“H-Block 1981, Maghaberry 2012”, “End forced strip searches”, “End controlled movement”, “Stop the torture of Irish political prisoners.”
The “August 2010 Agreement” is an agreement reached between prisoners and authorities about treatment in Roe House, an exclusively republican wing in Maghaberry. The tower beyond is the Springfield Rd police station.
“This plaque is dedicated to the memory of those murdered on 9th July 1972 by the British army. Fr Noel Fitzpatrick, Paddy Butler, Margaret Gargan, David McCafferty, Fıan John Dougal, and to all those murdered in Springhill, Whiterock, and Westrock area.” This is the new plaque to the five people killed in the Springhill-Westrock Massacre, and is on the house extension that the previous plaque. (See chapter 2 of An Pobal A Pheınteáıl.)
“In proud and loving memory of Vol, Jimmy Quigley, Belfast Brigade, Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann, killed in action 29th September 1972 by Crown forces. Ní dhéanfaıdh muıd dearmad [gur] fuaır sé bás ar son saoırse na hÉıreann.”
Quigley was shot by the British Army on Albert Street; the plaque is outside the family home in Brittons Parade, Belfast. Two profiles by Danny Morrison at Saoırse32.
“Those brave and gallant vols of D Company IRA”, “POWs and volunteers”, “deceased POWs”, the D company volunteers who have “died of natural causes”, and the “civilians” who lost their lives. Some of these were seen before, in 2005’s Lower Falls Memorial Garden; the main addition is the large memorial with the illustrations, shown in the final image.
The sixteen-year old Sınn Féın Trade Union Dept mural has been replaced (though the plaque remains in the top right-hand corner) with another mural featuring James Connolly but with a new quote, from his 1907 poem: “Our demands most moderate are/We only want the earth.” The Irish Worker headline reads “Belfast ITGWU organiser Connolly gets 905 votes municipal elections”, referring to the municipal elections of 1913 – Connolly stood in the Dock Ward (SIPTU).
Two pieces from anti-Agreement republicans in Camlough protesting the treatment of prisoners: above, end British torture in Maghaberry; below, stop the Maghaberry strip searches.
Four images from around Silverbridge, Co Armagh. First, a vintage “RUC Out” on a traffic sign; second, “No absentee landlord repossessor’s or their agents wanted in south Armagh” (for some background, see No Grabbers Here); third, an anti-Agreement stencil protesting the treatment of republicans in Maghaberry; fourth, “IRA” nail-up on a power-line pole near lower Cashel Lough.
Top: “During the hunger-strike of 1981, in which ten men died, the Holy Rosary was recited here [on Freeduff Road], daily, by the community of Cullyhanna, to highlight the suffering of all the women and men in Armagh Gaol and Long Kesh, described by the late Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiach, a native of Cullyhanna, as being “worse than the sewers of Calcutta”. Go ndéana Dıa trócaıre ar a n-anam. Unveiled on the 8th July, 2001 by former hunger-striker, Paddy Quinn.”
Middle: The central panel is to Brendan Moley, Kevin Caherty, Michael McVerry, Brendan Burns, Fergal Caraher. Flanking this is a a longer list of volunteers, in English (left) and Irish (right). McVerry, Boyle, Jordan, McKiernan, Lochrie, Campbell, Cleary, Harvey, McElvanna, Caherty, McCreesh, Moley, Burns, Caraher, Duffy, Martin, Daly, Watters, Toner, Rogers. With smaller plaques to Tom Rooney & John Caraher, and to Brian Keenan.
Bottom: An individual memorial to “Vol Francis Caraher, Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann, murdered by British soldiers at this spot [on Tullyvallen Road] on 30th December 1990, aged 20 years.”
These are images from 2012 of the ‘My brother is not a criminal’ memorial in Ford’s Cross/Silverbridge, seen previously in 2006.
As the second image shows, earlier hunger strikers are also remembered: Thomas Ashe 1917, Michael Fitzgerald, Joseph Murphy, Terence McSwiney 1920, Joseph Whitty, Denis Barry, Andy Sullivan 1923, Tony Darcy, Sean McNeela 1940, Sean McCaughey 1946, Michael Gaughan 1974, Frank Stagg 1976.
The gallery of twelve hunger strikers in ‘Remember the hunger strikers’ is further up the road, towards Cullyhanna.