“The great only appear great because we are on our knees – let us rise”. The quote – also used by Jim Larkin – appeared in Connolly’s article on Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee visit to Ireland. His portrait is flanked by the tricolour and the starry plough.
“Sponsored by trade union group” and painted by Digger in Beechmount Avenue, next to a copy of a Cormac cartoon.
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Copyright © 1982 Paddy Duffy
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“Venceremos” is a Spanish Civil War slogan meaning “we will win (or: overcome)”, here alongside two Irish revolutionaries armed with a rifle and a machine gun, against a background of the Tricolour and sunburst flags.
Slemish Way, Andersonstown, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1982 Paddy Duffy
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Three female activists, one with a rifle, proclaim “Resistance” on the Falls Road, Belfast. The phrase is attributed to Che Guevara. The mural was commissioned by Sınn Féın’s Department Of Women’s Affairs for International Women’s Day, 1982 (March 6th). This is probably a work-in-progress image, as the words “We must grow tough, but without ever losing our tenderness” are missing from the top part of the wall and a signature – “painted by Sınn Féın Youth” – in the bottom left. Compare to the images in the Peter Moloney Collection.
This is the second mural on this wall – the first was a tribute to the first four hunger strikers to die in 1981 (see the Peter Moloney Collection). That mural was only head-high, whereas this one attempts to cover the entire wall, all the way up to the chimney – for the development of CNR muraling at this time, see Visual History 03.
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Copyright © 1982 Paddy Duffy
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In the shadow of Long Kesh watch-towers, a blanketman draped in an Irish Tricolour is held in the arms of his father, with mother looking on, reminiscent of Michelangelo’s pietà (“pity”) in which Mary holds the body of her dead son after he has been taken down from the cross (and so it also echoes Oliver Sheppard’s statue of Cúchulaınn).
Painted by Con at the top of Donegall Road, west Belfast.
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Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
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An armed republican (IRA) volunteer with camo-jacket opened at the throat stands against an Irish tricolour attached to a poleaxe (pike).
Rockdale Street, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
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The first names of the ten deceased 1981 hunger-strikers — Bobby, Francis, Patsy, Raymond, Joe, Martin, Kiersn, Tom, Micky, Kevin — appear on a ribbon held by a tricoloured phoenix against a sunburst, flanked by Starry Plough and Tricolour and volunteers firing a final salute.
The ribbon was initially shorter, with the names of the first six to die – see the Peter Moloney Collection.
Painted by Con in Rockdale Street, west Belfast.
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Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
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A Long Kesh/H-Block blanketman is on his knees, protesting for (political) “status now”, surrounded by barbed wire and two flags on halberds: the Irish Tricolour and the Starry Plough.
The quote on the left (in the wide-shot, below) is from Sean O’Casey, not “Bobby Sands MP”: “You cannot put a rope around the neck of an idea; you cannot put an idea up against the barrack-square wall and riddle it with bullets; you cannot confine it in the strongest prison cell that your slaves could ever build.”
(The quote is reportedly from O’Casey’s prose lament for Thomas Ashe, either the initial pamphlet in November 1917 (?entitled “The Story Of Thomas Ashe”?) or the expanded version of 1918 (entitled “The Sacrifice Of Thomas Ashe” (auction site)), though no copy of this can be found on-line, only two poems ‘Thomas Ashe’ and ‘Lament For Thomas Ashe’ (eastwallforall).
Rockmore Road, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
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This is the second version of this mural, both from 1981. In the original – which can be seen in the Homer Sykes collection – the main panel was a large white rectangle with three volunteers with assault rifles and an RPG (and the signature in the bottom left, reading “Done by Beechmount youth against H Block”).
This version removes the gunmen and uses more of the main panel, describing “the shape of things to come” in a series of images showing of people rallying to the Irish tricolour, attacking a British soldier who falls among rubble. In the gable, the sunburst and Tricolour, with automatic rifle, remain. The words to the left read “I lie at night and try to think why / our lads in jail are prepared to die. // The British government sit back and laugh / but the people know that they are daft. // Four of our comrades have passed away / is there call for more to die[?] // O, British government use your sights / and give our lads their 5 just rights.”
Oakman St, Beechmount, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
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“The right honourable Bobby Sands Esq MP – Murdered by his fellow members of H.M. Govt”, “I have the spirit of freedom that cannot be quenched by even the most horrendous treatment. Of course I can be murdered, but while I remain alive, I remain what I am, a political prisoner of war, and no one can change that.” (From The Lark And The Freedom Fighter.) Barbed wire stretches over an Irish tricolour next to an image of Sands.
Shaws Road, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
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Paddy Duffy Collection 