Highland Fusiliers Joseph McCaig (18), (his brother) John McCaig (17), and Dougald McCaughey (23) were lured by members of the (P)IRA from a city-centre pub to their deaths in the fields above Ligoniel in 1971 (WP). Their deaths contributed to the resignation of Chichester-Clark and the introduction of internment in August. There are monuments to the three men in Ballysillan and at the site of their deaths on White Brae depicted on the right of the mural – for images of the monuments see The Highland. This new Rathcoole mural to their memory replaces one to Queen Elizabeth II.
This is and old (2009) repaint of the mural in the Markets to IRA volunteers: They are: Tony Nolan, Joseph Downey, Frank Fitzsimons, Joey Surgenor, Paul Marlowe, Jim Templeton, and Brendan Davison.
Left: “Murdered for their political beliefs: Tom Berry, Robert Elliman, Robert Millen, John Browne”. All four had a connection Markets or Ormeau area of south Belfast. Millen, from the Ormeau area, was shot in 1973 by the UVF; he played on the same soccer team (Bankmore Star) as Thomas Berry, who was shot in a Short Strand GAA club; Elliman was shot in a Markets pub; John Brown (without the “e”) was shot in his Cooke Street home in front of his family. The first three were all Protestants; the latter three were among 11 people who died in the 1975 feud between the Officials and the Provisionals. (Lost Lives)
“The war they wage is not a war of bigotry or greed, their struggle is a workers one, so everyone may lead a life with rights and liberty, in a land where they can say “Up the Army of the people, the Official IRA”.” “Erected by the Official Republican Movement.”
Centre: Internment (imprisonment without trial) was introduced on August 9th, 1971 by NI Prime Minister Brian Faulkner, with 342 people arrested on the first day. The Bogside was “hysterical with hated”, according to Eamonn McCann (History Ireland) and of Belfast Kevin Myers wrote “Insanity seized the city.” Two dozen people would die in the rioting and gun-battles that followed, leading to the suspension of Stormont rule (WP). In the Markets area, OC Joe McCann and other (Official) IRA volunteers took over the Inglis bakery and reportedly prevented 600 British troops from entering the area – the image to the left of the board above is a Ciaran Donnelly photograph showing McCann during the battle, kneeling beneath a Starry Plough and holding an M1.
Right: After serving in the IRA in the War Of Independence, Liam Mellows was elected to the First Dáil and as a member of the second Dáil voted against the Treaty in January 1922 (his speech is recorded in Oireachtas.ie under the name “Liam Mellowes”). In the Civil War that followed, he served as IRA quartermaster in the force in the Four Courts that surrendered to Free State forces on June 30th, 1922. He was imprisoned in Mountjoy and executed in December, in reprisal for the killing of Seán Hayes (see Executed). (WP | An Phoblacht) His proposals for government were published posthumously as ‘Mellows Testament’ (NLI) and include state ownership of heavy industry, large estates, the transport system, and the banks. The sticker below quotes from that document: “Ireland, if her industries and banks were controlled by foreign capital, would be at the mercy of every breeze that ruffled the surface of the world’s money-markets.”
“I gcuımhne na nÓglach a fuaır bás ar son saoırse [in memory of the volunteers who died for freedom].” The “22” are the familiar 12 deceased Troubles-era hunger-strikers, plus 10 from 1917 to 1946: Thomas Ashe, Terence McSwiney, Michael Fitzgerald, Joseph Murphy, Joe Witty, Dennis Barry, Andy O’Sullivan, Tony Darcy, Jack McNeela, Sean McCaughey.
