POWs

We Shall Rise Again

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“Present peace now stills our hand/Death no longer stalks our land./Our weapons are silent and shall remain/But if needed, we shall rise again.” UDA volunteers in fatigues hold on to their weapons while the peace process continues. On the right: “In memory of the officers and volunteers of A Coy UDA UFF who unselfishly dedicated their lives in defence of their country. Quis separabit. Feriens tego.”

Above is printed board with a silhouetted POW in front of a watch-tower. “LPOW – you are not forgotten”

On the community centre in the middle of High Green, Highfield, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1996 Paddy Duffy
T00220 [T00226]

Consolidate The Peace

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“Consolidate the peace – release east Belfast’s loyalist prisoners”. As for republicans, the release of political prisoners – specifically UDA prisoners in this case – was for loyalists the most immediate potential benefit of the peace process. “We forget them not – LPA”

Harvey Court, east Belfast

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Copyright © 1996 Paddy Duffy
T00148

An Gorta Mór

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This is one of about nine murals painted in 1995 for the 150th anniversary mural of An Gorta Mór/the Great Hunger (Visual History).

There is a wall to the right that reads, “There was no famine; it was genocide.” (See the Peter Moloney Collection.)  

The dove on the chimney and the green ribbon below are a nod to the other main movement during this period, the release of political prisoners as a leading goal of the peace process.

Signed “Roısín Byrne & Kathy Rooney”.

Falls Road at Fallswater Street, west Belfast

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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00182

Joe Doherty

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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