blanket/dirty protest

I’ll Wear No Convicts Uniform

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Republican prisoners, one with a raised fist: “I’ll wear no convicts uniform, nor meekly serve my time, that Britain might make Ireland’s fight 800 years of crime.” It appears – from the fist in the top of the gable – that a larger version was initially attempted but then scaled back; the figures are based on two posters from the era.

Whiterock Road, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1981 LC
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Blessed Are Those Who Hunger For Justice

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Three images of a mural on the Whiterock Road, Belfast, showing a blanketman/hunger-striker and a uniformed volunteer on a tricolour cloth at the feet of an angel holding a banner reading “blessed are those who hunger for justice“. Above are the words “Their hunger, their pain, our struggle“. The shields of the four provinces of Ireland and two shamrocks complete the mural. The third image shows the mural in progress, and it looks as though it has already been vandalised.

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Copyright © 1981 LC
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Victory To The Blanketmen POWs

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An advertising hoarding on the Springfield Road (just before the Whiterock Road), Belfast, is taken over by a republican artist: “H” and “A” for the H-Blocks and Armagh Women’s Prison, with the names of four hunger-strikers (Bobby Sands Patsy O’Hara, Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh) and two tricolours.

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Copyright © 1981 LC
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Until The Last Prisoner Is Free

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There is a lot going on in this image: pedestrians pass in front of a row of boarded-up shops, above them is written “Until the last prisoner is free we are all imprisoned” with posters of the hunger strikers, an Irish tricolour and “If they die, you die”; on the left “No, not a dog, but a POW” and a version of the five demands, concerning prison uniforms, work, association, parcels, and remission. 

Ballymurphy shops, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1981 LC
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