“Déanann Poblachtánaıgh An Iúır cuımhne ar an óglach Réamann Mac Raoıs.” [Newry republicans remember volunteer Raymond McCreesh]
IRA volunteer Raymond McCreesh – born in Camlough – was arrested in the aftermath of an attack on a British Army observation post in 1976. He joined the blanket protest and then the hunger strike; he died after 61 days on May 21st, 1981.
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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
M03139 [M03138]
Portraits of the ten deceased 1981 hunger strikers float over the watchtowers of Long Kesh.
Camlough Road, Newry
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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
M03133
These three images are from the grassy areas at the junctions of Dublin Road and Tullyree Road in Kilcoo, Co Down. There is a large memorial stone from the South Down Republican Graves Association “in loving memory of those who died on hungerstrike in the H Blocks of Long Kesh” along with Sands’s quote, ten crosses in the shape of an “H”, and “IRA” letters nailed to the electricity pole. “Fuaır sıad bas [bás] ag [ar] son saoırse hEıreann [na hÉıreann] .”
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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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These images show the political pieces on the back wall of the site of the old Andersonstown RUC barracks at the junction of the Glen Road and Falls Road. Fıan John Dempsey (memorialised elsewhere); Sınn Féın using a quote from Mao; graffiti supporting Palestine and the Basque Country; a hunger strikers memorial; graffiti equating Israel and the Nazis.
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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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The Andersonstown RUC station was demolished in 2005 and (according to this Irish Times article) was to be put up for sale. Instead, the area became a site for murals and this large metalwork, with portraits of the hunger strikers on either side of a lark in barbed wire.
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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
M03118
Here is a wide shot and some details of the two-part mural in Hugo Street, seen in progress in 2001 and completed in 2002. On the left is a depiction of the funeral of Joe McDonnell; on the right, posters and protesters from the time of the hunger strikes.
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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
[M03109] [M03110] M03111 M03112 M03113 M03114
For the 25th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike, images from the period are reproduced in a mural sponsored by the “Ardoyne, Bone, Ligoniel 80/81 Commemoration Committee”: the funeral volley over Bobby Sands’s coffin, Derry women protesting conditions in Long Kesh by wearing blankets, women banging bin lids (see United Irishwomen) and protestors outside a polling station.
The frame is from the previous Érıu mural.
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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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“This monument has been re-dedicated by the people of Twinbrook and Poleglass in honour of those volunteers of Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann who gave their lives for Irish freedom.” Gerard Fennell, John Rooney, Bobby Sands, Frankie Ryan. “Fuaır sıad bás ar son saoırse na hÉıreann”. “[Like the lark,] I too have fought for my freedom not only in captivity [where I now languish] but also [while on the] outside where my country is held captive … I have the spirit of freedom that cannot be quenched.” (Bobby Sands, The Lark And The Freedom Fighter, 1979)
The final image is of the adjacent hunger strikers stone. It will later be moved and repositioned inside the (extended) fencing.
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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
[M03003] [M03004] M03006 M03005 M03007 M03002 M03008 [M03009]
Portraits of the deceased hunger strikers from 1981 and the 1970s (Michael Gaughan, Frank Stagg) are displayed on a large “H” at the top of the Springfield Road.
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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
[M02994] M02995
For the 25th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike, portraits of the ten deceased strikers are placed between the watchtowers of Long Kesh on a Cromac Street tarp. The quote is widely attributed to Bobby Sands.
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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
M02954
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Peter Moloney Collection 