painted wall

Eyes That Have Cried

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The phrase “There are many things that can only be seen through eyes that have cried” is attributed to Óscar Romero, a Catholic priest in El Salvador. He was a critic of the military government and was assasinated in March 1980 while saying mass. He was made a saint in 2015. (WP) 

Sister Janet Mead had a surprise hit in 1973 with a pop-rock rendition of the Lord’s Prayer (youtube). Her name would be added to the mural – see the image from 2015 below.

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Copyright © 2013/2015 Peter Moloney
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Eileen Hickey Irish Republican History Museum

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“Iarsmalann Na Staire Poblachtach Éireannach – Eileen Hickey Irish Republican History Museum” is across the street (behind the Conway Mill) from this mural. Eileen Hickey was a Provisional IRA member who served time in Armagh prison; she died in 2006, one year before the opening of the museum (obituary at An Phoblacht).

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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Australian Aid For Ireland

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This Conway Street mural, outside the mill and the republican museum, features banners of two Australian republican support-groups, with supporters holding banners reading “Australian Aid for Ireland QLD [Queensland] Branch [Fb] – The Spirit of Freedom” and “The Casement Support Group – Saoirse Melbourne”.

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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Memorial To The Missing

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Canadian physician John McCrae’s poem In Flanders Fields and the triple arches of the Thiepval memorial to the missing are featured in this Monkstown mural. It is McCrae’s poem that is thought to have given rise to the use of the poppy as a symbol of military remembrance (WP). The names of over 72,000 dead are inscribed on the memorial (WP| travelfranceonline).

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow/Between the crosses, row on row/That mark our place; and in the sky/The larks, still bravely singing, fly/Scarce heard amid the guns below.//We are the Dead. Short days ago/We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,/Loved and were loved, and now we lie/In Flanders fields//Take up our quarrel with the foe:/To you from failing hands we throw/The torch; be yours to hold it high./If ye break faith with us who die/We shall not sleep/Though poppies grow/In Flanders fields.”

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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Rifleman Robert King

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Robert King, of the 12th Royal Irish Rifles, who joined the army from the Ulster Volunteers, was “awarded the Military Medal for gallantry in action on 1st July 1916” at the Somme. The two sides of the medal are shown in the top right, with George V on one side and “for bravery in the field”. The 12th Rifles were drawn from the Central Antrim regiment of the Ulster Volunteers including the Newington area of Larne; King, however, was from Ship Street.

Wellington Green, Larne

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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Impunity

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Line drawing in Derry by Carlos Latuff showing an army soldier, with “impunity” across his shoulders, taking aim at a blindfolded woman, representing martyrs’ families.

Latuff is a Brazilian political cartoonist (web site). This piece is outside the Free Museum of Derry. Just out of shot (to the right) is an actual bullet-hole from Bloody Sunday. He also added a drawing to Free Derry corner (M08306). On the same visit (July 2012), he worked in Belfast on a mural expressing solidarity between Palestinian and republican POWs and also did a line drawing on a café wall.

(See also: Latuff cartoon used in a flyer for a rally to End Impunity.)

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Copyright © 2013 Peter Moloney
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