This is the scene at the junction of the Springfield Road with the Whiterock Road and New Barnsley Parade in 1987: kerb-stones painted in green, white, and orange, election posters for Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams (“Working with you”), and “IRA” and “SS RUC” graffiti in the background.
A volunteer with rocket-propelled grenade launcher on “RPG Avenue” (Beechmount Avenue), west Belfast. “Revolution – Armed struggle, people’s politics”.
According to Rolston (1991 p. 100), the silhouettes of at the bottom are based on the movie poster for Reds.
The death by hanging of African National Congress supporter Benjamin Moloise on 18 October, 1985, for the alleged murder of a South African policeman, drew international condemnation and led to widespread rioting in Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth. (ExecutedToday | Jet) His words, “tell the world, freedom is at hand”, are paired with a phrase from Bobby Sands, “we aim to be free”, in this ANC-IRA mural featuring an armalite and a zulu shield and spear. In the second and third images the boards (above the mural) declaring west Belfast an “apartheid free zone”/”ceantar saor ó apartheıd” can be seen.
“Beır bua” [seize victory]; “erected by Sınn Féın April 1986”
Ascaıll Ard Na bhFeá/Beechmount Avenue, west Belfast
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.”
Two image of the walls between entry-way gates in Rathlin Drive, Derry, showing an IRA (“Oglaıgh na hEıreann”) volunteer with machine gun and (on the other) an armalite and a rifle as part of the “Weapons of resistance”.
This two-part mural in Forest Street, Belfast, features (left) a Sunburst and a Starry Plough on either side of two volunteers who are watching the sun rise/set and (right) “Struggle for freedom” below an outline of the island against the green-white-and-gold stripes of the tricolour.
A pair of crouched volunteers with weapons aimed below stylised block writing. Pearse’s “Ireland unfree shall never be at peace” (and a dog) take centre stage. Properly, with fadas, “Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann”. Central Drive, Derry.