“Beıdh an bua agaınn” [victory will be ours] is a slogan that Mo Chara Kelly saw inside a cell in the H-Blocks. A circle of four hands – perhaps intended to be in the colours of humankind – releases three doves: “freedom, justice, peace”. “We will be free.”
Painted by Mo Chara Kelly at the top of the Whiterock Road, west Belfast.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00095
A Cormac cartoon protesting British censorship of Sınn Féın is rendered as a mural by Mo Chara Kelly. The broadcasting Ban was put in place in 1988, disallowing Sınn Féın representatives from speaking in their own voice on television and radio. But if the gag of British censorship were removed, the talk is of peace (in the form of a dove) – suggesting that there is some for negotiation on the violent removal of British forces and administration.
Out of frame to the left are written “Oppose censorship” and (in red) “Vote Richard May”. Richard May ran (unsuccessfully) for election to Belfast City Council in 1989.
Springhill Avenue, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1990 Paddy Duffy
T00083
These two pieces are both by cartoonist “Cormac” (Brian Moore), as reproduced on the wall of Corry’s Timber at the top of Springhill Avenue, west Belfast, by Mo Chara Kelly.
Cormac produced cartoons for Resistance Comics, Republican News (and then An Phoblacht/Republican News), Socialist Challenge (and then Socialist Action), and Fortnight. His “Notes (For A History Of Ireland)” appeared in RN and AP/RN for about 30 years.
The mural on the left reproduces a cartoon from February 1979, combining hatred of the “Britz” and RUC with criticism of a left-leaning London bookshop that no longer stocks the paper because “violence is only acceptable if it doesn’t happen here”.
The other is an eleven-panel version of the nine-panel image that appeared on the cover of the 1982 collection Cormac Strikes Back, showing the Union Flag crumbling and the Starry Plough rising from its ashes.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1988 Paddy Duffy
T00070
In the shadow of Long Kesh watch-towers, a blanketman draped in an Irish Tricolour is held in the arms of his father, with mother looking on, reminiscent of Michelangelo’s pietà (“pity”) in which Mary holds the body of her dead son after he has been taken down from the cross (and so it also echoes Oliver Sheppard’s statue of Cúchulaınn).
Painted by Con at the top of Donegall Road, west Belfast.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
T00052 [T00029]
The image of a blanketman on all fours was also seen in Ballymurphy, Ardoyne, and Finaghy (see the 1981 CNR Murals) but in this Beechmount version, the ‘sacred heart of Jesus’ appears above the prisoner, similar to the angel on the Whiterock Road and the ‘blessed virgin Mary’ in the Rock streets.
Beechmount Drive, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
T00051 [T00031]
This Whiterock Road mural shows a blanketman/hunger-striker being watched over by a uniformed volunteer, on a large tricoloured bunting/drape at the feet of an angel holding a banner reading “blessed are those who hunger for justice“. Above are the words “Their hunger, their pain, our struggle“. The shields of the four provinces of Ireland and two shamrocks complete the mural.
Whiterock Road, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
T00017 T00044 [T00016]
A hunger-striker lies in bed praying with rosary beads and bathed in beams of light coming from the hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
(Painted by Con, who describes the mural as an attempt to break through with nationalists (as distinct from republicans); though one source says “by a Ballymurphy man, named something like Tim Skillen/Skelly”.)
Rockmount Street, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
[T00023] [T00028] T00039
depicting (from left to right) Ireland in the grip of a fist with a Union Flag cufflink, a prison guard whose mouth holds prison bars and the arm of a bleeding prisoner, and a naked figure in a tricoloured scarf crucified on a Union Flag.
There is a fourth panel to the right, of the island of Ireland bearing a cross “Made in Britain”.
At least three of the original images are by Jack Clafferty, a founder member of the Troops Out Movement (see the Peter Moloney Collection).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
[T00021] T00036
Paddy Duffy Collection 