blanket/dirty protest

St James’s Supports The Hunger Strikers

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St James’s supports the hunger strikes – in Long Kesh and Armagh and (on the right) in Turkey.

Various images and posters from 1980 and 1981 are reproduced. Along the top, we see (l-r) a soldier is confronted at the top of Springhill (image at Irish Times), “Wanted for murder [and torture of Irish prisoners]” (image at MSU), “Mothers hunger”, “Blessed are those who hunger for justice“, “Where there is oppression there is resistance”, Armagh hunger-striker Mary Doyle.

Along the bottom: “Stop strip searches“, “Save our children from plastic death”, “Support the hunger strike demands”, and portraits of 1981 hunger-strikers Bernard Fox and Pat Sheehan, both from the Falls Road.

For Turkish hunger-strikers, see F-Block Martyrs | Zehra Kulaksiz | Support The Turkish Hunger Strikers.

On the side-wall to the left, son Joseph McDonnell weeps at the foot of the coffin of his father, Joe.

For in-progress images, see the 2001 post.

Hugo Street, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2002/2003 Peter Moloney
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1916 – 1969

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The volunteers on the left (from 1916) and right (from 1969) each hold a rifle, and the blanket man in the middle also appears to be holding a staff of some sort. Get in touch if you know exactly what it is, and if you can identify the Twinbrook street (Gardenmore Road?) where the mural was.

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Copyright © 1987 Peter Moloney
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On The Blanket

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M00280 Fahan St 1985+

A prisoner on the blanket stands in front of a brown “H”. On the right hand side, a fist clutches a strand of barbed wire. There are also hunger strikers’ names on the gable wall to the left. Fahan Street, Derry. For the mural on the background-left wall, see IRA (P).

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Copyright © 1985 Peter Moloney
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1916-1982/Break Thatcher’s Back

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M00212+

M00213+

Here is a 1982 image of the Break Thatcher’s Back mural in Rockmore Road, Belfast, showing a blanket man with outstretched arms demanding “status now”, framed by a large “H” and surrounded by barbed wire, Tricolours, and the Starry Plough. In 1981, there was a Sean O’Casey quote on the left, rather than a lily and the year of the Easter Rising — 1916. “Free Belfast” in the top left.

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Copyright © 1982 LC
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