McGurk’s Bar

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“In memory of the fifteen innocent civilians murdered by a pro-British loyalist gang in a no-warning bomb attack on McGurk’s Bar, Dec. 4th, 1971.” “In memory of those who tragically lost their lives and all those who were injured as a result of the explosion.” These are two memorials at North Queen Street and St George’s Street, Belfast, the site of the former bar, now a Westlink underpass. The “pro-British loyalist group” is thought to be the UVF, though at the time, it was claimed by a little-known group the “Empire Loyalists” (WP).

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Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
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New Lodge Then And Now

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This pair of murals, on the New Lodge Road, Belfast, contrasts life for young people in the “1900s” to life in “2000”. Instead of working (and dying – in the headlines from the Irish News) in mills, they work in fast-food restaurants and drive black taxis (and suffer unemployment, suicide, and anorexia – again, in the newspaper), and instead of playing in the streets and wrapping themselves in blankets, they sit on walls and drink.

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Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
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Remember The Hunger Strikers

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Here are six images of the hunger strikers mural in Mountpottinger Road, Belfast. The ten portraits are on cut wooden boards while the rest is painted. On the far right (image 5) is a “spirit of freedom” lark and the names of the ten deceased 1981 strikers. In the centre (image 3) is blanket man Hugh Rooney.

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Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
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Slán Abhaıle

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By 2002, the “Time for peace, time to go” mural in Beechfield Street, Belfast, painted in 1997, was beginning to show its age. The image is based on a photograph of British forces in the Falklands.

The image was also produced in Ardoyne (north Belfast), above the Sınn Féın offices/Sıopa Na hEalaíne (west Belfast), on Free Derry Corner, in Shantallow (Derry), and in Letterkenny.

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Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
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Éıre

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This Short Strand mural packs a lot in, beginning with both ancient Éıre and a celtic cross. Its main panels commemorate 25 years of resistance in east Belfast (probably dating to the Battle Of St Matthew’s in 1970) with portraits of 16 deceased locals (“I measc laochra na nGael go raıbh a naınmeacha”) and two verses from Bobby Sands’s poem Weeping Winds (see below). On the right (in the second image) is a quote from Bobby Sands: “Our revenge will be the laughter of our children”.

Oh, whistling winds why do you weep/When roaming free you are,
Oh! Is it that your poor heart’s broke/And scattered off afar?
Or is it that you bear the cries/Of people born unfree,
Who like your way have no control/Or sovereign destiny?

Oh! Lonely winds that walk the night/To haunt the sinner’s soul/
Pray pity me a wretched lad/Who never will grow old.
Pray pity those who lie in pain/The bondsman and the slave
And whisper sweet the breath of God/Upon my humble grave.

These verses are also used on a board in St James’s.

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Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
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David And Goliath

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“End the siege of Short Strand. Denied access to essential services including: doctors, chemist, dentist, health centre, post office, supermarket, Department of Social Services …… sectarianism is a cancer! The people of this area are not sectarian. We want to live in peace with our neighbours. People have nothing to fear from this community. People of all religions and none live, work and travel thru daily and will continue to do so!”

On the other side of the main panel is a list of events from May 2002, describing attacks on nationalist residents and homes in the small nationalist enclave, with “ball bearings, golf balls, bricks and bottles” and “blast bombs, pipe bombs, petrol bombs”. The Andersonstown News gives an account of the initial disturbances and beating of Patrick ‘Pod’ Devenny. The Guardian called the area “Riot City“.

Mountpottinger Road, east Belfast

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Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
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McLarnon – McCabe – Doherty

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“Dedicated to the memory of INLA volunteer Matt McLarnon, Nora McCabe and Peter Doherty who were murdered in this area by British state forces during the 1981 H-Block hunger strike. A Mhuıre banríon na nGael guí ar a son”. The area in question is Clonard/Falls. Doherty and McCabe were hit by plastic bullets; McLarnon was shot by a sniper on Divis tower. Erected by a Sınn Féın group (Lower Falls/Clonard Committee) rather than INLA.

old Linden Street, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2002 Peter Moloney
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