“In memory of Topper Thompson, murdered by British death squads, 27th April 1994 aged 25. Deeply missed by never forgotten. Erected by his friends.” Paul Thompson was shot by a UDA gunman through a hole that had been cut in the security fence and about which the RUC had been notified earlier in the day (Relatives For Justice).
This is a 2015 repainting of a 2001 mural in Glenwood. The ten deceased hunger-strikers of 1981 are listed in the bottom right: Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh, Patsy O’Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Tom McElwee, Mickey Devine. In the main panel, a lark in barbed wire flies over the H-blocks of Long Kesh and a funeral volley being fired over a Tricolour-draped coffin.
Two IRA memorial plaques have been mounted on a wall in Herbert Street, Ardoyne, close to the Sammy McLarnon plaque:
“Óglach James McDade 24 July 1946 – 14 Nov 1974 died on active service, England; Óglach Gerard McDade 22 Nov 1950 – 21 Dec 1971 murdered by British Crown Forces. A Mháthaır na hÉıreann, fáısc [strain, draw tight] do bhéırt mhac, Séamus agus Geraóıd, le do chroí. Throıd sıad agus fuaır sıad bás. Mother Ireland, hold your sons, James and Gerard, close to your heart. They fought and they died.”
The McDade family lived in Ardoyne. James died while planting a bomb in Birmingham, England; Gerard was shot by a British Army soldier – there is a plaque to his memory in Beechmount. (Sutton)
“Óglach Frankie Donnelly 26 Aug 1954 – 5 Jan 1979 died on active service; Óglach Laurence Montgomery 12 June 1954 – 5 Jan 1979 died on active service. Níl sa saol seo ach tréımhse gaırıd ar an bhóthaır fada chun na saoırse [in this life there is only a short period on the long road to freedom] – life is but a short part on the long journey to freedom”
Donnelly and Montgomery were killed in Northwick Drive, Ardoyne, by the premature detonation of a car-bomb. (Sutton)
“Fáılte go dtí Brandywell” – this is a long mural about the welfare of children, citing rights 3, 6, 9, 23, 24, and 31 from the UN’s Convention On The Rights Of The Child, as rendered by Caroline Castle.
Countess Markievicz, carrying a flag of Cumann Na mBan, and Ethel Lynch, carrying a flag of the Derry IRA, take centre stage in the Mná Na hÉıreann mural in London-/Derry/Doıre’s bogside. Markievicz is famous for her role in the Easter Rising of 1916 (WP); Lynch died in December 1974 of injuries sustained when a bomb exploded prematurely. Between them, “Liberty leads the people” waving an Irish Tricolour.
To their left are three Derry women protesting the conditions in Armagh Women’s Prison and in the H-Blocks. This article on Mary Nelis (the protester on the right, with Kathleen Deeny and Theresa Deery) describes the photograph on which this part of the mural is based. The women in Armagh prison were allowed to wear their own clothes and so were not ‘on the blanket’ as their male counterparts in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh were. However, they did engage in a “no wash” protest, which lasted from February 1980 until March 1981, and three of them – Maıréad Farrell, Mary Doyle, and Margaret Nugent – joined the 1980 hunger strike.
To their right (beyond the coffin scene) members of Cumann Na mBan are on parade; the photo of on which this is based can be seen in Mothering Sunday In Beechmount, though the faces have been changed here, presumably to those of more contemporary volunteers.
The figure wearing a cloth cap and holding a rifle is Eithne Coyle, a leader and later president of Cumann Na mBan, imprisoned both by the Black and Tans before the treaty and after it by the Provisional Irish government (WP). For the photograph on which her pose here is based, see An Phoblacht‘s History Of Cumann Na mBan.
In the four corners are circles of Betsy Gray, Anne Devlin, Mary Ann McCracken, and Máıre Drumm. Gray and McCracken were Presbyterians; Gray fought (or at least, was killed) in the 1798 rebellion, as did McCracken’s brother Henry Joy; Mary Ann went on to work for the poor of Belfast and lobby against slavery. Anne Devlin assisted in Robert Emmet’s 1803 rising. (National Graves Assoc) Máıre Drumm was vice-president of Sınn Féın and commander of Cumann Na mBan, who are shown marching on the right-hand side.
The local New Lodge GAA club Cumman An Phıarsaıgh is named in honour of Patrick Pearse, executed after the 1916 rising. The club’s new mural features footballers contesting a ball and Pearse’s image appears at the centre of a Celtic cross along with part of his 1912 poem Mıse Éıre in the bottom corner (shown in the close-up).
Painted by Lucas Quigley and Michael Doherty. Replaces ‘New Lodge 2000‘.
Mıse Éıre: Sıne mé na an Chaılleach Bhéarra. Mór mo ghlóır: Mé a rug Cú Chulaınn croga. Mór mo náır: Mo chlann féın a dhíol a máthaır. [Mór mo phıan: Bıthnaımhde do mo shíorchıapadh. Mór mo bhrón: D’éag an dream ınar chuıreas dóchas.] Mıse Éıre: Uaıgní mé ná an Chaılleach Bhéarra.
I am Ireland: I am older than the old woman of Beare. Great my glory: I who bore Cuchulainn, the brave. Great my shame: My own children who sold their mother. [Great my pain: My irreconcilable enemy who harasses me continually. Great my sorrow: That crowd, in whom I placed my trust, died.] I am Ireland: I am lonelier than the old woman of Beare.
Patrick O’Connor was born on April 15th, 1924, on the lower Falls but after his father emigrated he spent his early years – until age 5 – with his grandparents in East Street in the Markets. It was as a high-schooler in New York that he adopted the name Pádraıc Fıacc (“fıach dubh” is “raven”) and began writing poetry. He settled in Glengormley upon his second and final return; it is not clear that he ever saw East Street lined with British Army soldiers, as shown in the mural above. He wrote of his early life in ‘First Movement’:
Low clouds, yellow in a mist wind Sift on far-off Ards Drift hazily … I was born on such a morning Smelling of the bone yards The smoking chimneys over the slate top roofs The wayward storm birds And to the east where morning is, the sea And to the west where evening is, the sea Threatening with danger And it would always darken suddenly
Some of Fıacc’s poems are in the TroublesArchive. There are two videos below. The first is an interview with NVTv’s Bernard Conlon; the second is of a reception in Belfast City Hall.
“Short Strand supports Gaza – tacaíonn An Trá Ghearr le Gaza”. The centre of this mural is Carlos Latuff’s cartoon Do Not Disturb – War Criminals Working. Israel, in the form of an aproned Benjamin Netanyahu, is butchering the people of Gaza. The world watches with some concern, Ban Ki-Moon and the UN look away, and the Arab League is asleep. The United States, in the form of Barack Obama, prevents any intervention.
The second image gives a wide shot of the long wall on Mountpottinger Road, which has its own Visual History page.
“Óglach Joe McDonnell died on hunger strike in the H Blocks of Long Kesh July/ 8th/ 1981. ‘You dare to call me a terrorist while you look down your gun.’ [youtube]”
On the left, “Divis Youth Project” [Fb], side: “30th anniversary Frank Gillen Centre 1984-2014”, “Providing a range of programmes both educational and recreational which meet the needs of young people within the Falls area”.
On the right, “Come on the Mac”, side: “70th anniversary Immaculata football club [Fb] 1944-2014″.
And between the spires of St Peter’s: “Fáılte go Bóthar Na bhFál”.
Peter Moloney Collection 