Here’s an updated (but still unfinished version) of 1995’s Ireland’s Holocaust, with images from issues of Illustrated London News of the period (also used in An tOcras Mór on New Lodge Road).
A collage of image from the previous 30 years, including banging bin-lids on the ground, Maıréad Farrell in Armagh prison, men on the blanket, the cages of Long Kesh, marches in support of the hunger strikers, and reproductions of various posters, against Margaret Thatcher, plastic bullets, internment, and censorship. There’s a quote from Bob Dylan in the middle, “How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see – the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.”
Three guns are fired over a Tricolour-covered coffin. Mural in Friendly Way, Belfast, commemorating volunteers Joseph Downey, Brendan Davison, and Tony Nolan.
A mural of traditional republican symbols – armed and masked volunteers with celtic cross, phoenix, pikes, Tricolour and Sunburst flags – but unusual for 1997. Perhaps it dates to the period before the second/renewed ceasefire, on July 19th. Stanfield Place, Belfast. M01346
Two boards in Welsh Street, south Belfast: “Vote Sınn Féın’s [Seán] Hayes. Keep the Orange Order out. May 21st No. 1” and “93% Protestant, 100% Unionist – Disband the RUC.” The figure on the left is a three-in-one RUC officer, Orange Order member, and loyalist paramilitary. Hayes was elected fourth from the Laganbank district, taking a seat from the SDLP.
A Christmas reminder about republicans in jail: “Saoırse – Release the POWs”. For the same candle in barbed wire and chained-up forearms, see Sınn Féın Action Monitor.
This mural was never finished, so it’s not entirely clear what it was meant to represent. It shows two and a half RUC officers in riot gear, leaping like ninjas, presumably over the wishes of lower Ormeau residents.