The names of four hunger strikers – Bobby Sands RIP, Patsy O’Hara RIP, Raymond McCreesh, and Franky Hughes RIP – with an “H” made of barbed wire and two Irish tricolours.
Falls Road (at Fallswater St), Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00198
The view from Top Of The Hill looking down over the old town and the bogside. The island of Ireland in green, white, and orange, “Smash H-Block”, “Political status now”.
Strabane Old Road, Gobnascale, Derry
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Copyright © 1981 Peter Moloney
M00197
Republican prisoners, one with a raised fist: “I’ll wear no convicts uniform, nor meekly serve my time, that Britain might make Ireland’s fight 800 years of crime.” It appears from the fist in the top of the gable that a larger version was initially attempted but then scaled back. The figures are based on a 1981 poster urging the restoration of political status for republican prisoners.
According to Bill Rolston, this is the first mural painted in Belfast, in the spring of 1981. For a history of (republican) proto-murals and murals, see Visual History 02.
Whiterock Road, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00184 M00185
In the first two of these three images from (somewhere on) the Andersonstown Road, nine hunger-strikers are named — Bobby Sands M.P., Joe McDonnell, Francis Hughes, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty T.D., Ray McCreesh, Martin Hurson, Patsy O’Hara, and Tom McElwee — while in the third, Michael Devine’s name has been added and the bottom of the wall painted black. “Smash H-Block” is on the right; “Victory to the prisoners” is on the building on the other side of the road.
Andersonstown, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00158 M00160 M00159
Her Majesty’s Mailbox painted in green, white, and yellow on the Springfield/Whiterock Roads, Belfast, 1981. See also Republican Mail.
(See also Homer Sykes?)
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00155
Portrait of Thomas McIlwee [McElwee] “IRA Vol. POW 1958-1981” and a tricoloured wall on Strabane Old Road, Derry
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Copyright © 1981 Peter Moloney
M00153
Parts of a 1979 Bobby Sands An Phoblacht/Republican News article — The Lark And The Freedom Fighter — are featured in a 1981 mural in Gobnascale, Derry. “I refuse to change to suit the people who oppress, torture and imprison me, and who wish to dehumanize me. I have the spirit of freedom that cannot be quenched by even the most horrendous treatment. Of course I can be murdered, but while I remain alive, I remain what I am, a political prisoner of war.” B. Sands. MP. POW. OC.
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Copyright © 1981 Peter Moloney
M00152
A bugler plays The Last Post over a grave of hunger-strikers from the early part of the 20th century: Thomas Ashe May 25, 1917; Michael Fitzgerald October 17, 1920; Joseph Murphy October 25, 1920; Terence M[a]cSwiney October 25, 1920; Joseph Whittey [Whitty, Witty] September 9 [or 2nd], 1923; Denis Barry November 20, 1922 [1923]. Not included is Andrew Sullivan, who died two days after Barry. Dan Downey died in June 1923 having earlier been on hunger strike.
Beechmount Drive, Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00149
Cormac (Brian Moore) was a cartoonist for Republican News, whose “Notes” (Notes For A History Of Ireland) cartoon began appearing in August 1976. The first comic suggested there would be “a handful of comic strips” but Notes went on appearing almost weekly in Republican News and An Phoblacht/Republican News for a total of 28 years, until 2004. During the first decade, Cormac was also a cartoonist for Socialist Challenge (producing a strip called “Bad Taste” from 1978-1983) and then Socialist Action (“A Piece Of The Action” from 1983-1987).
In the strip above, a republican dares to be happy despite the Troubles and “a bleak and hopeless future of poverty and unemployment”, taking delight in “three British soldiers sent to eternity/The M-60 kettling so merrily”.
The strip itself appeared in the AP/RN of 1982-04-01, and perhaps also in an earlier edition.
“Painted by Sınn Féın Youth” next to Let Us Rise in Beechmount Avenue, west Belfast.
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Copyright © 1981 LC
M00134
Three images of a mural on the Whiterock Road, Belfast, showing a blanketman/hunger-striker and a uniformed volunteer on a tricolour cloth at the feet of an angel holding a banner reading “blessed are those who hunger for justice“. Above are the words “Their hunger, their pain, our struggle“. The shields of the four provinces of Ireland and two shamrocks complete the mural. The third image shows the mural in progress, and it looks as though it has already been vandalised.
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Copyright © 1981 LC
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Peter Moloney Collection 