A ‘suicide strategy’ for “N of Ireland” languishes in the dustbin of 10 Downing Street, unlike strategies for Scotland, England, and Wales. The mural is produced by “Beechmount Community Youth Project”. To the right are messages to the recently deceased: “In one 2 week period 13 young men in north Belfast took their own lives”, “In one three month period 15 suicides in west Belfast occurred”.
Beechmount Avenue, west Belfast
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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02554 M02555
IRA volunteer Kieran (here Cıarán) Nugent spent nine months in Long Kesh as a Special Category prisoner in 1975. When he was arrested again in 1976 and sent to the H Blocks, the status no longer existed and he could no longer wear his own clothes. He refused to wear a prison uniform and spent his first night naked. On the next day he was given a blanket and so became the first blanket man.
Rockville Street, west Belfast
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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02550 [M02551]
This is a Whiterock Road, Belfast, mural to three IRA volunteers and six other local activists. Clockwise from bottom left: Annie Adams, Rosaleen Russell, Liam Mulholland, Billy Carson (also shown kneeling; killed by the UDA in 1979), Liam McParland (also standing, right; leader of the (pre-split) IRA in Ballymurphy, died in a car crash on 6 November 1969), Sean Doyle (also standing, left; perhaps from 1944 despite the assault rifle), Frankie Toner, Kathleen Moore, Gerry Campbell. There are Christmas lights in the centre of the wall.
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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02547
“Dedicated to Vols Bobby McCrudden, Mundo O’Rawe, Pearse Jordan. In passing this mural pause a little while, pray for us and erin, then smile.” Ballymurphy mural to three local PIRA volunteers. O’Rawe’s pose (in the centre) perhaps owes something to the poster for the 1996 film Michael Collins. The plaque reads “I ndíl [sic] chuímhne [sic] Oglach [sic] Edward ‘Mundo’ O’Rawe, Oglach [sic] Robert McCrudden, Oglach [sic] Pearse Jordan Who gave their lives for Ireland’s freedom.”
Divismore Crescent, west Belfast
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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02546
The “stand-off, trade-off” mural reappears in Artana Street, Belfast, previously covered by Stand Firm. The mural dates to 1998, when an Orange Order march was allowed to parade along Ormeau Road. Parades Commission chairman Alistair Graham (pictured in the mural beneath the evil-eyed OO member) “insisted that the Ormeau Road decision “was not a simple trade-off for our earlier decision on Drumcree”” (Irish Times). Painted by Troy Garity, recreating an Ian Knox cartoon (Belfast Media).
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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02530
“Through the lonely streets of Ulster/the reaper come’s to call/He travel’s from town to city/Right down to Derry’s wall/When the UFF they call him/To come and join the fight/He say’s if the bullet doesn’t kill them/They’ll surely die from fright/So when you’re in your bed at night/And hear soft footsteps fall/Be careful it’s not the UFF/And reaper come to call.” Iron Maiden’s ‘Eddie The Head’ in UFF fatigues (see the Visual History page for Eddie) with a list of the urban Belfast companies in the South Belfast brigade.
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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
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“Never before in the field of human conflict was so much given to so many by so few” is based on Churchill’s speech to the House of Commons on August 20th, 1940, which read “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”. “[For] It is not for glory that we fight, not honour or rich but freedom alone which no man loses but with his life.” echoes the Declaration of Arbroath “for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.”
Dover Place, west Belfast
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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
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“Simply the best” – UDA/UFF C Company, 2nd battalion mural on Peters Hill at the entrance to the Shankill.
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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02480
“In proud and loving memory of Stevie ‘Top Gun’ McKeag, born 1970, died 2000, military commander, C coy, 2nd Batt, UFF. Sleeping where no shadows fall.” “Ulster Freedom Fighters – This mural is dedicated to memory of Stevie Top Gun McKeag.”
Hopewell Crescent, lower Shankill, west Belfast
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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02479
Lower Shankill UDA/UFF mural, with a pair of balaclava’ed gunmen kneeling to either side of UDA and UFF flags. This mural is a survivor from the days of Johnny Adair (Visual History).
Hopewell Crescent, west Belfast
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Copyright © 2005 Peter Moloney
M02478
Peter Moloney Collection 