Women of the world stand up against oppression, with the symbol for ‘female’ containing a globe. On the Falls Road/Linden Street.
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Copyright © 1991 Peter Moloney
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Women Against Oppression
women
Support Dessie Ellis
“Support Dessie Ellis” and “Ask about Dessie Ellis – No extradition” graffiti in Westland Street, Derry, at the centre of the stencils seen in Dionysia.
For basic info on Ellis, see Don’t Hand Him Over.
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Copyright © 1990 Peter Moloney
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Dionysia
Nancy Spero’s Notes In Time Part II comprises stencils of women from the troubles alongside poems such as Linda Anderson’s Gang-Bang, Ulster Style (about the murder of Ann Ogilby in 1974), and Roisin Cowman’s Dionysia. For history and discussion of the piece, see McGee (1993), Impact And The Visual Arts – Derry 1992 at NCAD.
For a wide shot, see Support Dessie Ellis.
Westland Street, Bogside, Derry.
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Copyright © 1990 Peter Moloney
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Only Our River Runs Free
Women from around the world, including Palestine, are represented in this mural in Unity flats, Belfast. Here’s Christy Moore’s recording of the Michael MacConnell song Only Our Rivers Run Free.
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Copyright © 1990 Peter Moloney
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Liberty
A mural (unfinished) by Mo Chara on the Falls Road, Belfast, at the old Linden Street, with a barefoot woman carrying a large Tricolour and a lark overhead. Probably based on the Women’s Day (“Frauen Tag”) poster shown below, from 1914. “Heraus mit dem Frauenwahlrecht” – “Forward with women’s suffrage”. German women were given the right to vote in 1918. (The image was also used in Toronto in 1982 for International Women’s Day.)
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Copyright © 1990 Peter Moloney
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Emancipation Of Women
The slogan “For the revolution to triumph in its totality there must be emancipation of women” is attributed here to a “James MacNeill (or MacNell) but it is also found in connection with the women’s league of the Zimbabwe African National Union – see the second image among these anti-imperialism placards.
The mural shows a female soldier whose open palms support outstretched arms holding a paintbrush, a hammer, and a book. (For the same idea in Derry, see The Destructive Talents Of The RUC.)
Ballycolman estrate, Strabane.
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Copyright © 1989 Peter Moloney
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How Is Freedom Measured?
The bottom half of this mural in Redcliffe Parade, Belfast, shows UVF volunteers “then and now” (“Ulster 1914” during WWI and in contemporary times). On either side of that are (Protestant) women, on the left exhorting men to fight in WWI and on the right defending the homestead (i.e. the Protestant territories) against the threat of Irish nationalism while the men (and perhaps British support) are absent: “How is freedom measured? By the effort which it costs to retain it” and “Deserted! Well, I can stand alone.”
The upper portion shows a rare (though not unique) version of the red hand of Ulster, giving a “V for victory” salute (and so we can see nails on three digits) and dancing in boots on an Irish Tricolour which lies between an Ulster Banner and a Union flag.
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Copyright © 1989 Alan Gallery, All rights reserved alan@alangallery.com
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A Legitimate Right To Take Up Arms
Yann Goulet’s Ballyseedy Memorial sculpture, a reflection on the killing of eight anti-Treaty prisoners during the Irish Civil War, was rendered in paint for the funerals of the Gibraltar Three. “I have always believed we had a legitimate right to take up arms …” from an interview by IRA volunteer Maıréad Farrell, executed with her gallant comrades Seán Savage & Dan McCann.”
Falls Road, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1988 LC
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Deserted! Well – I Can Stand Alone
These two murals are side-by-side in Craven Street. On the right, a farmer’s wife defends the farm (the stone wall) in order to preserve it as part of the UK (the Union Flag) despite the threat of Home Rule; on the left, “in proud and loving memory” of three UVF volunteers assassinated by the IRA: Shankill Butcher Lenny Murphy, John Bingham, and William “Frenchie” Marchant. “Lest we forget.”
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Copyright © 1988 LC
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Women In Armed Struggle
“Solidarity between women in armed struggle” across the world: female members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Cumann Na mBan, and the Southwest African People’s Organisation (from Namibia) drawn within the symbol for woman (also the planet Venus in astrology). The mural (or perhaps the wall) was “Improved by Sınn Féın Youth” and on the side-wall: “Cowardly loyalists backout”. Falls Road, Belfast
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Copyright © 1985 Peter Moloney
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Peter Moloney Collection 