“Dedicated to all republican prisoners past and present.” Bobby Sands’s poem The Rhythm Of Time, published in 1981 as part of Prison Poems, is printed in full along with images of Long Kesh and other prisons in which republican prisoners were held.
The tarp was launched 2014-08-10, to coincide with the anniversary of the introduction of interment in 1971 (see e.g. this BBC news report).
Ardoyne Avenue, north Belfast
Update: an all-black James Connolly plaque added in 2016, which would later be partly coloured:
This banner just off the Shore Road includes two Palestinian flags and an Irish Tricolour, along with a raised first and the lark of freedom, both in green, black, and red.
“Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign [web] – IPSC Belfast/Béal Feırste” – this tarp is on the railings at St. Mary’s (teacher training college), Falls Road. The groups held a rally in July demanding a stop to the slaughter.
In a sermon on November 4th, 1956 (and repeated on other occasions), Martin Luther King, Jr. imagined a letter from Paul to the Christians of America, expressing concern for spiritual life in a capitalist society and appealing for desegregation of society using non-violent methods – “the weapon of love” – keeping in mind “that you are merely seeking justice for him as well as yourself”.
Click for audio – the remark quoted occurs at the 3 minute mark of section 4 (archive.org)
“Purity in our hearts, strength in our arms, truth in our lips.” Here are images from the launch of the new Fıanna tarp at the top of Berwick Road (Paráıd An Ardghleanna) on Easter Saturday (April 19th). The tarp is an RNU tribute to four teenaged members of Na Fıanna Éıreann who died in 1972: Davy McAuley, Josh Campbell, Josie McComiskey and Bernard Fox – all four from Ardoyne/Ard Eoın. McAuley died of a gunshot wound, perhaps at a Louth training camp (Nelson McCausland). Campbell was shot in Eksdale Street in a gun battle with the British Army; McComiskey was shot in Flax Street in a gun battle with the British Army; Fox was shot by the British Army in Brompton Street. (Close-up of the plaque.)
This large tarp in Sackville Street, Derry, reprises a piece that the Bogside Artists (painters of the People’s Gallery) produced in the USA in 2010, on the subject of free speech. The immediate cause of its use here concerning the “NWO” [new world order] is not known.
“Glencairn demands civil rights for all Protestants now!” and “RIP Maggie Thatcher, the Iron Lady – true legend.” Thatcher died on April 8th, 2013. The specific reason for the tarp, if any, is unknown; it might be the ban on marching past the Ardoyne shops (CSMonitor).
Memorials in Ardoyne Martin Meehan, Sammy McLarnon, Thomas ‘Bootsey’ Begley, Seamus Morris and Peter Dolan.
Martin Meehan joined the IRA in 1966 and was one of a few IRA volunteers defending Catholics in Ardoyne (Ard Eoın) in August 1969. Rioting did not cease there until the 16th, when British troops were finally deployed to the Crumlin Road to block mobs coming from the Woodvale and Shankill. Meehan resigned after the failure of the IRA to defend Ardoyne, Clonard, and Divis. This Magill article from the time summarises the IRA’s actions as “late, amateur and uncertain”. (Meehan would later rejoin the IRA and PIRA.)
“This memorable [sic] plague [sic] is dedicated to the 1st victim of the present troubles, Sammy McLarnon, RIP, who was brutally murdered in his own home at 37 Herbert St by the RUC on 15th Aug., 1969.” For more, see this Irish Times article about a 1999 community inquest.
Thomas “Bootsey” Begley died when a bomb he was carrying into a fish shop on the Shankill Road exploded. The bomb killed Begley and nine others [plaque]. The plaque above was unveiled in Ardoyne on October 20th, 2013 – twenty years after the event – to protests from relatives of the deceased (BBC-NI).
“Justice for the Craigavon 2” – this is the first piece in the Peter Moloney Collection about the campaign to release the pair convicted for their part in the murder of Stephen Carroll (BBC).
Finally, the Morris-Dolan plaque is brand new, unveiled August 11, 2013, in Etna Drive/Corán An Ardghleanna (in Ard Eoın). Seamus Morris and Peter Nolan were shot by the Protestant Action Force (UVF) twenty-five years ago, in August 1988. It reads “Brutally murdered for their faith … by loyalist death squad aided by British crown forces. Never forgotten by family and friends.”
“Nor meekly serve my time. Ex-prisoner’s day – Lá na nIarchımí. Friday 9th August. Photographic Exhibition, Discussions, 1-3 pm, Family Fun Day. Our revenge will be the laughter of our children.”
At the Felons Club, Falls Road, Andersonstown, Belfast. The painted board above the tarp can be seen in The Birth Of The Irish Republic.
