The hunger strikers memorial in Rossville Street, Derry, was launched in 2000. The central “H” carries the names of the ten deceased 1981 strikers, while the stones to either side carry the names of other republicans to have died on hunger strike: Thomas Ashe 1917, Michael Fitzgerald 1920, Joseph Murphy 1920, Terence McSwiney 1920, Joseph Whitty 1923, Denis Barry 1923, Andrew Sullivan 1923, Tony D’Aroy 1940, Jack McNeela 1940, Sean McCaughey 1946, Michael Gaughan 1974, Frank Stagg 1976.
IRA volunteer Seán Keenan/Ó Cıanáın was interned on three different occasions and spent 15 years in prison without ever being convicted. In August 1969 (the Battle Of The Bogside) he was chairman of the Derry Citizens Defence Association. This bilingual memorial stone (though with more in English than Irish) is in Fahan Street, Derry
The Sınn Féın offices and shop on the Falls Road at Sevastopol Street were torn down and rebuilt in 2000. A mural had been on the gable wall since 1982, initially advertising An Phoblacht/Republican News, and later included Bobby Sands. (1989 white | 1990 blue)
The mural on the new gable, shown above, removes the full An Phoblacht/Republican News masthead and instead includes the visual part of it (most prominent in the earliest mural on the wall An Phoblacht – Official Organ): the crest of 1798’s United Irishmen – “Equality” and “It is new strung and shall be heard” around a Maid Of Erin harp and the cap of liberty.
Otherwise the wall is devoted to “Irish republican, revolutionary, poet, Gaeligeoir, visionary” Bobby Sands/Roıbeaırt Ó Seachnasaıgh, adding another famous saying of his, namely “our revenge will be the laughter of our children” alongside “everyone, republican or otherwise, has their own particular part to play”. [Diary, March 14th, 1981]
The mural also adds a border of breaking chains (and a lark) and (not visible in the apex) a phoenix and the word “saoırse”. The multi-coloured border is perhaps the most unusual element, working with the sky-blue background and Sands’s smiling face to give the mural a positive feel.
Here are six images from the lower Falls memorial garden. Four of the central monument, which honours “those brave and gallant vols” of Belfast Brigade D Coy, 2 Batt. The left-hand panel quotes Pearse and the right-hand panel commemorates the Falls Curfew of July 1970. Also shown are two plaques, one to the left and one to the right, again honouring the members of D Coy, 2nd battalion of the IRA. “Their bravery and courage will be etched in the annals of Irish Republicanism and indelible in the minds of generations to come. Scríobhfar a n-aınmneacha ı lıtreacha óır.”
Tom Williams’s family was driven out of the Shore Road and settled in Clonard, where he joined the local Fıanna and then IRA. He was hanged at age 19 in Crumlin Road gaol for the killing of an RUC officer. Williams took responsibility so that the others in the gang, including Joe Cahill, could be reprieved. His body was buried in the prison but exhumed and re-buried in Milltown in 2000 (WP).
Next to the board is a plaque “dedicated to all from the Falls and Clonard areas who lost their lives as a result of the conflict in our country. A Mhuıre, banríon na nGael, guıgh orthu. [Mary, queen of the Gaels, pray for them]”
Kieran Doherty was elected TD (Teachta Dála) for Cavan-Monaghan three weeks into his 1981 hunger strike. He held the position for two months, until he died on August 2nd. The portraits, plaques, and mural of marchers are in his home area of Andersonstown. The words “It is not those who inflict the most, but those that can endure who shall conquer in the end” is an echo of Terence MacSwiney, whose hunger strike in 1920 lasted 74 days, one more than Doherty’s.
Painted by Lucas Quigley in Slemish Way, Andersonstown, west Belfast
Scots Guardsmen Mark Wright and James Fisher, who served six years of a life sentence for the killing of Peter McBride and then rejoined the army, are compared to republican POWs: “An open letter to the British Secretary of State: Why does your government show preferential treatment to ‘state murders’ while discriminating against Irish POWs – we are denied employment, PSV license, no adoption, compensation, visas. Why? Signed St James’s POWs. Co[m]hıonannas do gach duıne” (equality for everyone)
Peter Moloney Collection 