“IRA” has been added to the tricolour that used to read “Get off my island“, with “All touts shall be executed” below – Lone Moor Road.
The “Free all POWs” graffiti is in Tyrconnell Street, Derry.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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Above is a local interpretation of Robert Ballagh’s 1970 rendering of Goya’s The Third Of May 1808 in Glenfada Park, Derry/Doıre, site of four deaths on Bloody Sunday, 1972.
The original commemorates Spanish resistance to the forces of Napoleon (WP). For this Derry version, features from the city’s skyline – the Guildhall, St. Columb’s Cathedral, and an intact Governor Walker column – have replaced the original’s outline of Madrid, and an insignia of the Paras appears on the arm of a soldier.
For Ballagh’s original (“1970”) version and a description and video of the launch see bloodysundaymarch.org. Here is an Eamonn McCann lecture on the political history of the Goya painting. Until recently, the piece above was adjacent to a version of Picasso’s Guernica.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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Graffiti in Fanad Drive, Derry. The same message was painted last year, with other anti-Agreement graffiti, on the city walls and in Creggan.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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“100 years of struggle” – Cumann Na mBan was formed in Dublin in April 1914 and celebrates its centenary in 2014.
The Countess Markievicz (pictured on the left) was a member of both Cumann Na mBan and the Irish Citizen Army.
The photograph on the right, of Troubles-era Cumann Na mBan (including Máıre Drumm on the right), can be seen at An Phoblacht.
The rear of Free Derry Corner has its own Visual History page.
See also: mural for 2014 International Women’s Day.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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International Women’s Day, which dates as far back as 1909, is celebrated every year on March 8th. Above is the 2014 mural marking the day, in the complex of shops behind the Bogside Inn.
Meenan Square, Derry.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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A new mural, above, on the International Wall commemorates the fortieth anniversary this year of the ‘Burning Of Long Kesh’ or the ‘Battle Of Long Kesh’, which took place on the night of October 15, 1974 and day of the 16th (when British Army units retook the camp).
The most comprehensive account available on-line of the conditions at the camp prior to the riot, the burning, and the battle on the morning of the 16th appears to be this 2004 piece in An Phoblacht by Joe Doherty and Christy Keenan. (For a virtual tour of the camp, see this video. Seamus Keenan’s Over The Wire (on again this month at the Derry Playhouse) attempts to recreate the scene.) Other accounts include those by Ronan Bennett, another inmate, in The Guardian. Here is a brief BBC News report from the 16th.
All accounts mention the use of gas and republican accounts state that CR was used on the morning of the 16th in addition to CS, dropped from helicopters as at the top of the mural. The Guardian, in 2005, confirmed that CR had been authorized for use in controlling riots and was available at the prison. CR is a carcinogen (WP) and in a post on his blog (now removed) Mairtin Óg Meehan suspects that exposure to CR is a cause of recent cancers among former prisoners.
In the lower left corner is a quoted telegram from Fr. Denis Faul, Fr. Raymond Murray: “To international Red Cross … Visited Long Kesh today with others … Request immediate investigation into use of CR gas … sub-human conditions … SOS … come immediately …” 20 Oct. 1974. These two wrote an 80-page report on the conditions at the camp following the event, entitled The Flames Of Long Kesh. See this 1999 An Phoblacht page for an image of the shelters constructed after the battle.
The photograph which the central part of the mural reproduces is HU 70205 from the Imperial War Museum’s collection (available at An Phoblact), though this is dated as October 1972.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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Actor and activist Margaretta D’Arcy (here, “Margaritta” D’Arcy) was arrested in October, 2012, for climbing the perimeter of Shannon airport and standing on the runway, in protest at the use of the airport by US military planes. She was jailed – aged 79 – for nine-and-a-half weeks in 2014. (Irish Times | Journal)
The image above is a close-up of the Falls Curfew mural on the International Wall, using one of the painted “posters” that were added for Marian Price in 2012.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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“Free Leonard Peltier – An honourable man who has spent 10yrs longer in jail than Nelson Mandela”. Peltier has been in jail since 1977, convicted of killing two FBI agents (WP).
The International Wall on Divis Street, west Belfast. The earliest Peltier piece on the wall was 2002.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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This board at the junction of the Falls and Glen roads (on the site of the former Andersonstown RUC station) commemorates the death of Pat Finucane (on February 12th, 1989), alleging collusion between the MI5, the UDA, the UDR, and the RUC, and asking for an inquiry.
“25 years on & no truth. Why no public inquiry? Time for justice, time for truth!”
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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The tricolour, the ikurrin (flag of the Basque Country), and the Starry Plough flying together on a lamp-pole in Westland Street, Derry.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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Peter Moloney Collection 