Volunteer Charles English was a member of the IRA’s Derry Brigade (1st battalion). He died on August 6th, 1985, at age 21, when a grenade launcher exploded. His brother, Gary, had been killed four years earlier when an Army land rover hit and then reversed over him (Derry Journal). Images from the funeral are collected in this video.
Abbey Street, Derry
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Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
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The names of portraits of the ten deceased 1981 hunger strikers, plus Frank Stagg and Michael Gaughan, are on six of the seven New Lodge “houses” (high-rise buildings), two per house. Other slogans have appeared just below them, such as the “No more human shields – Brits out” shown in the first image, below the portrait of Bobby Sands on Teach Eıthne (perhaps a reference to the Army positions on top of Teach Mhéabha (Maeve House) and Teach Gráınne?). There are some more images in the Seosamh Mac Coılle collection.
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Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
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“In memory of the fifteen innocent civilians murdered by a pro-British loyalist gang in a no-warning bomb attack on McGurk’s Bar, Dec. 4th, 1971.” “In memory of those who tragically lost their lives and all those who were injured as a result of the explosion.” These are two memorials at North Queen Street and St George’s Street, Belfast, the site of the former bar, now a Westlink underpass. The “pro-British loyalist group” is thought to be the UVF, though at the time, it was claimed by a little-known group the “Empire Loyalists” (WP).
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Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
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“Murder”, “collusion”. The three-in-one policeman-Orange Order member-loyalist paramilitary is struck through in the style of a road sign.
New Lodge Road, Belfast
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Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
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This Short Strand mural packs a lot in, beginning with both ancient Éıre and a celtic cross. Its main panels commemorate 25 years of resistance in east Belfast (probably dating to the Battle Of St Matthew’s in 1970) with portraits of 16 deceased locals (“I measc laochra na nGael go raıbh a naınmeacha”) and two verses from Bobby Sands’s poem Weeping Winds (see below). On the right (in the second image) is a quote from Bobby Sands: “Our revenge will be the laughter of our children”.
Oh, whistling winds why do you weep/When roaming free you are,
Oh! Is it that your poor heart’s broke/And scattered off afar?
Or is it that you bear the cries/Of people born unfree,
Who like your way have no control/Or sovereign destiny?
Oh! Lonely winds that walk the night/To haunt the sinner’s soul/
Pray pity me a wretched lad/Who never will grow old.
Pray pity those who lie in pain/The bondsman and the slave
And whisper sweet the breath of God/Upon my humble grave.
These verses are also used on a board in St James’s.
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Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
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“End the siege of Short Strand. Denied access to essential services including: doctors, chemist, dentist, health centre, post office, supermarket, Department of Social Services …… sectarianism is a cancer! The people of this area are not sectarian. We want to live in peace with our neighbours. People have nothing to fear from this community. People of all religions and none live, work and travel thru daily and will continue to do so!”
On the other side of the main panel is a list of events from May 2002, describing attacks on nationalist residents and homes in the small nationalist enclave, with “ball bearings, golf balls, bricks and bottles” and “blast bombs, pipe bombs, petrol bombs”. The Andersonstown News gives an account of the initial disturbances and beating of Patrick ‘Pod’ Devenny. The Guardian called the area “Riot City“.
Mountpottinger Road, east Belfast
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Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
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“Dedicated to the memory of INLA volunteer Matt McLarnon, Nora McCabe and Peter Doherty who were murdered in this area by British state forces during the 1981 H-Block hunger strike. A Mhuıre banríon na nGael guí ar a son”. The area in question is Clonard/Falls. Doherty and McCabe were hit by plastic bullets; McLarnon was shot by a sniper on Divis tower. Erected by a Sınn Féın group (Lower Falls/Clonard Committee) rather than INLA.
old Linden Street, west Belfast
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Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
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Kieran Nugent, Pat McGeown, and Clonard blanket man Alex Comerford are the lead names on this plaque in Beechmount Grove, joined by the deceased 1981 hunger strikers as well as Gaughan and Stagg.
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Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
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IRA volunteer (and marksman in the Irish Army) John Starrs was killed in a gun battle with the British Army in William Street, near his plaque in Chamberlain Street, Derry
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Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
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Here is the scene in Clowney Street, Belfast, in 2002: the (third? version of the) phoenix mural is 12 years old, and the funeral volley mural above it (seen in 2001) has lost one of its boards.
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Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
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Peter Moloney Collection 