Mention of BRAG dates back to a 2009 threat made against traffic wardens and TV license inspectors (RN | BBC). The graffiti read “Bogside Republican Action Group”, “Beır bua”, “End sectarian marches now!” (with a petrol bomb “PB”). The last is perhaps a reference to the on-going contention over marches past the Ardoyne shops in Belfast (Guardian).
See previously: BRY-IRA
Bogside shops, Lecky Road/Meenan Square, Derry
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2011 Peter Moloney
M07294 M07295
“Tógadh an leacht cuımhneacháın seo ag muıntır an cheantar ı gcuımhne an Óglaıgh [Óglach] Réamonn Mac Raoıs a fuaır bás ar an 21 Bealtaıne 1981 ı ndıaıdh lá agus seasca ar staılc ocraıs sna H-Blocanna. Rugadh Réamonn ar an 15 Feabhra 1957 ag Páırc Naomh Maolmhaodhóg. … Seasann an deıch gcrann atá curtha taobh thıar den leacht chuımhneacháın do na fıréın [fíréın].”
“This monument was erected by the people of the area in memory of IRA Volunteer Raymond McCreesh who died on May 21st 1981 after 61 days on hunger strike in the British H-Block prison at Long Kesh. Raymond McCreesh was born on February 25th 1957 at St Malachy’s Park, Camloch. … The ten trees planted behind the monument represent the ten men who died in the H-Blocks in 1981.”
There is a mural to McCreesh on the gable of Teach Réamoınn Mhıc Raoıs – see Keep On Marching.
Newry Rd, Camlough
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2011 Peter Moloney
[M07322] M07324 M07323
“In loving memory of Vol. Tom Williams “C. Coy” 2nd Battalion Belfast Brigade IRA who lived here [46 Bombay Street, where Williams lived with his grandmother Fay] and was executed in Belfast Gaol [Crumlin Road] 2nd Sept 1942, aged 19 years. Ar dheıs Dé go ra[ı]bh a anam. Erected by National Graves Association, Belfast 1992.”
Williams, the unit’s leader, took sole responsibility for the killing of RUC Constable Patrick Murphy, hoping that it would save the lives of the other seven (including two women) who had taken part in the ambush. The six men were jointly convicted of the killing but only Williams was ultimately hanged, after appeals from Ireland (not yet officially ‘The Republic Of’), the Vatican, and the US State Department (RN).
There is a portrait of Williams at the bottom of Clonard Street, and a mural in Kashmir Street in the 1990s.
Bombay Street, Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2011 Peter Moloney
M07289
There are a couple of interesting elements in this 30th anniversary hunger strikers mural in the Bogside. The frame is formed by chains (as seen previously on the Bobby Sands mural in Belfast) rather than knot-work, the names of Frank Stagg and Michael Gaughan are mixed into the list (rather than appearing together at the beginning or end), both the lark and the dove are included, and – most unusual and possibly unique – is the Irish translation of Bobby Sands’s saying “Our revenge will be the laughter of our children”: Baınfear ár ndíoltas amach leıs an gháıre dár bpáıstí. (And, as a super-extra bonus, the Irish has been – correctly – painted without tittles.)
“Derry remembers 1980-1981 hunger strikes. Re-dedication of mural 20th August 2011 on the 30th anniversary of Óglach Mickey Devine.”
Westland Street, Bogside, Derry
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2011 Peter Moloney
M07214 M07213 M07209 [M07215] [M07216] [M07217] [M07218] [M07219] [M07220] [M07221] [M07222] [M07223] [M07224] [M07225] [M07226] [M07227] [M07228] [M07229] [M07230] [M07231]
2012 M07634
Kevin Lynch, the seventh of the 1981 hunger strikers to die, is buried in Dungiven Cemetery. He is commemorated annually in the town. These images were taken on the day of the 30th anniversary commemoration.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2011 Peter Moloney
M07199 M07197 M07198 M07203 M07204 M07208
“Leadership across Ireland/Ceannasaíocht Across Ireland. Vótáıl Paul Maskey”. Sınn Féın boards in the grounds of Connolly House.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2011 Peter Moloney
M07173 M07172
Cú Chulaınn stands dying. In addition to the four provinces in the corners, the four colours of man can be seen in the apex (as a background to Ireland). Tuan the hawk historian, who has seen all of the conquests of Ireland, flies overhead. (Both Tuan and the four colours are familiars of Mo Chara Kelly.)
“Ar aghaıdh lınn” [Onward! or Let’s go!]
Glenbawn Avenue, Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2011 Peter Moloney
M07168 [M07169]
A red-headed lass with a horn stands watch for others at a mass rock – a stone in a remote location for Catholic worship, made necessary by a Penal law of 1695 which forbade the religious practice of Catholicism and “dissenter” forms of Protestantism (that is, anything other than Anglicism) (source). The harp, with a “cap of liberty” rather than a crown (WP), together the slogan “Equality – It is new strung and it shall be heard” is the emblem of the Society of United Irishmen (WP). On the other side of the mural linen lies in the fields bleaching and a farmer and wife plough the land with a team of horses and distribute seed.
Glenbawn Avenue, Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2011 Peter Moloney
M07165 [M07166] [M07167]
A boy — Dylan Wilson from east Belfast, grandson of loyalist community worker Jim Wilson —shakes hands with a girl – Dearbhla Ward, granddaughter of Short Strand Sinn Fein councillor Joe O’Donnell (sources: Al Jazeera | NewsLetter | The Scotsman). The centre was left for locals to make their mark on.
A gable-wall version of this image — without the word “síocháın” (peace), with the girl in green, and with Wilson’s poem ‘No More’ — can be found about half a mile away in Wolfe Close/Kenilworth Place, just across the Newtownards Road. See No More. This mural was part of the re-imaging effort of 2010.
No more bombing, no more murder
No more killing of our sons
No more standing at the grave side
Having to bury our loved onesNo more waking up every hour
Hoping our children, they come home
No more maimed or wounded people
Who have suffered all aloneNo more minutes to leave a building
No more fear of just parked cars
No more looking over our shoulders
No more killing in our barsNo more hatred from our children
No more. No more. No more!
By Dee Craig in Edgar Street, Short Strand, east Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2011 Peter Moloney
M06881
Facing each other in the Brompton Park entrance to Ard Eoın: “Support the prisoners – restore political status now!” from post-peace republicanism, and Cumann na n-Iarchımí Poblachtacha/Republican Ex-Prisoners Association (along with SNAP – Safer Neighbourhood Ardoyne Project – and Glór An Tuaıscırt/Voice Of The North) representing the pre-peace volunteers.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2011 Peter Moloney
M06727 M06726
Peter Moloney Collection 