“The struggle for political status.” The twentieth anniversary of the hunger-strikes in Long Kesh and Armagh Women’s prison, 1980-2000, is commemorated. Seven men in Long Kesh and three women in Armagh went on strike, for fifty-three days and nineteen days, respectively.
The lilies are held over from the previous year – see The Final Salute.
Beechmount Avenue, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2000 Paddy Duffy (no date given)
T00338
“Leanna An Dúın – Beıdh sıad ın ár gcuımhne choíche.” Local female IRA volunteers Laura Crawford, Patricia Black, Bridie Quinn, Maıréad Farrell and a generic female volunteer with assault rifle on manoeuvres in an Irish landscape strewn with standing stones.
Signed by “Lenadoon Youth 2000”. Glenveagh Drive, Lenadoon, Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2000 Paddy Duffy (no date given)
T00337 [T00379]
12-year-old Carol Ann Kelly was shot by the British Army on May 22nd, 1981, and died three days later. Eight other children are remembered in this mural: Tobias Molloy, Frances Rowntree, Seamus Duffy, Paul Whitters, Stephen McConomy, Brian Stewart, Stephan Geddis, and Julie Livingstone. Molloy and Rowntree were killed by rubber bullets, the rest by plastic bullets.
The mural, by Andrea Redmond, is in Twinbrook Road, Dunmurry, near where Kelly was shot.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2000 Paddy Duffy
T00326 [T00343] [T00361]
The dying Cú Chulaınn and the Blessed Virgin Mary make an odd pairing in this Ligoniel memorial garden to locals who died during the Troubles. Cú Chulaınn is typically used to memorialise paramilitary volunteers (see the Visual History page) but the plaque does not mention volunteers and the statuary suggests prayer rather than a final salute as a fitting form of remembrance.
The plaque in the centre, which was previously at the crux of a Celtic Cross mural, reads “I ndıl chuımhne [in fond memory]. This plaque is dedicated to the memory of all those from Ligoniel who lost their lives as a result of the conflict in our country. A Mhuıre banríon na nGael guıgh orthu [Mary, queen of the Gael, pray for them]”
The other mural in the yard is a greatly re-designed presentation of Éıre, taking up the whole wall, and replacing the Maid Of Erin harp with Érıu, the mythological queen of Ireland/Éıre, as designed by (or at least, in the style of) Richard J King/Rísteard Ó Cíonga. (Also seen in the Short Strand.)
Millview Court, Ligoniel, north Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2000 Paddy Duffy
T00329rc T00787
Three panels portraying the importance of women to the republican movement, though the first seems to be a generic ‘mother and son’ image.
The second shows Molly Childers and Mary Spring Rice aboard the yacht, Asgard, with about 900 of the 1,500 rifles that were smuggled into Ireland on two boats. Asgard docked at Howth on July 26th, 1914; the other rifles eventually came ashore two weeks later at Kilcoole. (Here is a tcd.ie collection of images of Asgard’s journey; image #53 is the one reproduced in the mural. Rice kept a diary of the trip; extracts are included in this RTÉ History Show video. See this RTÉ article for an account of their tortured journey.) The off-loading took place during the day but when the police and army met the marching volunteers at Clontarf they were able to capture only 19 rifles. As the army regiment involved returned to barracks it was pelted with stones or fruit by a crowd and killed three (with a fourth dying a week later). The vintage Mauser rifles were received by members of Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann and Na Fıanna Éıreann.
The final panel shows Colman Doyle’s famous ?1973? image of a (staged) female IRA volunteer with AR-18.
“Commissioned by Links Women’s Group”, “by Síle Na Gig” (who did the Children Of Lear mural in Rockville Street).
South Link, Andersonstown, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T00341
This mural for the 200th anniversary of the 1798 rebellion by “Na hÉıreannaıgh Aontaıthe” (the United Irishmen). The United Irishmen used the Maid Of Erin harp as a symbol. Out of frame to the right is the motto of the French Revolution: “Liberté, égalité, fraternité”.
There are seven names listed on the right, none of which is Andrea Redmond (Fb), who is the painter of record. The list was later painted out – see M02183.
South Link, Andersonstown, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T00351 [T00328] [T00419]
The IRA’s Joe McDonnell was the fifth of the 1981 hunger-strikers to die, on July 8th, after 61 days. McDonnell’s portrait is superimposed upon a sketch of a photograph of the funeral volley fired while his coffin was en route to Milltown cemetery (An Phoblacht).
Suffolk Road, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T00350
This is a display to republican dead, with a black flag, Easter lilies, and (on the main board) a funeral volley being fired over a coffin draped in a Tricolour, with a printed poster of the ten deceased 1981 hunger-strikers. The board was later moved to Clowney Street.
Among the posters below we see “Release Josephine Hayden”. Hayden was General Secretary of Republican Sınn Féın when she was sentenced to six years in jail in 1996 for weapons’ possession. She would be released in 2000. (Irish Times)
Beechmount Avenue, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T00421c
“The two face of British imperialism: In Belgrade we bomb because they would not sign the Peace Agreement … In Belfast we merely try to re-write the Peace Agreement”.
Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair gave a statement on Britain’s participation in the NATO bombing of Serb targets in Yugoslavia after Slobodan Milosevic rejected an agreement with the Kosovo Albanians – this, Blair said, was only the latest in a series of bad-faith actions on Milosevic’s part; the targets included Milosevic’s house, the Socialist party’s headquarters, and a TV station (BBC | Guardian).
In Northern Ireland, the implementation of the Belfast (“Good Friday”) Agreement is going slowly, and Unionist expressions of buyer’s remorse and insistence on decommissioning of arms as a precondition for talks (Guardian) suggested to republicans that they would like to re-write some of the Agreement’s provisions. Rather than ordering up bombs, Blair gave a speech in June that insisted that “Unionism must share power with the Nationalist and Republican community. … Many Republicans do not believe that Unionism will share power with them. Unionists must prove them wrong” (CAIN). The IRA were not impressed (July statement at CAIN | Guardian defense of Blair).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T00346
“We demand the truth! International investigation into the death of Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson.” Finucane and Nelson were both solicitors with nationalist and republican clients. Finucane was shot by the UDA in front of his wife and three children in 1989; RUC collusion was immediately suspected (and the weapon came from a UDR armoury) (WP). Nelson was killed by an LVF (“Red Hand Defenders”) car-bomb in March, 1999 (WP); the report of the eventual inquiry into her death can be found at CAIN. The allegation in the illustration here is that when the mask of loyalist “murder gangs” is lowered, the Orange Order and RUC are found behind it. “Disband the RUC”
Ardoyne Avenue, north Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T00365
Paddy Duffy Collection 