“Saoırse – Askatasuna!” Lines from Joxean Artze’s poem Txoria Txori appear in three languages – Basque, Irish, and English – in this Clonard mural:
“Hegoak ebaki banizkion neria izango zen. Ez zuen alde egingo bainan, honela. Ez zen gehiago txoria izango … eta nik txoria nuen maite.”
“Dá ngearfaınn a eıteogaí, bheadh sé agam. Ní éalódh sé, ach ní bheadh sé ına éan níos mó … agus thug mé grá don éan sın.”
“If I cut its wings it would be mine, it wouldn’t escape, but that way it wouldn’t be a bird no more … and I loved the bird.”
The bird for Irish prisoners is the lark, which can be seen through the prison bars. The green ribbon above the central image is a symbol of the campaign to release political prisoners as part of any agreement that might come out of the peace process.
For Basque prisoners the bird is the “arrano beltza” [black eagle] which appears at the bottom of the mural.
The symbols on the left and right are the Irish shamrock and the Basque “lauburu” (four heads).
Painted by the Askapena Basque Internationalist Brigade in Cawnpore Street, Clonard, west Belfast, August 1995. To the right are two small murals in support of the ETA (“Independentzia!!”, “ETA” with the snake-and-axe (politics and armed struggle) and “bietan jarrai“, “Jo ta ke!” [push on!] and the IRA (a blazing pistol above a balaclava’d volunteer with pistol, “Freedom awaits”).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1996 Paddy Duffy
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Paddy Duffy Collection 