“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
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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
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Copyright © 2000 Paddy Duffy (no date given)
T00337 [T00379]
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
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Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy
T00350
The dying Cú Chulaınn (as portrayed in bronze by Oliver Sheppard, in a statue installed in the GPO in 1935) is used as a symbol for the locals from Lenadoon area of west Belfast who fought for freedom (“saoırse”): Tony Henderson, John Finucane, Brendan O’Callaghan, Joe McDonnell, Laura Crawford, Maıréad Farrell, Patricia Black, Bridie O’Neill (subsequently changed to Bridie Quinn).
There were originally portraits of all nine people in the apex when the mural was launched in 1996, but only three remain.
See also the Cú Chulaınn Visual History page.
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Copyright © 1999 Paddy Duffy (no date given)
T00109 T00160
The Gibraltar Three are IRA volunteers Maıréad Farrell, Seán Savage, and Dan McCann, who were executed by British crown forces in Gibraltar on March 6th, 1988.
Along the top is written a variation on the second half of Terence MacSwiney’s famous phrase: “[It is not those who can inflict the most but] “Those that endure the most will conquer in the end”
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Copyright © 1998 Paddy Duffy
T00320
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
T00309
A funeral volley is fired in honour three IRA volunteers, Joseph Downey, Brendan Davison, and Tony Nolan. All three were from the Markets area.
Downey’s death is variously attributed to either side in a gun-battle between the British Army and IRA, but the most detailed account (by PaperTrail) says Downey was shot by a loyalist (UVF) gang on the night of Bloody Friday.
Davison was shot by the UVF at his Friendly Way home in 1988 (RTÉ video).
Nolan was accidentally shot in 1971 when a gun being loaded by a colleague went off (Lost Lives 208).
Friendly Way, Markets, south Belfast
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Copyright © 1998 Paddy Duffy
T00291
IRA volunteers are superimposed upon the flags of the four provinces. In the top left (Ulster) and bottom right (Connacht) they are aiming weapons (one with a sniper’s scope), while in the top right (Leinster) they are firing a funeral volley, and in the bottom left (Munster) are reading a statement at a microphone; in the middle are a lark and a Tricolour.
South Link, Andersonstown, west Belfast, replacing the even-more-heavily armed volunteers in Beıdh Ár Lá Lınn.
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Copyright © 1997 Paddy Duffy
T00294
“Volunteer Tom Williams, executed 2.9.42 age 19. A lad who still lied within a prison wall.” Williams was the leader of a unit from C company, 2nd battalion, Belfast IRA, that killed RUC Constable Patrick Murphy. Williams took sole responsibility, hoping that it would save the lives of the other seven (including two women) who had taken part in the ambush. The six men were jointly convicted of the killing but only Williams was ultimately hanged, after appeals from Ireland (not yet officially ‘The Republic Of’), the Vatican, and the US State Department (RN). He was buried on the grounds of Crumlin Road gaol (and his coffin would eventually be exhumed and reburied in Milltown in 2000).
This is the second Tom Williams mural at this spot; the first was painted in 1992; both were painted by Gerard “Mo Chara” Kelly. There is a plaque to Williams above his front door in Bombay Street.
Kashmir Road, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1996 Paddy Duffy
T00178 T00168
New Lodge native Joe Doherty was part of the “M60” IRA unit (referenced in Beware Of The M.60 and Notes) that was arrested after a shoot-out on the Antrim Road in 1980. He then escaped from Crumlin Road jail in 1981 and fled to the United States, where he was arrested in 1983. There then followed a protracted and very public campaign to avoid extradition and deportation to either the Republic or Northern Ireland.
At the time this mural was painted, the Attorney General Edwin Meese had decided to deport Doherty but the decision was under review by his successor. (Eventually, the US Supreme Court would rule that Doherty could be deported in February, 1992.) The writing out of shot to the right reads, “Would the US Att. General Edwin Meese have deported George Washington? Don’t hand over Joe Doherty to British warlords! – New Lodge Republican Youth”
(WP | Bowe 1990 pdf | Kelly 1992 pdf)
By Mo Chara Kelly on the New Lodge Road, north Belfast
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Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00100
