women

Celebration Of Resistance

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The practice of republican women banging binlids to alert the community to the presence of British soldiers is remembered in this Westland Street, Derry, mural. The celebration is to take place in Belfast on Sunday 11th; the only Sunday the 11th in 1991 was in August; the side-wall was then changed for a another march the following Sunday.

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Copyright © 1991 Peter Moloney
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Dionysia

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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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Liberty

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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

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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?

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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

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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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