RUC/PSNI

Sammy Devenny

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“This monument is dedicated to the memory of Sammy Devenny who, along with several members of his family was savagely beaten by the RUC at this site, 69 William Street – the Devenny family home – on April 19th 1969. Sammy Devenny died as a result of injuries from this assault on July 17th 1969.”


Devenny – one of the first people to die in the Troubles – had a heart attack immediately after the beating and died of another one three months later. The police files on the case have been locked until 2022 (Derry Journal).

Documentary video including testimony from the family about Devenny’s beating.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2010 Peter Moloney
M03404

Peace Cannot Be Kept By Force

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The theme “Remember the fallen from war” is illustrated by a bombed-out Ballymacarret library on Templemore Avenue and St. Patrick’s church, which is just across the street from the mural, both of which were hit during the blitz in 1942, a police land rover perhaps indicates the dead during the Troubles, while Cuchulainn stands for the IRA (and/or for the UDA?). The word “peace” appears next to an image of Stormont (bottom right) painted in white rather than grey.

We are supposed to remember the dead because (perhaps) their deaths were unnecessary and misguided as means to peace, at least according to the saying along the bottom (sometimes attributed to Einstein): “Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding” – understanding of the Nazis during the blitz, it seems, and of loyalists during the Troubles. If you have a better interpretation, please (please!) leave a comment.

The mural was imitated on the hoarding around the Cultúrlann on the Falls Road during its renovation, though this version does not mention the blitz and seems to be lamenting the CNR dead and calling for understanding of the CNR community (sc. by Britain and the Orange state) – see X01279.

Lendrick Street, east Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2010 Peter Moloney
M05643