“Iarsmalann Na Staire Poblachtach Éireannach – Eileen Hickey Irish Republican History Museum” is across the street (behind the Conway Mill) from this mural. Eileen Hickey was a Provisional IRA member who served time in Armagh prison; she died in 2006, one year before the opening of the museum (obituary at An Phoblacht).
Fleadh Cheoıl Na hÉıreann is held in the north for the first time with the 62nd fleadh being held in Derry from August 11th to 18th (BBC). Free Derry Corner is decorated with the symbols of the festival and Comhaltas and the event’s web address. Programme.
Along the bottom can be faintly seen “Culture theft ££”.
Martin Corey was found guilty of the murder of two policemen in 1973 and released in 1992. As noted in the tarp — “interned in Maghaberry prison since April 2010” — he was returned to prison in 2010, and a 2011 commission ruled that he was a member of the CIRA (WP). An appeal – on the grounds that evidence had been withheld – was rejected in December, 2012. The campaign for his release continues in republican areas:
The fence of the disused barracks in Plater’s Hill/Lineside Coalisland, makes for an impromptu notice-board. Alongside ads for “youth day” and a “fitness club” we say an international women’s day placard featuring Marian Price and a 1916 Societies tarp using an Éamonn Ceannt quote from Kilmainham jail 1916: “I leave for the guidance of other revolutionaries, who may tread the path which I have trod, this advice, never treat with the enemy, never to surrender to his mercy, but to fight to a finish.”
“Free Marian Price”, “End controlled movement”, “End forced strip searches”, “Support republican POWs” and “End British internment”.
Cogús [conscience] is the POW-support organisation of the RNU (tw). On the left is a blanketman, on the right is a contemporary POW being beaten by a prison guard in riot gear. “Make a difference – Join RNU – Be committed, stand as one – Implement 12th August Agreement – End strip searches – End controlled movement.”
“End internment, 1971-2012. www.eırıgı.org.” Imprisonment without trial was introduced in Northern Ireland on August 9th, 1971. The return to prison of volunteers by having their license or bail revoked is considered internment by anti-Agreement republicans – see e.g. Release Marian Price or End Internment By Remand.
Hand-painted “BRY” [Bogside Republican Youth], “No RUC” and “Support our POWs” boards but also computer-designed and -printed stickers in the Bogside, Derry. The boards are probably local productions, while the stickers probably come from the same German store responsible for the anti-fascist, “Irish republican solidarity” and “Good night, loyalist pride” stickers (see Northern Ireland World). The Facebook sticker is presumably for the store or for antifa; as far as we know, BRY has never had a Facebook page or internet presence; the web address “www.irishrepublicansolidarity.info/” is defunct.
“RUC – PSNI. Name change – no change. No political policing. No special powers. No daily armed raids. No daily harassment. No PSNI in our schools. No MI5. No £10 touts. No interment [sic]. Republican Network.ie.” (The web address no longer functions but there is a Fb page.)
Five small éirígí (web) pieces of graffiti and stenciling from Creeslough Park (at the corner with Lenadoon Avenue), Belfast. The stencils are of James Connolly (“We defy you! Do your worst!”) and the 3-in-1 figure combining police (“RUC-PSNI – different name, same aim”), Orange Order, and paramilitary.
“To the memory of fifteen innocent civilians murdered by a pro-British loyalist gang in a no warning bomb attack on McGurk’s bar, Dec. 4th 1971. Philomena McGurk, Marie McGurk, James Cromie, John Colton, Thomas McLaughlin, David Milligan, James Smyth, Francis Bradley, Thomas Kane, Kathleen Irvine, Philip Garry, Edward Kane, Edward Keenan, Sarah, Keenan, Robert Spotswood.”
For the 40th anniversary, a painted shopfront and plaques to the victims of the McGurk’s Bar Bombing were added last December (2011) to the Celtic Cross and plaque already at the site. The text on the info board to the right is ad follows: “At 8.48 pm on Saturday 4th December 1971, a no-warning bomb, planted by British terrorists, exploded on the doorstep of family-run McGurk’s Bar. Fifteen innocent men, women and children perished. Those who were not crushed or slowly asphyxiated by masonry where [sic] horrifically burned to death when shattered gas mains burst into flames beneath the rubble. Nearly the same again were dragged from the debris alive. In the aftermath of the atrocity, the British and Unionist Governments, RUC police force and British military disseminated disinformation that the bomb was in-transit and that the innocent civilians were guilty by association, if not complicit in this act of terrorism. This is despite a mountain of forensic evidence and a witness who saw the bomb being planted and lit before watching the British terrorists escape into the night. From the moment the bomb exploded, and for 40 years since, the families and friends of those murdered have campaigned constitutionally and with great dignity to clear the names of their loved ones. It is a Campaign for Truth that continues to this day. Join us at www.themcgurksbar.com.”