“Our rulers will stop at nothing to attain their ends. They will continue to rule and rob until confronted by men who will stop at nothing to overthrow them.” The quote is from James Connolly on Conscription. Local volunteer Joe McDonnell is portrayed between the names of the ten deceased 1981 hunger strikers.
Lenadoon Avenue, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1997 Paddy Duffy
T00303
This high wall is in front of the Sınn Féın offices (Connolly House) on the Andersonstown Road, west Belfast. Along the top is a list of concerns being pressed in the on-going peace process: “Roısín McAliskey, preconditions, Drumcree 95-96-?, Dunloy, Ormeau Rd, Garvaghy, Loyalists no ceasefire, Lee Clegg, RUC – no change. A new opportunity for peace – Bóthar Bhaıle Andarsan for all inclusive talks.”
Gerry Adams stood for Sınn Féın in Belfast West in the 1997 UK general election, regaining the seat from the SDLP’s Joe Hendron with 56% of the poll (WP). He is wearing a green ribbon, emblem of the campaign to release republican POWs.
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Copyright © 1997 Paddy Duffy
T00210
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
This is the second Bobby Sands mural on the wall of the offices of Sınn Féın and An Phoblacht/Republican News on the Falls Road. For the first, see The Spirit Of Freedom. Gone from that first mural is the lark in barbed wire, replaced by a skyline of Maze/Long Kesh watch-towers, but the smiling Sands and the quotation from him remain: “Everyone, republican or otherwise, has his [here: “his/her”] own [particular] part to play”.
This wall has its own Visual History page.
Sevastopol Street, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00087 [T00207]
“When the potato crop failed causing the great hunger, people watched in despair as shiploads of food were escorted away by British troops …”. This mural combines an image from Illustrated London News (Bridget O’Donnel And Children) with five bodies faces drowning in the sea.
This is one of about nine murals painted in 1995 on the Great Hunger (Visual History).
Shaw’s Road/Rossnareen, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy (no date given)
T00159
A tearful eye beholds both the Great Hunger, which claimed one million lives, and, within the eye itself, the wave of emigration which took more than a million others away from Ireland.
This is one of about nine murals painted in 1995 on the Great Hunger (Visual History). The number “150” appears on the chimney and would last until 2008 and beyond.
There are two side-walls out of frame to the right, going around a corner. The first gives a list of the artists in Irish (“[Dón]al Ó Dalaıḋ, [Cıa]rán [Mac] Taírnan [sic], Brían Ó Lúaın, […]rán Ó hÉır, […]áın Mac Pháıl, [perhaps one more]” (Donal Daly, Ciaran McKernan, Brian O’Loan, […] O’Hare, […] McFall. Daly, McKernan, and O’Loan would paint the History Is Written By The Winners mural in 1996) and the second reads “Dedicated to those who died in the Great Hunger” with a Celtic cross and some knotwork.
There is also a plaque to local man Kieran Doherty, reading “Vol. Kieran Doherty T.D. Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann. Age 25. Commenced his hunger strike on May 22 and tragically died on Sunday afternoon 2 Aug 1981. Kieran was elected T.D. by the people of Cavan And Monaghan in their support of the prisoners’ campaign for political status.” This plaque would be retained when this wall became a memorial mural to Doherty in 2001.
Slemish Way, Andersonstown, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00156 [T00208]
“Weary people, what reap ye? Golden corn for the stranger.
What sow ye? human corpses that wait for the avenger.
Fainting forms, hunger–stricken, what see you in the offing?
Stately ships to bear our food away, [amid the stranger’s scoffing].
There’s a proud array of soldiers — what do they round your door?
They guard our masters’ granaries from the thin hands of the poor. – Speranza”
The poetry is the first few lines of The Famine Year by “Speranza”, i.e. Lady Jane Wilde, mother of Oscar.
In the centre an aboriginal figure holds the flags of Ireland and of the Native Australians.
This is one of about nine murals painted in 1995 on the Great Hunger (Visual History).
“Painted by Síle Na Gıg & St James Youth Aug 95” in St James’s Crescent/Donegall Road, west Belfast.
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Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00155 [T00206]
“Equality, freedom, fraternity – peace, unity, saoırse, freedom, equality, justice for all, meas, courage, respect, amnesty for political prisoners, cearta Gael, truth, dialogue, trust, democracy – the foundation stones for lasting peace.”
Amnesty for political prisoners and Irish-language rights are the concrete goals among many vague concepts being sought in the peace process – represented by the dove carrying a tricoloured ribbon on the chimney. Fág Ár Sraıdeanna adds collusion, RUC disbandment, and ending the Unionist veto.
Falls Road at the top of Fallswater Street.
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Copyright © 1994 Paddy Duffy (undated image)
T00110
A smiling Bobby Sands on the side of the Sınn Féın offices on the Falls Road, (also the west Belfast office of An Phoblacht/Republican News), with his famous statement that “Everyone, republican or otherwise, has his [here: “his/her”] own [particular] part to play” (and the lark with its “spirit of freedom“). This version was painted by Mo Chara Kelly in 1989, and an image of Sands has been on the wall continuously since then.
Sevastopol Street, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00089
Manacles “Made in Britain” constrain the republican desire for a united Ireland, contrary to the burning GPO and rising phoenix.
“Numerous foreign groups and delegations visited Ballymurphy and west Belfast during the troubles. I remember one meeting I was at in Conway Mill, I picked up a pamphlet with a drawing of a manacled fist. The caption read “Made in the USA.” So I just took the image and changed the slogan to “Made in Britain”.” (Painting My Community/An Pobal A Phéınteáıl – English-language version available for free)
The plaque – which pre-dates this mural – is to local (A Company 2nd Battalion) IRA volunteers Stan Carberry, Frankie Dodds, Paul Fox, Sean Bailey, Paul Marlowe, and Tony Campbell. “Fuaır sıad bás ar son na hÉıreann”, “Ireland unfree will never be at peace”. (See the Peter Moloney Collection.)
Painted by Mo Chara Kelly in Beechmount Avenue/RPG Avenue.
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Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00097 T00098
Paddy Duffy Collection 