bullets — rubber or plastic

Discover Ireland

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M00311 Bligh's Gdns 1985+

Darkly humorous mural in Bligh’s Gardens, Derry, parodying the ‘Discover Ireland’ tourism advertisements: “Discover Ireland: sectarian RUC, loyalist UDR, the H Blocks, plastic bullets, murdering UDA, British thugs, Armagh hell-hole, special courts … but I bet you haven’t seen the half of it.”

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Copyright © 1985 Peter Moloney
M00311

Many Have Eyes/Who Next

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M00284 Blucher St 1985+

M00285 Blucher St 1985+

M00283+

These two murals — one about censorship (“Many have eyes but cannot see?”) and one about the death by platic bullet of Sean Downes (“Sean Downes RIP — Who Next” see this NYTimes article for a description) — are adjacent to one another in Blucher Street, Derry. “Many Have Eyes” is based on a poster from the May 1968 Paris Uprising, “Information Libre” (below).

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Copyright © 1985 Peter Moloney
M00284 M00285 M00283

1968-informationlibre

Plastic Death

Extramural Activity2 Comments
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