“Release Martin Corey, political prisoner. End internment now” with an unusual use of a dove rather than a lark. For background, see Release Martin Corey. With various other anti-Agreement graffiti and stencils in the area, including a “Join RSF [Republican Sınn Féın] – Éıre Nua” stencil, “SF” in a cross-hairs, and a “CIRA” “RIRA” cross-word.
Levin Road, Deeny Drive, Drumnahoe Avenue, Lurgan
Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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On the evening of November 21, 1982, the car in which IRA volunteers Eugene Toman, Sean Burns, and Gervais [here “Gervase”] McKerr were travelling was hit by 109 bullets and all three were killed.They were perhaps the first victims of the “shoot to kill” policy. The first of the five panels in this Kilwilkie mural shows the bullet-holes in the driver’s side of the car, pointing out an inconsistency with the RUC’s statement that the car had run an RUC checkpoint and was fired at only from behind. An Phoblacht.
“Lurgan town was rocked with sorrow/On that bleak November day/Hushed tones and tears were mingled/when great numbers stopped to pray” – these are the opening lines of Bo Loughran’s song ‘The Lurgan Ambush’ (youtube)
“Cumann Thomáis Uí Chléirigh, An Lorgain” – Clarke was raised in Dungannon, where is a cumann and GAA club in his name.
Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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The 1916 Societies board is on top of a long-standing “H” (going back to 2009, if not before).
Perpendicular to the road are small boards calling for the release of Martin Corey and political status, and a large board commemorating the hunger strikers: “H-Block martyrs – remember them always – the struggle for political status – Republican Sınn Féın”
The small framed board to the left of “Free Kilwilkie” gives a line from James Connolly’s Last Statement prior to his execution in 1916: “The British government has no right in Ireland, never had any right in Ireland, never can have any right in Ireland”.
Levin Road, Lurgan
Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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This is the scene at the junction of Pollock Drive and Mourne Road in Mourneview, Lurgan. The images, in order, show the top level of boards (including some on the sides of the building) and then the four along the bottom.
Top: (on side) Inniskilling Dragoon Guards | South Belfast UDA, B battalion, 1 company | Ancre Somme Association | 9th battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers | Craigavon Protestant Boys flute band (Fb) | Carson signing the Covenant in 1912 | (on side, above Mourneview Youth) Upper Bann Fusiliers flute band (Fb) | Upper Bann Fusiliers
Bottom: No Home Rule including the unfurling of “The Largest Union Jack In The Empire” | The Covenant | The Relief Of Ulster including the Ulster Volunteers and the Larne gun-running | The Great War including the VC won by William MacFadzean – “To them, bravery was without limit; to us, memory is without end”.
Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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lamentations the pioneers brownlow house somme bonar law crawford our only crime is loyalty
Three panels from left to right: “Avenue Road Somme Association – in memory of the fallen 36th Ulster [sic] Division”; “Ulster Volunteer Force – Ulster’s Brave Young Men”; “They whom this scroll commemorates, who at the call of King and Country, left all that was dear to them, endured hardship, faced danger and finally passed out of the sight of men in the path of duty and self sacrifice giving up their own lives that others might live in freedom. Those that came after see to it that their names are not forgotten.”
Avenue Road, Lurgan
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Copyright © 2011 Peter Moloney
“Lurgan Workhouse 1841-1929. The workhouse was opened to serve the poor of Lurgan in 1841. In the mid-1840’s, during the famine, there were 403 inmates. This mural is dedicated to all the men, women and children who lived worked and died here during very harsh times. In 1929 it became Lurgan And Portadown District Hospital. Since 1972 it has been known as Lurgan Hospital.” The mural is across the street from the hospital. Russell Drive/Tandragee Road, Lurgan.
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Copyright © 2009 Peter Moloney
“Fuaır sıad bás ar son saoırse na hÉıreann. Óglach Sean Burns, Óglach Gervase McKerr, Óglach Eugene Toman. “But they dared to hold their heads up high and never once did fail to declare their wish for freedom like true sons of the Gael” – The Lurgan Ambush (A poem by Ita Green)”. The IRA volunteers were three of the six people shot in Lurgan in three incidents in November and December of 1982: Seamus Grew, Roddy Carroll, Michael Tighe. The deaths of the six would be investigated by the Stalker Inquiry into the shoot-to-kill policy.
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Copyright © 2009 Peter Moloney
“‘It is as though you were absent and you hear me from far away and my voice does not reach you. It is as though you were absent, distant and full of sorrow, as though you had died.’ Eugene Toman, Gerva[i]se McKerr, Sean Burns 1982-2007”. The lines are from Pablo Neruda’s poem ‘I Like For You To Be Still‘. The trio of IRA volunteers were shot and killed on 11 November, 1982, by an undercover unit of the RUC in an alleged shoot-to-kill incident.
Taghnevan Drive, Lurgan
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Copyright © 2009 Peter Moloney
A vintage ‘sniper at work’ on a co-opted road-sign in Taghnevan Drive, Lurgan.
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Copyright © 2009 Peter Moloney
IRA volunteer Raymond McCreesh, originally from Camlough, died on May 21st, 1981, after 61 days on hunger strike. “In proud and loving memory of ten brave Irish soldiers who died on hunger strike in 1981 for their five just demands. I gcuimhne ar iobairt [íobairt] cróga na stailceoirí ocrais 1981 ní dheánfar [dhéanfar] dearmad orthu.” Taghnevan Drive, Lurgan.
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Copyright © 2009 Peter Moloney
peter moloney collection 