The hunger strikers memorial in Rossville Street, Derry, was launched in 2000. The central “H” carries the names of the ten deceased 1981 strikers, while the stones to either side carry the names of other republicans to have died on hunger strike: Thomas Ashe 1917, Michael Fitzgerald 1920, Joseph Murphy 1920, Terence McSwiney 1920, Joseph Whitty 1923, Denis Barry 1923, Andrew Sullivan 1923, Tony D’Aroy 1940, Jack McNeela 1940, Sean McCaughey 1946, Michael Gaughan 1974, Frank Stagg 1976.
The Sınn Féın offices and shop on the Falls Road at Sevastopol Street were torn down and rebuilt in 2000. A mural had been on the gable wall since 1982, initially advertising An Phoblacht/Republican News, and later included Bobby Sands. (1989 white | 1990 blue)
The mural on the new gable, shown above, removes the full An Phoblacht/Republican News masthead and instead includes the visual part of it (most prominent in the earliest mural on the wall An Phoblacht – Official Organ): the crest of 1798’s United Irishmen – “Equality” and “It is new strung and shall be heard” around a Maid Of Erin harp and the cap of liberty.
Otherwise the wall is devoted to “Irish republican, revolutionary, poet, Gaeligeoir, visionary” Bobby Sands/Roıbeaırt Ó Seachnasaıgh, adding another famous saying of his, namely “our revenge will be the laughter of our children” alongside “everyone, republican or otherwise, has their own particular part to play”. [Diary, March 14th, 1981]
The mural also adds a border of breaking chains (and a lark) and (not visible in the apex) a phoenix and the word “saoırse”. The multi-coloured border is perhaps the most unusual element, working with the sky-blue background and Sands’s smiling face to give the mural a positive feel.
Frank Stagg and Michael Gaughan are included alongside (what remains of portraits of) the ten deceased 1981 hunger strikers on a board on the side of the “Falls/Clonard” library.
For the 20th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike, this freestanding “H” was constructed along the Falls Road, Belfast. Across the centre bar are the words (usually attributed to Bobby Sands) “our revenge will be the laughter of our children” and images of IRA (Tricolour) and youth (Sunburst) volunteers firing over a lark encircled in barbed wire.
“I ndıl chuımhne na gcımí poblachtanacha a fuaır bas ı ngéıbheann ı rıth na coımhlınte reatha seo.” A lark bursts through prison bars of Long Kesh, Portlaoise, and prisons in England, in which republicans have died from the 70s to 90s.
The lower part of the long wall in Bishop Street, Derry, in 1988. From left to right: a funeral volley fired over a scroll (blank in the first shot, filled-in in the fifth; Cú Chulaınn dying; portraits of the ten deceased 1981 hunger strikers; Bobby Sands’s “spirit of freedom” quote (shown in the final image) which concludes “I remain what I am – a political prisoner of war”; a celtic cross; “Free All POWs” (similar image to Racecourse Road); and a lark in barbed wire over a Tricolour.
1994 version of the 1990 Spirit Of Freedom mural on Moyola Drive, Derry, with a faded James Connolly quote on the scroll: “There is no power on Earth [or: There is no outside force] capable of enforcing slavery on a people really resolved to be free, [and] valuing freedom more than life.”
12 deceased hunger strikers are named on either side of a celtic cross in tricoloured panels, with a stylised bird flying in front. Two masked volunteers stand to attention.
Whiterock Road, Belfast
Bobby Sands Francis Hughes Patsy O’Hara Ray McCreesh Joe McDonnell Martin Hurson Kevin Lynch Kieran Doherty Tom McIlwee [McElwee] Michael Devine Michael Gaughan Frank Stagg
“The support of our people is obvious, in that we could not survive or increase our operations without it. With our support, our weaponry and the calibre of our volunteers and activists, we will win and are set firmly [on] the task of achieving victory.” With the lark as the ‘Spirit of freedom’ and a celebrating volunteer in the tri-colours. New Lodge Road, Belfast.
Peter Moloney Collection 