Three constituency offices – the SDLP’s Byrne had lost in 2003 and 2007, pushed out by Kieran Deeny who was campaigning to keep the Tyrone County Hospital open – and a Sınn Féın hoarding in Omagh. James Street (x2), Dublin Road, Dromore Road
Two images related to the SDLP in Derry: party leader Mark Durkan became MP for Foyle in 2005, while Pat Ramsey was mayor of Derry in 1999-2000 and MLA for Foyle from 2003 onward. Both are from Derry. Ramsey’s offices are in Creggan Road; the Durkan hoarding is in ?William Street?
Derry civil rights campaigner and long-time activist Eamonn McCann stood for the Socialist Environmental Alliance in the 2007 Assembly elections (ARK). Water charges were due to be introduced in March, 2007 (BBC-NI). McCann secured 5% of the first preference vote and was not elected. From 2004: McCann’s The Man.
Peggy O’Hara – mother of 1981 hunger striker Patsy – stood in the NI Assembly election of March 2007. She garnered 4.4% of the first preference votes but was not elected (ARK).
The “comm” from Bik [McFarlane, OC in Long Kesh] to Brownie [Gerry Adams] upon the death of Bobby Sands was posted on the wall in Dromara Street in the wake of Richard O’Rawe’s allegations that Sınn Féın leadership had turned down an offer from the Thatcher government that might have ended the strike after four deaths (Guardian).
A very different ‘Five Demands’ from Sınn Féın on the 25th anniversary of the hunger strike: “1. The Irish Government should produce a Green Paper on Irish Unity. 2. The work of the All Ireland Ministerial Council should be expanded and additional All Ireland Implementation Bodies created. Westminster MP’s elected in the 6 Counties should be accorded speaking rights in the Dail [sic]. 3. Voting rights for Presidential elections should be extended to citizens in the six counties. 5 The Irish Government should actively engage with the British Government and Unionism to promote and seek support for re-unification.”
The original ‘Five Demands’ are given as “1. The right to wear our own clothes. 2 The right to refrain from prison work. 3. The right to free association with fellow prisoners. 4. The right to organise recreation and leisure activity – with one letter, parcel and visit allowed per week. 5. To have remission lost, as a result of the blanket protest, restored.” For versions of the five demands from the period, see one | two | three.
Four Sınn Féın offices (or co-opted buildings as in the first image), in Crossmaglen, Armagh, Coalisland (including an IRA Tyrone Brigade plaque), and Derry.
These images show the political pieces on the back wall of the site of the old Andersonstown RUC barracks at the junction of the Glen Road and Falls Road. Fıan John Dempsey (memorialised elsewhere); Sınn Féın using a quote from Mao; graffiti supporting Palestine and the Basque Country; a hunger strikers memorial; graffiti equating Israel and the Nazis.