Free Derry Corner

Since 2004, this size and style of lettering has been used on Free Derry Corner. The wall is sometimes painted in other colours and other designs. For a history, see the Visual History page for the front of the wall; there is also a page for the rear.

In the background, to the right, is The Petrol Bomber.

Lecky Road, Derry

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Copyright © 2007 Paddy Duffy
T00412

Patsy O’Hara

“Years from now they will ask you where you were when your comrades were dying on hungerstrike. Shall you say you were with us or shall you say that you were conforming to the very system that drove us to our deaths[?]” INLA (sign the light-pole as well as the flags and red star in the mural) volunteer Patsy O’Hara, from Derry, joined the hunger strike on the same day as Raymond McCreesh (March 22nd) and died, 61 days later, later in the same day (May 21st, 11:29 p.m.) as him (2:11 a.m.).

Lecky Rd, Derry

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Copyright © 2007 Paddy Duffy
T00420

The Hunger Strike Era

A lark (rather than a dove) bursts through the ceiling of a H-Block cell lined with the names of the ten deceased 1981 hunger strikers. “This mural is dedicated to all those who tragically died on the streets of Derry during the hunger strike era. Suımhneas Dé dá nanamacha. 3rd October 2006.”

Westland St, Derry

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Copyright © 2007 Paddy Duffy
T00404

Kieran Doherty

Kieran Doherty was elected TD (Teachta Dála) for Cavan-Monaghan three weeks into his 1981 hunger strike. He held the position for two months, until he died on August 2nd. The portraits, plaques, and mural of marchers are in his home area of Andersonstown. The words “It is not those who inflict the most, but those that can endure who shall conquer in the end” is an echo of Terence MacSwiney, whose hunger strike in 1920 lasted 74 days, one more than Doherty’s.

The chimney retains the “150” from the previous mural about the Great Hunger.

Painted by Lucas Quigley in Slemish Way, Andersonstown, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2001 Paddy Duffy
T00491

H-Block/Armagh

The sixth mural from the Bogside Artists commemorates the 1980 hunger strikes, first in Long Kesh and subsequently in Armagh Women’s Prison. The main figure is Raymond McCartney; the female figure is perhaps Mary Doyle (the other two female strikers were Maıréad Farrell and Maıréad Nugent).

Rossville St, Derry

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Copyright © 2001 Paddy Duffy
T00356

Shankill Rd Supports Drumcree

“We demand the right to march”, “Portadown District LOL No 1 [Fb]”, “Here we stand – we can do no other”.

This mural in the lower Shankill estate is about the disputed Orange Order parade (WP entry, including a map of the route) to Drumcree Church (in Portadown, shown in the mural) part of which goes along the Catholic Garvaghy Road. After many contentious years (beginning in 1995), the re-routing of the marches in 2000 led to some rioting, but was the last year of notable conflict over the parade (CAIN).

N Boundary Street, lower Shankill, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2000 Paddy Duffy
T00452

Diana, Queen Of Hearts

Diana Spencer (“1961-1997”) became Princess Of Wales upon marrying Prince Charles in 1981 but they divorced in 1996, a year before she died in a Paris car-crash. She is presented has an English rose in front of a large Union Flag in the shape of a heart.

This is one of the murals painted in the lower Shankill estate under Johnny Adair.

Hopewell Crescent, lower Shankill, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2000 Paddy Duffy (no date given)
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Pat ‘Beag’ McGeown

“Comrade, councillor, cara [friend].” Pat McGeown was a 1981 IRA hunger striker whose family intervened when he lapsed into a coma. After his release in 1985 he also worked for Sınn Féın and was elected to Belfast City Council in 1993. He died in 1996 of a heart attack. He is also remembered by a plaque on the Sınn Féın office on Falls Road.

Ballymurphy Road, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2000 Paddy Duffy
T00786