physical force

The Falls Curfew

Extramural Activity2 Comments

“I ndıl chuımhne William Burns, died 3-7-70, Charles O’Neill 3-7-70, Zbigniew Uglik 4-7-70, Patrick Elliman 11-7-70, murdered by the British Army during the Falls Curfew of July 3-5 1970. The curfew was finally broken by the courage and determination of the women of Belfast.”

There is video of the 2005 launch and reenactment of the breaking of the blockade. The plaque for a time moved to the International Wall (see the mural to Máıre Drumm and the ending of the Falls Curfew) before returning to this spot (next to Elaine’s/Falls Rolls – see Ár Tae Will Come).

Falls Road, west Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
M02749

Staılc Ocraıs

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

IRA volunteer Michael Gaughan died in Parkhurst prison in 1974 after 64 days on hunger strike (staılc ocraıs). He was force-fed seventeen times during the strike and his family alleged that he died from food stuck in a punctured lung. The practice was ended after Gaughan’s death.

Frank Stagg was on the Parkhurst hunger strike with Gaughan, and another in Long Lartin prison, and a third in Wakefield in December 1975. He died after 62 days on February 12th, 1976.

Gaughan’s coffin was draped with the Tricolour used to bury Terence McSwiney in 1920, whose famous quote is at the top of the board: “It is not those who can inflict the most but those who can endure the most who will achieve ultimate victory.”

Falls Road, west Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
M02748