“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
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Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
T00424
“Not as Catholics or Protestants, not as nationalists or unionists, but as Belfast workers standing together.” For the 100th anniversary of the strike by dockers and carters in Belfast, this large board was painted by Fra Maher and Rısteard Ó Murchú. It was launched on August 11th without the title across the top (youtube).
Leaders Boyd and Larkin are portrayed in the middle. The second panel shows speakers (including Larkin) on a platform (O’Hare); the third shows an RIC guard of blackleg workers – about 70% of the force mutinied and the fifth panel shows dismissed RIC constable William Barrett being carried through Belfast; the sixth shows the Cameron Highlanders being stoned by picketers (History Ireland). Margaret Lennon and Charles McMullan, two Catholic victims of British soldiers, shot during protests, are portrayed in the bottom right.
Northumberland Street, Belfast
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Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
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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.
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Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
T00422 [T00423]
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
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Copyright © 2008 Paddy Duffy
T00385
This is a 2007 repainting of the Bloody Sunday mural by the Bogside Artists (Visual History), previously seen in 1996.
Lecky Road, Bogisde, Derry
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Copyright © 2007 Paddy Duffy
T00375 [T00409]
This mural is popularly known as ‘Saturday Matinee’ because young people in Derry would spend Saturdays (and many other days) rioting against the British Army, which had been deployed in August 1969 after the Battle Of The Bogside. The official title is The Rioter and it is the eighth mural from the Bogside Artists in The People’s Gallery. The original photograph on which the mural is based is by Clive Limpkin.
Glenfada Park, Bogside, Derry
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Copyright © 2007 Paddy Duffy
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22,000 British soldiers were involved in retaking the “no-go” areas of Derry and Belfast in Operation Motorman, in July 1972. This is the seventh mural from the Bogside Artists in what would become The People’s Gallery.
The plaque on the left is “dedicated to the memory of Patrick Shiels Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann 1878-1957. Erected by the republican movement 11th April 2007 to mark his 50th anniversary. I measc laochra na nGael go raıbh sé”. Paddy Shiels took part in the Easter Rising and was later Derry OC. See BMH testimony #676 by Liam Brady.
Rossville St, Derry
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Copyright © 2007 Paddy Duffy
T00371
‘The Runner’ is the final mural painted by the Bogside Artists in the series that would in 2007 be collectively given the name The People’s Gallery (the John Hume mural would be added in 2008). The mural shows youths running from CS gas in Creggan. There are portraits of Manus Deery (see his Bogside plaques) and (obscured) Charles Love in the bottom left; the plaque to Love in the centre is retained.
Fahan Street, Bogside, Derry
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Copyright © 2007 Paddy Duffy
T00368
“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).
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Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T00346
The plaque to the left reads “I ndıl chuımhne – In proud and loving memory of Volunteers Dan McCann, Maıréad Farrell, Sean Savage, Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann who were executed by British Crown forces in Gibraltar 6th March, 1988.” (For a close-up of the plaque, see M04470.) The trio are shown here floating over the rock of Gibraltar, while being honoured by a gunman giving a “final salute” and an ancient Celtic warrior who stand among a circle of standing stones.
Hawthorn Street, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1998 Paddy Duffy
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Paddy Duffy Collection 