painted wall

Ireland’s Holocaust

Extramural Activity1 Comment

“Britain’s genocide by starvation”, “Ireland’s  holocaust 1845-1849”, “Over 1,500,000 deaths”. Completed version of the Great Hunger mural on the Whiterock Road, Belfast, previously seen twice in development: 1995 | 1997. The images used are from Illustrated London Newses of the time (see the Visual History page on an gorta mór).

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Copyright © 1999 Peter Moloney
M02750

Bloody Sunday Commemoration

Extramural Activity1 Comment

The fourth mural by the Bogside Artists shows the faces of the fourteen people who died on or as a result of Bloody Sunday, January 30th, 1972, shot by the “gun-happy louts” (as described by the Belfast UDA; Vanguard also called for their removal – see the entry for Robert McKinnie in Lost Lives) of the 1st Parachute Regiment; 15 more people were injured.

By row, the victims portrayed are:
Michael McDaid, John Young, Paddy Doherty
John Johnston (d. June 16th), Hugh Gilmour, Gerry Donaghy, Barney McGuigan
Gerry McKinney, William Nash, Kevin McElhinney, Jackie Duddy
Jim Wray, Michael Kelly, William McKinney

The portraits are presented within a circle of oak leaves – symbol of Derry – one for each person.

Westland Street, Bogside, Derry

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Copyright © 1999 Peter Moloney
M02496

Upper Springfield Development Trust

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1999 image of the Upper Springfield Development Trust (formed in 1993 from the Upper Springfield Forum) mural on the Whiterock Road, Belfast, now with a large vent unfortunately sticking out of the middle of it. “Mol an óıge agus tıocfaıdh sí”. (Praise youth and it will flourish.)

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Copyright © 1999 Peter Moloney
M02060

Same Story, Same Bigotry

Extramural Activity3 Comments

Londoner Stephen Lawrence was murdered by stabbing in 1993 and, although arrests were made, no charges were brought. A 1998 public inquiry found that the Metropolitan Police Service was “institutionally racist”. In 2012, two of the original suspects were found guilty of the murder (WP). Catholic Robert Hamill was beaten to death by loyalists in Portadown in 1997 while police in an RUC land-rover looked on (WP). The second image is of a fist smashing a swastika: “Stand firm – break the bigots [sic] back” on top of a Drumcree stand-off mural (which will become visible again in later years). Artana Street, Belfast

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Copyright © 1998 Peter Moloney
M02087 M02088