“Am le haontacht na hÉıreann” [Time for Irish unity]. Between stints in prison in 1976, Bobby Sands carried a green harp flag – symbol of Ireland and in particular of the United Irishmen – in an August march to protest the withdrawal of political status (Gérard Harlay/Bobby Sands Trust). He is shown here marching under the #TimeForUnity message on Slıabh Dubh in the campaign for a border poll and Irish unity “lenár lınn”/”in our time” (Fb | tw).
In 2019, images of Bobby Sands before his (second and final) arrest and imprisonment were rediscovered in the collection of French photographer Gérard Harlay. Sands was serving as a flag-bearer in an August 1976 march from the Busy Bee to Dunville Park to protest the withdrawal of political status. (For some of Harlay’s images, see Bobby Sands Trust.) This new mural in his home area of Twinbrook copies one of the images (though presents him as carrying a Tricolour rather than a harp) along with protesters protesting for “Public transport for Twinbrook now” and “Social housing for Twinbrook now”.
Mairéad Farrell (on the right of the image above) was arrested for planting a bomb at a hotel in Dunmurry in April 1976, one month after Special Category Status for republican prisoners had been revoked. Kieran Nugent (on the left) began the “blanket” protest in September that year and Farrell was the first person to join the protest, when she arrived in Armagh women’s prison to begin her fourteen year sentence. She later took up a dirty protest and joined the 1980 hunger strike. She stood for election in 1981 (in Cork), but, unlike “Óglach Bobby Sands, MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone”, was not successful. (WP)
“I am oppressed as a woman and I am oppressed as an Irish person. Everyone in this country is oppressed and yet we can only end our oppression as women if we end the oppression of our nation as a whole.” Máiread [sic] Farrell
“End British internment: Strip searching, controlled movement, isolation.” This Saoradh/éistigí/IRPWA board in Central Drive, Creggan, Derry, uses the words of Bobby Sands to put current political prisoners in parallel with the blanket protest and hunger strikes. The quote is an English translation from the final day of Sands’s hunger strike diary, March 17th: Mura bhfuıl sıad ın ınmhe an fonn saoırse a scrıosadh, ní bheadh sıad ın ınmhe tú féın a bhrıseadh. Ní bhrısfıdh sıad mé mar tá an fonn saoırse, agus saoırse mhuıntır na hÉıreann, ı mo chroí. Tıocfaıdh lá éıgın nuaır a bheıdh an fonn saoırse seo le taıspeáınt ag daoıne go léır na hÉıreann. Ansın tchífıdh [chífıdh] muıd éırí na gealaí.” = “If they aren’t able to destroy to the desire for freedom, they won’t break you. They won’t break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the Irish people, is is my heart. The day will dawn when all the people of Ireland will have the desire for freedom to show. It is then we’ll see the rising of the moon.”
“Friends and comrades” – IRA volunteers Brendan Hughes (“The Dark”) and Bobby Sands were leaders of the 1980 and 1981 hunger strikes, respectively. Hughes survived when the first strike was called off after 53 days; Sands died in the ’81 strike after 66 days of fasting. “IRPWA” is the Irish Republican Prisoners’ Welfare Association (Fb | tw); Saoradh (web | tw) is a hard-line left-wing republican party.
The mural to the left shows Palestinian double-amputee Saber Al-Ashkar, protesting as part of the Great March Of Return.
Robert Ballagh’s 1916 Proclamation was first painted as a mural by Mo Chara Kelly and Rısteard Ó Mhurchú in 1991 for the 75th anniversary of the Easter Rising (see Cáısc 1916 which also contains the Ballagh piece). That version stood for ten years on the Whiterock Road. It has reproduced again in Ard An Lao above the hunger strikers, after the removal of several plaques (see All Our Dead). “With special thanks to Hugo Óg Wilkinson”.
Here, from left to right, are all of the metalworks in the memorial garden on Ascaıll Ard Na bhFeá by sculptor and painter Hugh Clawson. On the stone (above) an IRA volunteer – with the emblem of the Easter lily on his beret – rests in the arms of Mother Ireland and her harp. Then two featuring the lark as the ‘spirit of freedom’ (from The Lark And The Freedom Fighter). In the first, the lark breaks through the bars of a prison cell, and in the image below, it flies in front of an “H” made of bricks, carrying a bin lid. (For a lark carrying a rifle, see Lark Of War and Armed Resistance.) Clawson’s name can be seen on the bars. In the second, a lark carries a binlid, used by locals to signal the presence of British Army troops. “In memory of all Irish martyrs who have died on hunger strike in the fight for Irish freedom. Their inspiration and courage will always be remembered by the republican movement and republican family (mid Falls).” One female and one male volunteer stand with bowed heads. A pair of hands joined in prayer in the Beechmount memorial garden: “in memory of those innocent people from this area who have died in this struggle for Irish freedom”. Finally, a scene of protest, in front of the Free Ireland mural at the bottom of the street. “In memory of the all the unsung heroes off [sic] this area who’s [sic] hardship, sacrifice and support during this struggle for Irish freedom will never be forgotten by the Belfast Brigade óglaıgh na h-éıreann.” The plaque depicts the work of print-makers (“Smash H-Block Armagh”), marchers carrying portraits of hunger strikers (“Mid Falls supports the women of Armagh”), bin-lid rattlers, and muralists. The tarp above reads “Cuımhníonn Lár na bhFál – Mid Falls remembers” Out of picture to the right of the wide shot is Bobby Sands’s quote “Our revenge will be the laughter of our children.” See M04415.
New political party Saoradh (Fb) is advocating a boycott of the upcoming (March 2nd) Stormont election, claiming that Stormont espouses “the co-dependent ideologies of imperialism, sectarianism and capitalism”. The tarp shown above lists various problems and scandals (“Nepostism, fraud, corruption, phantom community groups, NAMA, sectarianism, jobs for the boys, Red Sky, RHI scandal”) and evokes the spirit of 1981 hunger striker Bobby Sands: “Everyone Republican or otherwise has their Part to Play.” Also visible are a board celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising (see versions in Andersonstown | Ardoyne | St James), an éırígí mural featuring Patrick Pearse, and a call for the release of the Craigavon Two (previously featured).
New (2015-04-04) tarp on Ardoyne Avenue showing a scene from Grafton Street in the Battle Of Dublin in the civil war (1922) (irishhistory.blogspot.com), with in-sets featuring PIRA volunteers on patrol in 1987 (BelTel), and a home-made rocket-launcher used in a 2014 attack on police (see, e.g. irishmirror.ie).
“There can never be peace in Ireland until the foreign, oppressive British presence is removed leaving all of the Irish people as a unit to control their own affairs and determine their destinies as a sovereign people, free in mind and body, separate and distinct physically, culturally and economically.” Bobby Sands (Prison Diary May 1st)
Bobby Sands grew up and went to school in Rathcoole but in 1972, when he was eighteen, the family home was attacked. They moved to Twinbrook, where Sands joined the IRA (Bobby Sands Trust | WP).
This mosaic is near the Twinbrook home, on the same wall that was the site of the Carol-Ann Kelly mural. Kelly was killed two weeks after Sands’s death.
Extramural Activity 