“End British Internment – End Maghaberry Torture – Strip searches, isolation, controlled movement”. The board above at the top of Havana Street, Ardoyne, shows a a prison guard in Union colours beating a prisoner in the Tricolour’s green, white, and orange. On the left is the barbed wire symbol of the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association (IRPWA) and on the right the emblems of the PSNI, the RUC, and MI5 are crossed out under a swastika. A wide shot, showing the CLG/GAA mural in the background, is below.
Six of the seven New Lodge tower blocks each feature two hunger strikers, on the narrow sides of the building. Those featured are the ten who died in 1981 along with Frank Stagg and Michael Gaughan. Here are images of five of them. Above is Raymond McCreesh, below is Kieran Doherty with a tricolour and ‘Justice for the Craigavon 2’, third is Martin Hurson and a Palestinian flag, fourth is Francis Hughes, and fifth is Frank Stagg.
An annotated Google map and a table give the Irish, English and former names of the flats (“houses”) as well as their locations and the hunger strikers on each.
Religion and politics mix in this image of the Blessed Virgin Mary gazing at a recent mural at the bottom of Teach Na bhFıann/Fianna House (formerly Dill House) in the New Lodge. “Cumann Na mBan” in Irish is “the women’s organization/council/society” in English. The organization in question is the republican paramilitary group which was founded on April 2, 1914 and celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.
A Che Guevara quote – “I don’t care if I fall as long as someone else picks up my gun and keeps on shooting” – unifies two panels bearing masked men firing funeral volleys, Irish and Palestinian shields, and “Our day will come” in both Irish and Arabic.
Ligoniel (above) and New Lodge (below) copies of a JFTC2 (Justice for the Craigavon Two) stencil by Damian Walker of GaelForce. The Ligoniel location is proving controversial: Walker’s previous attempts have been painted over three times, according to an image in this 32 County Sovereignty post, which also alleges that Sınn Féın has been behind the removals. According to the Tele, a housing executive van was burnt out in response to one of the white-washings. There has been no such controversy in the New Lodge.
Previously: JFTC2 on the mountain | Justice in Hugo Street
The previous board in this location said “‘yes’ to a better future” beneath a tiger, a rainbow, and a DJ at his turntables (see an image at CCDL). That future, it seems, is to go back to a mural similar to the one prior to 2009 – You’re entering Loyalist Tiger’s Bay – though the explicit UDA/UFF insignia are gone, leaving only the clenched fist.
Bobby Sands’s poem The Rhythm Of Time, published in 1981 as part of Prison Poems, is printed in full along with images of Long Kesh and other prisons in which republican prisoners were held.
The work was launched 2014-08-10, to coincide with the anniversary of the introduction of interment in 1971 (see e.g. this BBC news report).
Here are two details from the Ardoyne, Bone, Ligoniel mural featured yesterday, as well as a shot of bouquets of flowers in front of the plaque on the stone put in place in 2003. The first reproduces a photograph of Maıréad Farrell during the “no-wash” or “dirty” protest in Armagh Women’s Prison. (See the middle of this 1989 Frontline documentary.) The second shows the walls and guard-towers of the H-Blocks (featured previously in You Know Where). The frames and photographs of 40 locals are printed, not painted.
26 volunteers and 14 others from the Ardoyne, Bone, and Ligoniel areas are commemorated in a new (2014-10-05) mural. The images below show artist Mickey Doherty, himself an ex-prisoner, at the start of the process – with the grid-work visible – and shooting an “action” shot for VICE TV.
The previous mural also commemorated local volunteers (34 painted portraits rather than a printed board), but this mural adds a Celtic cross, funeral volley, and images of Armagh women’s prison, the cages at Long Kesh, and the H-blocks, as well as (an inverted image of) blanketman Hugh Rooney – detailed images can be seen in Prison Walls.
Extramural Activity 