British forces – Page 6 – Paddy Duffy Collection

Still No Inquest, Still No Justice

2022-09-132024-07-20Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A march took place on July 9th, 2022, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Springhill-Westrock massacre, in which five people were killed by the British Army. A new inquest was directed by the AG in 2014 but has been repeatedly delayed; it is scheduled to begin next year (Belfast Live).

The march was organised by the Springhill-Westrock Campaign (Fb | tw); it began at the memorial plaque in Springhill and ended at the memorial garden in Westrock (Irish News). See also Keep On Praying.

The mural shows the pre-fab aluminium bungalows built in Westrock in 1949.

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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Unrepentant Republicans

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Here is a gallery of the republican boards along the low wall just east of the Falls garden of remembrance. From right to left: James Connolly and Seamus Costello; Divis 81; anti-PSNI; “web of corruption”; Charlie Hughes (killed in 1971 the feud with the OIRA); the Falls Curfew featuring Máıre Drumm; Billy McKee, Alec Murphy, and Brendan Hughes; the Falls Road Massacre 1920; Kieran Abram – Abram was knocked to the ground in the early hours of July 5th, 1992, and kicked to death by loyalists in running battles with nationalists on North Howard Street, near the old British Army sangar. Four people were convicted of manslaughter in the case (Judiciary NI).

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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Life Springs From Death

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The new replacement board commemorating the Gibraltar 3 (Maıréad Farrell, Dan McCann, and Seán Savage “executed by British crown forces 6th March 1988) uses words from Pearse’s oration at the funeral of O’Donovan Rossa. Not the more common “the fools, the fools …” but “Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations” (used previously in Strabane in 1990 – M00860). The board is “dedicated to the memory of Thomas and Edith Haddock”.

Here is the previous board.

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The Modern Order Of Hibernians

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A Penal law of 1695 forbade the practice of Catholicism and “dissenter” forms of Protestantism –anything other than Anglicism, forcing people and priests to worship in secret. Although the precise date of the founding of the Ancient Order Of Hibernians is shrouded by the existence of various other Catholic fraternal and defensive organisations such as St Patrick’s Fraternal Society and the Ribbonmen – the AOH history page gives 1838 in Pennsylvania – the order traces its roots back to Penal times and in particular to the Defenders in 1784, which arose to protect Catholics from the (Protestant) Peep-O-Day Boys and in defiance of Penal laws forbidding Catholics to bear arms (WP). The Belfast division (58) of the AOH is in Clonard Street.

For Penal laws, see also An Raıbh Tú Ag An gCarraıg? in Glen Bawn | The Mass Rock in Ard Eoın | Penal Days/Laethanta Na Péındlíthe in Andersonstown.

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Norah McCabe

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Norah McCabe was shot in the back of the head by a plastic bullet fired from an RUC land rover at around 7:45 a.m. on July 9th, 1981, the day after hunger striker Joe McDonnell died. (Danny Barrett would be killed by a British Army sniper in the evening.) The new boards were mounted to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of McCabe’s death. In 1981, a mural was painted at the same spot (in the old Linden Street) to protest the use of plastic bullets: see Plastic Death.

“Norah McCabe, 1947-1981, murdered by an RUC plastic bullet on 9th July 1981, aged 33 years.” With a poem “Peace” by daughter Áıne McCabe, who was three months old when her mother was killed (Irish News).

(old) Linden Street, west Belfast

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The Battle Of Talavera

2008-01-012025-12-05Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Talavera De La Reina is southwest of Madrid, Spain. The French, who had invaded Portugal but been driven out by British forces under Wellesley, fought the combined forces of the Spanish (previously allies of the French in the Peninsular War) and British armies. Writing on the side-wall would later be added (see X00327).

By Blaze FX in Hopewell Crescent, lower Shankill, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy (no date given)
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The New Lodge Six

2008-01-012025-11-26Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Time for the truth”. Two of the New Lodge Six (James Sloan, James McCann) were killed by the UDA outside a bar and four (Tony Campbell, Ambrose Hardy, Brendan Maguire, John Loughran) among the crowd that gathered by British Army snipers from their positions on top of the flats, using night-vision sights, February 3rd-4th, 1973.

Donore Court, New Lodge, north Belfast

Gibraltar 3

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The IRA’s Sean Savage, Maıréad Farrell, and Dan McCann were “Executed by the British SAS 6th March 1988.”

“Oh! Cold March winds that pierce the dark/You cry in aged tones/For souls of folk you’ve brought to God/But still you bear the moans//Oh! Weeping winds, this lonely night/My mother’s heart is sore/Oh! Lord of all, breathe freedom’s breath/That she may weep no more! – Bobby Sands Weeping Winds“

For a close-up of the plaque, see the Peter Moloney Collection.

Hawthorn Street, west Belfast, replacing the painted board seen in 2001.

St James’s Support The Hunger Strikers

2008-01-012025-11-25Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

St James’s supports the hunger strikes – in Long Kesh and Armagh and (on the right) in Turkey.

Various images and posters from 1980 and 1981 are reproduced. Along the top, we see (l-r) a soldier is confronted at the top of Springhill (image at Irish Times), “Wanted for murder [and torture of Irish prisoners]” (image at MSU), “Mothers hunger”, “Blessed are those who hunger for justice“, “Where there is oppression there is resistance”, Armagh hunger-striker Mary Doyle.

Along the bottom: “Stop strip searches“, “Save our children from plastic death”, “Support the hunger strike demands”, and portraits of 1981 hunger-strikers Bernard Fox and Pat Sheehan, both from the Falls Road.

For Turkish hunger-strikers, see F-Block Martyrs | Zehra Kulaksiz | Support The Turkish Hunger Strikers

Hugo Street, west Belfast