British forces

Sasanach Amach

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M00156+

“English Out”: Britain in the form of a riot policeman batoning a bloodied Ireland was (and remains) the symbol of the Troops Out Movement, an British pro-(Irish-)Nationalist organisation founded in 1973. The image of Britain in riot gear beating Ireland with a truncheon first appeared in the Irish Citizen newspaper and was designed by Jack Clafferty (Red Mole).

“Sasanach” is one English person, whereas the sentiment is presumably that they [Sasanaigh] should all leave. But that doesn’t rhyme so well.

Andersonstown Road (where exactly?), Belfast

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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00156 [M00157]
locationunknown

Plastic Death

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M00148+

Civil Order, Plastic Death: “in memory of those murdered by plastic bullets”. A British Army soldier stands to the right of mural in (the old) Linden Street, next to the spot where Nora McCabe was shot in the back of the head by a plastic bullet by the RUC at 7:45 a.m. on July 9th, 1981, the day after hunger striker Joe McDonnell died. The poster on which the mural is based is below.

The soldier on the left was originally painted with boots on both feet (X05495) but repainted with a peg-leg after the IRA blew up the car of the Marine’s Commandant General Steuart Pringle on October 17th, 1981 – he lost his right leg (WP).

“Done by Springfield Youth [Against H-Block & Armagh]”

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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00148

The Training Ground

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M00123+

M00124+

M00125+

Jeff Perks’s 1979 linotype “The Training Ground” was reproduced on Beechmount Avenue circa 1981. It depicts the history of the British Army in Ireland. Rolston (“Politics, Painting and Popular Culture: the Political Wall Murals of Northern Ireland”, Media, Culture and Society 9.1, 1987) claims (p. 19) that the image would have been familiar to nationalists from the cover of “Ireland: Voices For Withdrawal” (shown below). The baton-wielding policeman on the right was also reproduced in a famous 1996 Derry mural (“68-96 Nothing Has Changed” M01279).

PerksVoicesForWithdrawal

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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00123 M00124 M00125