H-Block

IRA Rule Derry

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M00188 Westland St 1982+

M00189 1982+

M00190 1982+

On the left, a Bible quote — “No greater love hath a man than he lays down his life for his friends.” [John 15:13] — and The 5 Demands — No prison uniform, no prison work, free association, letters, visits, etc., full remission — with the oak leaf and crossed rifles of the Derry Brigade Provisional IRA in between.

On the right, Starry Plough, fractured “H”, and Irish Tricolour are linked by barbed wire. With posters above for hunger-strikers Pat Sheehan, Jackie McMullan, [Hugh] Gerry Carville, who all ended their strikes when October 3rd, 1981, when the strike was ended.

Westland Street, Derry

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Copyright © 1982 Peter Moloney
M00188 M0189 M00190

Bishop Street

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M00141 Bishop St 1982

Here is a wide shot of the panels in Bishop Street. Some of these were previously featured in close-up (Patsy O’Hara | Broken H | Saor Éıre | Spirit Of Freedom | Unlock H Block | Flags And Shields) but a few were not: Victory To The Hunger Strikers and a harp, to the right (probably with “You can kill the revolutionary but not the revolution”).

Bishop Street, Derry

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Copyright © 1982 Peter Moloney
M00141

Our Fetters Rent In Twain

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M00223+

A phoenix rises from a pair of disembodied hands tearing apart an “H” made of brick, illustrating the lines “and then I prayed I yet might see/our fetters rent in twain/and Ireland long a province be/a nation once again”. Also with the lark in barbed wire, four provinces, and names of six hunger strikers: Bobby Sands MP, Francis Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Patsy O’Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson. Falls Road in Andersonstown, Belfast.

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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00223

O’Casey/Break Thatcher’s Back

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M00211+

The quote on the left is from Sean O’Casey, not “Bobby Sands MP”: “You cannot put a rope around the neck of an idea; you cannot put an idea up against the barrack-square wall and riddle it with bullets; you cannot confine it in the strongest prison cell that your slaves could ever build.”

(The quote is reportedly from O’Casey’s prose lament for Thomas Ashe, either the initial pamphlet in November 1917 (?entitled “The Story Of Thomas Ashe”?) or the expanded version of 1918 (entitled “The Sacrifice Of Thomas Ashe” (auction site)), though no copy of this can be found on-line, only the two poems ‘Thomas Ashe’ and ‘Lament For Thomas Ashe’ (eastwallforall).

On the right, an H-Block blanketman is on his knees, protesting for (political) “status now”, surrounded by barbed wire and two flags on halberds: the Irish Tricolour and the Starry Plough.

Rockmore Road, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00211