“In proud memory of Óglach Sean McKee killed in action by British Paratroopers 18th May 1973 aged 17 years – “Better to die on your feet than live on your knees””
McKee was shot in Fairfield Street while aiming at a 3 Para observation post in an abandoned building in Butler Street (Lost Lives 847).
Elmfield Street, Ardoyne, Belfast
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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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“In memory of Vol. Denver Smith, murdered by cowards 1st January 2000. Here lies a soldier. He gave his life whilst serving his community. Lest we forget.” Smith was killed by a gang of six men with machetes and pikes; the incident was perhaps drugs-related (Guardian | BBC-NI. For the wider picture An Phoblacht | Irish Times).
The mural originally appeared with seven plaques, then with three plaques, and now with graveside mourners on either side of a single stone, and a bench and three flag-poles to the right.
The UVF flag is between the the Denver Smith and All Gave Some gables.
Parkhall Road, Antrim
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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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This is a selection of small UDA boards and graffiti from the lower section of Parkhall estate in Antrim. The 90th anniversary board was seen previously in 2009.
Donegore Road, Oriel Park, Fountain Hill, Kilbeg Walk
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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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A board to slain UVF/RHC members John Hanna (died 1991-09-10), Stevie McCrea (1989-02-18) and Sammy Mehaffy (1991-11-13), with poppies and image of WWI soldiers.
“Remembering our brother’s lost lives and the human cost of conflict, the legacy of lost hopes and dreams. We come not to mourn but to praise their memory. We keep the memory of the brave, the faithful and the few, some lie far off beyond the waves, some sleep in Ulster too. All are gone but still live on the names of those who died, and true men like you, remember them with pride.”
“36th ulster division, for they shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old, age shall not weary them nor the years condemn, at the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.”
Frenchpark Street in the Village, south Belfast
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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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March 2013 is the 25th anniversary of the Michael Stone’s attack on mourners attending the burials of the Gibraltar 3 in Milltown cemetery. Stone killed three people. The mural combines images of mourners taking shelter from Stone’s attack – links to the photographs represented and in-progress images can be found at Extramural – with the civil war memorial in Ballyseedy, Co. Kerry (WP) which was famously connected to the Gibraltar 3 in a mural prepared for the return of the coffins to Belfast – see A Legitimate Right To Take Up Arms. (Here is a copy of Tragedies In Kerry.) The Gibraltar 3 are portrayed on the left; Stone’s victims are on the right. In the top right is an IRA volunteer who had been shot two days earlier, on the night that the coffins of the Gibraltar 3 arrived in Belfast.
1988 puts us firmly in the era of video, and so you can see footage on youtube relating to each of these events. In chronological order:
Death On The Rock, a famous Thames Television production about the SAS killings of IRA members Maıréad Farrell, Danny McCann and Seán Savage on March 6th in Gibraltar.
Michael Stone’s attack on mourners at their funerals in Milltown cemetery, March 16th, which killed Thomas McErlean, John Murray, and IRA member Caoımhín Mac Brádaıgh (Kevin Brady).
The funeral of IRA member Kevin McCracken on March 17th (he had been killed on March 14th) at which British Army corporals Wood and Howes were killed.
For the small Marian Price piece to the left, see Another Victim Of British Injustice. These pieces together replace the Relatives Action Committee mural, later with Marian Price poster.
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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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“Free Marian Price – another victim of British injustice.” For background, see the initial post of Marian Price slogans, from June 2011.
For the painted “Free Marian Price” posters added to most of the Divis Street murals in 2012, see Scaoıl Saor Marian Price.
On the International Wall, Divis St.
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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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For the fortieth anniversary of their deaths (during 1972), five young volunteers from the lower Falls are remembered: Daniel McAreavey, Joseph McKinney, Jimmy Quigley, John Donaghy, Patrick Maguire (real name Patrick Pendleton). Maguire, McKinney and Donaghy died together in an explosion (Oct 10); Quigley (Sept 29) and McAreavey (Oct 6) were shot. For further details of the how these five met their deaths, see among others Lost Lives by McKittrick et al. (Archive.org | Amazon UK | US). Biographies of the five begin at 7m46s in this history of D Company.
Quigley holds a copy of James Connolly’s 1910 pamphlet Labour in Irish History.
Video of the parade and unveiling on Sunday (Oct 7th, 2012) on youtube. The in-progress shot is from October 3rd, 2012.
“‘They shall be spoken of among their people and the generations shall remember them and call them blessed’ – P H Pearse”, from ‘The Mother‘.
Divis Street, Belfast
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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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“When the war is over, is ended, the stories, the tales, the actions of Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann will be written large.”
Replaces the Cogús Christmas message (X00780) in Northumberland Street, Belfast.
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“End internment, 1971-2012. www.eırıgı.org.” Imprisonment without trial was introduced in Northern Ireland on August 9th, 1971. The return to prison of volunteers by having their license or bail revoked is considered internment by anti-Agreement republicans – see e.g. Release Marian Price or End Internment By Remand.
Éırígí stencil in Beechmount Avenue, Belfast, showing hands clasping prison bars.
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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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The events of March 1988 are remembered 25 years on: the IRA’s Seán Savage, Daniel McCann, Mairéad Farrell were killed by the SAS in Gibraltar on March 6th; Kevin McCracken (IRA) was killed by British solders in Turf Lodge on the night of March 14th, after the corpses had returned to Belfast; John Murray, Thomas McErlean, and Caoimhín Mac Brádaigh (IRA) were killed by Michael Stone on March 16th in Milltown cemetery at the burial of the three. (Two British soldiers, Derek Wood and David Howes, were killed at Mac Brádaigh’s funeral procession on March 19th.)
Events include a plaque to “women in struggle” in the Roddy’s and a murals in Twinbrook (X02322 | M09378) and on the “International Wall” Divis Street (X00979).
Beechmount Street, Belfast
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Peter Moloney Collection 