“‘A Letter To The 22: You have not gone away. You are in the hearts/and on the lips of your people./The old speak of you with knowing tongue. The middle/aged, as those who walked beside you./The young men and women with a passion not unlike your own./Your names can be heard on the wind taken from the mouths/of men who tend their flocks on Slieve Gullion, Cnoc Phádraıg, Glenshane./They echo in small graveyards in/Cork, Kerry, Galway, Mayo, Tyrone, Antrim, Derry and Armagh./They are heard among your people at the mass gate on/Sunday, in the crowd at the hurling game, around the hearth when/the bottle is cracked and song in sung. Your image can be seen/on the faces of happy smiling children for whose freedom you gave your all./You are in our prayers, you have not gone away, you never will’ – Colum Mac Gıolla Bhéın“
“[I assume that I am speaking to Englishmen who value their freedom, and who profess to be fighting for the freedom of Belgium and Serbia [in WWI].] Believe that we too love freedom and desire it. To us it is more than anything else in the world. If you strike us down now, we shall rise again and renew the fight. You cannot conquer Ireland; you cannot extinguish the Irish passion for freedom. If our deed has not been sufficient to win freedom, then our children will win it by a better deed – Gen. P. H. Pearse” at his court martial in 1916.
There are eight memorial plaques to deceased Ardoyne IRA fianna and ógliagh from the 1970s: David McAuley, Joseph Campbell, Joseph McComiskey, Bernard Fox, Charles McCann, Seamus Cassidy, Trevor McKibbin, James McDade, Gerard McDade, James Reid, Terry Toolan, Brian Smyth, Paddy McAdorey, Denis Brown, Jim Mulvenna, Jackie Mailey, Frankie Donnelly, Laurence Montgomery.
Pearse Jordan was unarmed when he was killed by the RUC on November 25th, 1992 but in this new Éıre Nua Flute Band board he leaves his prints on an assault rifle. (previous Éıre Nua board) His killing was ruled unlawful, and subsequent inquest insufficient, by the European Court Of Human Rights in 2001. The campaign for an inquest continues (An Phoblacht).
The words on the board – “Slan [sic] go foıll [sic] moh [sic] chara, just for a while/We’ll not have your craic, your jokes, or your smiles/But in years to come, your memory’s still true/A brave son of Ireland, we will not forget you” – are the chorus of The Ballad Of Pearse Jordan (words | sung by The Irish Brigade).
The board is in Hugo Street, which is also the site of his memorial plaque, just above the Evolution Of Our Revolution.
Joe McCann was IRA/OIRA OC in the Markets area of Belfast. He was famously photographed among burning buildings in Inglis’s bakery, during protests against the introduction on internment, crouched beneath a Starry Plough and holding an M1. (For more, see Battle Of The Markets, which features the same photograph.) For McCann’s death the following year (on April 15th, 1972) see Joe McCann.
“30th anniversary of the hunger strike. 5th May 1981. IRA final salute. IRA Vol. Bobby Sands, MP Fermanagh South Tyrone.” Gerry Adams watches on as a funeral volley is fired over Sands’s coffin. Whiterock Road, Belfast.
“This plaque is dedicated to the memory of Lieutenant Colonel Trevor King, died 9th July 1994, Major William (Frenchie) Marchant, died 28th April 1987, Volunteer David Hamilton, Died 17th June 1994. These brave men died near this spot [the corner of Spier’s Place and Shankill Road, west Belfast] by the enemies of Ulster. No sacrifice is too great for one’s country. They paid the ultimate sacrifice. ‘They shall grow not old/as we that are left grow old/Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn/At the going down of the sun and in the morning/We will remember them.’” King and Hamilton (along with Colin Craig, an RUC informer and not included on the plaque) were shot by the INLA and died of their wounds three weeks and one day later. Frenchie Marchant (in the middle of the image above) was shot by the IRA outside The Eagle chip shop.
A gallery of scenes from IRA bombings surrounds the Bayardo memorial arch, the centre-piece of which are two images from the 2015 paris bombings (shown above). “IRA – Sinn Fein – ISIS no difference”. In an interview for the USA’s PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) the DUP’s Sammie Wilson said he agreed with the equivalence.
Paddy Duffy Collection 