painted board

Tom Williams

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Tom Williams’s family was driven out of the Shore Road and settled in Clonard, where he joined the local Fıanna and then IRA. He was hanged at age 19 in Crumlin Road gaol for the killing of an RUC officer. Williams took responsibility so that the others in the gang, including Joe Cahill, could be reprieved. His body was buried in the prison but exhumed and re-buried in Milltown in 2000 (WP).

Next to the board is a plaque “dedicated to all from the Falls and Clonard areas who lost their lives as a result of the conflict in our country. A Mhuıre, banríon na nGael, guıgh orthu. [Mary, queen of the Gaels, pray for them]”

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Copyright © 2001 Peter Moloney
M01487

Save The Black Mountain

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“Protect your future”. Words from Joni Mitchell’s song Big Yellow Taxi are used to protest basalt quarrying on Black Mountain by Whitemountain Quarrying (part of the Lagan Group). The protests were led by local resident Terry Enright. Here are a Northern Visions TV interview and a NewStatesman article.

The mural also says “Happy 50th birthday, Ballymurphy”. Both Wikipedia and Ciarán De Baróid (Ballympurphy And The Irish War p. 9) give 1947 for the birth of Ballymurphy.

With USDT’s ‘Urban Initiative’, Corpus Christi Youth Centre, and Children In Need.

Springfield Road, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2001 Peter Moloney
M01485

Vol. Kieran Doherty TD

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Kieran Doherty was elected TD (Teachta Dála) for Cavan-Monaghan three weeks into his 1981 hunger strike. He held the position for two months, until he died on August 2nd. The portraits, plaques, and mural of marchers are in his home area of Andersonstown. The words “It is not those who inflict the most, but those that can endure who shall conquer in the end” is an echo of Terence MacSwiney, whose hunger strike in 1920 lasted 74 days, one more than Doherty’s.

Painted by Lucas Quigley in Slemish Way, Andersonstown, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2001 Peter Moloney
M01474

The Irish Hungerstrike

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The 20th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike is commemorated on the side of the Felons club with Bobby Ballagh’s Legacy Of The Hunger Strikes, showing ten doves breaking out of a H-Block. For the controversy over the image, see this Guardian article. Falls Road/Lake Glen Drive.

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Copyright © 2001 Peter Moloney
M01471

On The Brink Of Sectarian Disaster

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Dissatisfaction with Billy McMillen’s leadership of the Belfast OIRA led to the Provisionals splitting off in 1969, after the outbreak of the Troubles in August. The PIRA made two attempts on his life. He was killed, however, by a member of the INLA – the result of the second (1974) split from the Officials – in 1975. Here is a pamphlet of his writings, including the 1973 Bodenstown speech from which the quotation comes. The board features a famous image of Markets OIRA leader Joe McCann.

Clondara St, Belfast

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Copyright © 2001 Peter Moloney
M01468

Comhıonannas Do Gach Duıne

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Scots Guardsmen Mark Wright and James Fisher, who served six years of a life sentence for the killing of Peter McBride and then rejoined the army, are compared to republican POWs: “An open letter to the British Secretary of State: Why does your government show preferential treatment to ‘state murders’ while discriminating against Irish POWs – we are denied employment, PSV license, no adoption, compensation, visas. Why? Signed St James’s POWs. Co[m]hıonannas do gach duıne” (equality for everyone)

Donegall Road, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2001 Peter Moloney
M01464