printed board/placard – Page 51 – Paddy Duffy Collection

They Were Faithful And They Fought

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This is the first spot on the International Wall, Divis Street. Brendan Hughes has been included since the 2008 version (compare 2005 with 2008) but Crumlin Road hunger-striker Billy McKee is included for the first time. McKee was the first OC of the PIRA’s Belfast Brigade and arrested for possession of a handgun. The hunger strike was to secure political status for prisoners who had been convicted of crimes (WP).

“This mural is dedicated to the lives of: Billy McKee, Hunger-striker, Crumlin Road Gaol, achieved political status, 1972; Kieran Nugent, Blanketman, H-Blocks Long Kesh, fought the loss of political status, 1976; Brendan Hughes, Blanketman, Hunger-striker, H-Blocks Long Kesh, 1980.”

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Republican Prisoners Still Exist!

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“Foremost in my tortured mind is the thought that there can never be peace in Ireland until the foreign, oppressive British presence is removed, leaving all the Irish people as a unit to control their own affairs and determine their own destinies as a sovereign people, free in mind and body, separate and distinct physically, culturally and economically.” The quote is from day one of Bobby Sands’s hunger strike diary (March 1st, 1981) and the photograph is a 2007 image of a cell in the H-4 (Irish Times).

“Maghaberry – Portlaoise – Hydebank. Republican prisoners still exist!” IRPWA (web) board on Divis St, Belfast, replacing the Sands & Hughes mural – see Caırde Agus Comrádaıthe.

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Unrepentant Republicans

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Here is a gallery of the republican boards along the low wall just east of the Falls garden of remembrance. From right to left: James Connolly and Seamus Costello; Divis 81; anti-PSNI; “web of corruption”; Charlie Hughes (killed in 1971 the feud with the OIRA); the Falls Curfew featuring Máıre Drumm; Billy McKee, Alec Murphy, and Brendan Hughes; the Falls Road Massacre 1920; Kieran Abram – Abram was knocked to the ground in the early hours of July 5th, 1992, and kicked to death by loyalists in running battles with nationalists on North Howard Street, near the old British Army sangar. Four people were convicted of manslaughter in the case (Judiciary NI).

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Be There All The Way

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The mural shown above celebrates (men’s) Gaelic games in County Antrim (tw) and at two local clubs: Naomh Gall (tw | web), founded in Clonard Street in 1910, and Naomh Pól (tw | Fb) in Hawthorn Street – the site of the mural – in 1941.

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History Is Written By The Winners

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Queen’s University lecturer in economic history Miriam Daly took over as chairwoman of the IRSP (Irish Republican Socialist Party) after founder Seamus Costello was killed in a feud with the IRA. Daly was shot dead in 1980 by the UDA/UFF in her Andersonstown home in 1980. (Interview with husband Jim Daly.)

An IRSP (web) electoral board joins the Daly tribute, showing 2022 Assembly election (WP) candidate Dan Murphy campaigning on a platform focusing on housing: “Demand better! Housing – Equality – Community. Someone who stands up to landlords in Beechmount (e.g.), fighting for affordable rents, fighting for our community.”

The IRSP first painted on this Oakman Street gable in 1996, with the original Daly mural. (Before that, in 1986, there was an IRA anti-touting message – see M00413). The long-standing and much-graffitied mural, History Is Written By The Winner (painted by son Donal Daly among others) was replaced in 2014 by a Joey Ramone mural for a U2 video competition (Murals Of Innocence). The board shown in today’s images was launched on Sunday 2016-12-04 to a crowd of about 200.

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Life Springs From Death

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The new replacement board commemorating the Gibraltar 3 (Maıréad Farrell, Dan McCann, and Seán Savage “executed by British crown forces 6th March 1988) uses words from Pearse’s oration at the funeral of O’Donovan Rossa. Not the more common “the fools, the fools …” but “Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations” (used previously in Strabane in 1990 – M00860). The board is “dedicated to the memory of Thomas and Edith Haddock”.

Here is the previous board.

Killed In Action

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“Killed in action” (on the mural) or “on active service” (on the plaque) often means killed by a bomb exploding prematurely, as was the case of Finbarr McKenna, who died in Crocus Street intending to attack the RUC station on the Springfield Road at Violet Street. Here is an account of McKenna’s death from a British soldier. Lost Lives estimates that as many as 163 volunteers (9% of the total killed by the IRA) died from premature explosions. Footage of McKenna’s funeral appears in the (Sınn Féın-produced) account of Larry Marley’s funeral.

The plaque dates back to at least 2004.

Never Again

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15 year-old Fıan Gerald McAuley was the first member of the IRA to die in the Troubles. He was shot in Waterville Street by a loyalist sniper while helping people move from burned-out homes in Bombay Street, along which the “peace” line separating the Falls and Shankill now runs, overlooking the Clonard Memorial Garden, site of the service for the 50th anniversary of McAuley’s death.

August 1969

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“Is cuımhın lınn.” To commemorate the beginning of the Troubles, a series of events was organised by the Belfast 1969 Pogroms Commemoration Committee, in Clonard, Falls, and Ardoyne, including a photographic exhibition, documentary screenings, panel discussions, a play, a mass, and murals (Irish News), including The Pogrom Of August 1969 and the one above, in Bombay Street, which used to run between the Shankill and Falls but after the riots and burnings of August 1969 was split in two by a so-called “peace” line.

“These are terrible days … but some good has already come from these attacks on our communities. You have young people and elderly people all closely knit together and that is a grand thing. We must not allow hatred to spring up in our hearts. For what we are aiming for now is justice. We demand justice. We are not begging for it – we are demanding it. It is our right and we will keep on demanding it until we get it. We don’t ask for anything more – just a fair deal … that we will soon have a community where everybody, irrespective of religious belief or irrespective of political ideology will be able to lead a normal life and will not be unjustly discriminated against.” – Fr Patrick Egan, sermon in Clonard Monastery, August 1969 (youtube).