“Venceremos” is a Spanish Civil War slogan meaning “we will win (or: overcome)”, here alongside two Irish revolutionaries armed with a rifle and a machine gun, against a background of the Tricolour and sunburst flags.
Slemish Way, Andersonstown, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1982 Paddy Duffy
T00060 [T00007]
“‘From the graves of patriot men and women spring … living nations’ – Pádraıg Mac Pıaraıs”. The quote is from Pearse’s oration at the funeral of O’Donovan Rossa on August 1st, 1915 (Wikisource).
The mural is in progress for the 1982 anniversary of the Easter Rising. This image is from “April 1982” which perhaps gives it enough time to be completed by Easter Monday, which fell on the 19th.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1982 Paddy Duffy
T00059 [T00012]
A phoenix rises from a pair of disembodied hands tearing apart an “H” made of brick, illustrating the lines (out of view to the right) “… and then I prayed I yet might see/our fetters rent in twain/and Ireland long a province be/a nation once again”. Also on the right are the names of six hunger strikers: Bobby Sands MP, Francis Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Patsy O’Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson. On the left are the lark in barbed wire, and the shields of the four provinces.
A complete view is available in the Peter Moloney Collection.
Falls Road in Andersonstown, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1982 Paddy Duffy
T00058 [T00011]
Three female activists, one with a rifle, proclaim “Resistance” on the Falls Road, Belfast. The phrase is attributed to Che Guevara. The mural was commissioned by Sınn Féın’s Department Of Women’s Affairs for International Women’s Day, 1982 (March 6th). This is probably a work-in-progress image, as the words “We must grow tough, but without ever losing our tenderness” are missing from the top part of the wall and a signature – “painted by Sınn Féın Youth” – in the bottom left. Compare to the images in the Peter Moloney Collection.
This is the second mural on this wall – the first was a tribute to the first four hunger strikers to die in 1981 (see the Peter Moloney Collection). That mural was only head-high, whereas this one attempts to cover the entire wall, all the way up to the chimney – for the development of CNR muraling at this time, see Visual History 03.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1982 Paddy Duffy
T00014
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]
An armed republican (IRA) volunteer with camo-jacket opened at the throat stands against an Irish tricolour attached to a poleaxe (pike).
Rockdale Street, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
T00050 [T00032]
“Victory [to the] IRA”. Volunteers with RPGs and armalites in Rossnareen, kneeling over an outline of Ireland in green, white, and gold. The central trio comes from an IRA publicity photograph, included below.
Rossnareen Avenue, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
T00049c [T00033]
The design for this mural comes from a poster sent by the Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini, which featured the head of Bobby Sands against a backdrop of skeletal bodies. The hunger-strike imagery is somewhat in contrast with the quote to the right, which advocates for armed resistance: “The Irish Republican Army is right: The British government does not listen to the ballot box in Ireland and the only thing they will listen to in Ireland is what they listened to in other colonies: agitation, rebellion, and armed forces”.
Oakman Street, Beechmount, west Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1981 Paddy Duffy
T00048
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]
Paddy Duffy Collection 
