POWs

Victory To The Blanketmen POWs

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An advertising hoarding on the Springfield Road (just before the Whiterock Road), Belfast, is taken over by a republican artist: “H” and “A” for the H-Blocks and Armagh Women’s Prison, with the names of four hunger-strikers (Bobby Sands Patsy O’Hara, Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh) and two tricolours.

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Copyright © 1981 LC
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Until The Last Prisoner Is Free

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There is a lot going on in this image: pedestrians pass in front of a row of boarded-up shops, above them is written “Until the last prisoner is free we are all imprisoned” with posters of the hunger strikers, an Irish tricolour and “If they die, you die”; on the left “No, not a dog, but a POW” and a version of the five demands, concerning prison uniforms, work, association, parcels, and remission. 

Ballymurphy shops, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1981 LC
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Don’t Let Them Die!

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The names of seven of the 1981 hunger-strikers – “POWs” Kieran Doherty, Joe McDonnell, Kevin Lynch, Martin Hurson, Tom McIlwee [McElwee], Paddy Quinn, Michael Devine – are placed next to outstretched arms wrapped in barbed wire.

The hands-in-barbed-wire design is by Jack Clafferty of Troops Out.

Beechmount Street, Belfast.

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Copyright © 1981 LC
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They Die, You Die

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“They die, you die – Brit Govt”. Above are posters of hunger strikers, some marked with dates of death. From right to left, smaller posters show Sands, Hughes, McCreesh, and O’Hara. From left to right, the larger posters show [McDonnell out of frame?], Doherty, Lynch (both marked as deceased), McElwee, Quinn, Devine, McKeown, McGeown, Devlin.

If the posters are an accurate guide, the date is somewhere between August 2nd and 8th, the dates on which Doherty and McElwee died. Liam McCloskey would join the strike on August 3rd.

The dentist’s office round the corner from Ballymurphy shops, Belfast.

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Copyright © 1981 LC
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