaberry”, “IRPWA”, “RUC not welcome in Foylehill”, “Victory to the POWs”, “End British internment”, Tıocfaıdh ár lá”.
The phrase “We only have to be lucky once” is from the IRA statement on the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing (WP).
The final piece dates back to 2009: “Internment 71-09. What has changed? Brits out, not sell out.”
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.
“Many suffer so that someday future generations may live in justice and peace.”
Portraits of Nelson Mandela and Bobby Sands are presented side by side, both smiling, in front of the flags of (post-apartheid) South Africa and the Republic of Ireland.
“End The Forced Strip Search” – IRPWA (web) board in Westland Street, Bogside, Derry. In the name “Maghaberry” a fist is smashing the enlarged “H”, reminiscent of the ‘Smash H-Block’ campaign of the 70s and 80s.
Tomás [Thomas] Ashe Mellon was recently (June, 2014) charged with directing the activities of the New IRA (which was formed in 2012 from the Real IRA and Republican Action Against Drugs) via a letter that was being smuggled into Maghaberry by William McDonnell and denied bail; in March (2015) he admitted possession of the note (and received 40 months) but pleaded not guilty to the charge of directing terrorism (Derry Daily | BBC | Derry Daily).
This board protesting Mellon’s “intern[ment] by Britain” is in Westland Street, in Derry’s Bogside.
Update: In July, Mellon was acquitted of directing terrorism (Irish News).
The Craigavon Two – John-Paul Wootton and Brendan McConville – were convicted of and unsuccessfully appealed (Guardian | BBC) the 2009 murder of PSNI Constable Steven Carroll; campaigners on Facebook (one | two) continue to call for their release.
The graffiti and stencilled portraits of the pair are in the Bogside, Derry.
Here is a set of pro-Palestinian murals at the top of Springhill, inspired by recent events in Gaza.
The second (from left to right) shows Palestinian teenager Faris Odeh throwing a rock at an Israeli tank; Odeh was shot and killed a few days later (WP). The AP photograph on which the mural is based can be seen in this May 2012 edition of (the Pakistani) The Nation.
The final two are intended to show four stages of the disappearing Palestinian territories (on the left) and four stages of the disappearing Irish gaeltacht (on the right). The Palestinian one was completed – see below – but the Irish one never was.
The fairy-tale covering painted over an LVF “North Belfast Rat Pack” mural is fading away to reveal the previous work. For the original LVF mural, see D01199.
The graffiti on the wall – Welcome to LVF Land – has itself been scored out, and there is also a piece of anti-LVF graffiti in the street.
Peter Moloney Collection 