Bobby Sands’s prison diary (web) ends, on March 17th, 1981, with the words “Tıocfaıdh lá éıgın nuaır a bheıdh an fonn saoırse seo le taıspeáınt ag daoıne go léır na hÉıreann – ansın tchífıdh muıd éırí na gealaí.” [A day will come when this desire for freedom will be exhibited by all the people of Ireland – then we will see the rising of the moon].
The phrase “the rising of the moon” comes from the poem/song of the same name composed by fifteen-year-old John Casey in 1865 about the 1798 Rebellion. “Full bitter was their fate” but the desire for freedom was not extinguished with them: “… e’en still are beating/Hearts in manhood’s burning noon/Who would follow in their footsteps/At the rising of the moon.”
In this mural, just off Lenadoon Avenue, a larger-than-life prisoner stands in silhouette, with first defiantly raised, over the watch-towers of Long Kesh.
“Chífıdh muıd éırí na gealaí” – “chífıdh” and “tchífıdh” are variant spellings.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00068
Paddy Duffy Collection 