hunger strike – Extramural Activity

Our Nation As A Whole

2021-01-222021-01-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

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a bomb at a hotel in Dunmurry in April 1976, one month after Special Category Status for republican prisoners had been revoked.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

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X07823 Ardilea “They may hold our bodies in the most inhumane condition – But while our minds remain free our victory is assured.” Óglach Bobby Sands, MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, died on the 5th of May 1981 after 66 days on Hunger Strike.

Pat Ward

2020-12-102020-12-10Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The 39th Bundoran (RSF) hunger strike commemoration took place at the end of August, scaled-back due to the coronavirus pandemic (RSF). The poster above, on the electrical box on Northumberland Street, includes Pat Ward alongside the twelve “traditional” hunger strike deaths (for the first inclusion of Gaughan and Stagg, see Remember The Hunger Strikers from 1985) Ward, a Donegal fisherman and IRA volunteer, took part in four hunger strikes, lasting 148 days in total, including 45 in Portlaoise in 1975. He died in 1988. (RSF | Pensive Quill)

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Are You On The Side Of The 2020 Hunger Strikers?

2020-09-302020-10-03Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Republican prisoners in Maghaberry, Portlaoise, and Hydebank [now officially Hydebank Wood] went on hunger strike in solidarity with Dr Issam Hijjawi-Bassalat, a Palestinian national residing in Edinburgh, who was arrested in the August swoop that also saw nine Saoradh members arrested in connection with the New IRA. Hijjawi attended one of the meetings set up by (MI5 agent) Dennis McFadden in July. Hijjawi went on hunger strike on September 16th in protest and his solitary confinement and was yesterday (2020-09-28) moved into the republican wing at Maghaberry and the hunger strikes ended. (IRPWA | Irish News | Samidoun | Republican News)

The images in today’s post show IRPWA support for the hunger strikes on Free Derry Corner.

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A Great Feeling Of Love

2020-08-282020-09-15Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“The true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality” – Che Guevara Lynch. The INLA’s Kevin Lynch died in the second hunger strike after 71 days. He is buried in Dungiven, where this memorial sits on the main road between Derry and Maghera.

“I ndíl chuimhne ar Óglach Kevin Lynch a fuair bás ar stailc ocrais ar son saoirse, 1ú Lúnasa 1981 [who died on a hunger strike for freedom, 1st August 1981]. Erected by the Irish Republican Socialist Ex-Prisoners Memorial Committee.”

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We Have Hit Five

2019-08-212019-08-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Westrock bungalows were aluminium prefab houses built in 1949 during the post-war housing shortage next to Springhill and Ballymurphy. British troops fired on the area from the high position of Corry’s timber yard in the summer of 1972; their bullets could go through the walls. Five people were shot dead, including a priest. The plaques shown are in the memorial garden in Westrock Drive.

“On the evening of July 9th 1972 British marksmen mounted an unprovoked and sustained attack on this community. Among the snipers[‘] victims lay five dead. Gunned down during efforts to bring aid an succour to the wounded. Still waiting for justice to their memory and for freedom of the truth.”

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The Proclamation

2018-09-032018-09-04Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Robert Ballagh’s 1916 Proclamation was first painted as a mural by Mo Chara Kelly and Risteard Ó Mhurchú in 1991 for the 75th anniversary of the Easter Rising (see Cáisc 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”.

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text: X06110 our revenge will be let there be no bitterness

Unsung Heroes

2017-02-132017-02-14Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“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 óglaigh na h-éireann.” 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 mural shown is Free Ireland, which was at the bottom of Beechmount Avenue).

Previous work from Hugh Clawson: The Lark And The Bin Lid | Conway Mill

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RPG Avenue

2016-09-212019-01-31Extramural Activity2 Comments

Since 1984 (and perhaps earlier) Beechmount Avenue in west Belfast has been known as “RPG Avenue”, after the rocket-propelled grenade launchers used by the IRA. The temporary murals (on tarpaulins) shown in the first two images (from a recent dedication at the memorial garden across the street) here recall the 80s, with images of armed volunteers and of the support for the blanket men and hunger strikers from “Beechmount/Iveagh H Block-Armagh Comittee”. The first (above) was previously used in 2001 – see J1054. The final image, taken in June of this year, shows that the street still retains its unofficial name and also gives the names of various volunteers from A Coy, 2nd Battalion, including Pat McGeown, a hunger striker whose family intervened when he lapsed into a coma, and who was elected to Belfast City Council in 1993 and died in 1996 of a heart attack.

For the murals in the background see Free Tony Taylor and Bilal Kayed.

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text: X03826 X03825 X03463 roll of honour stan carberry frankie dodds paul fox sean bailey paul marlowe tony campbell albert kavanagh tom mcGoldrick fuair siad bas as son na heireann ireland unfree will never be at peace ascaill ard na bhfeá

No Excuse

2016-09-172018-09-16Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

As a comparison of the first and third images – taken six weeks apart – show, a count of the days in prison has been added to the Tony Taylor board on the green in front of the H-Block memorial in London-/Derry, reminiscent of the counts that were kept of the hunger strikers in 1981 (see, for example, Day 55 | Day 61 on the Peter Moloney Collection blog).

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text: X03776 X03810 Rossville St

Where Did The Seeds Fall?

2016-08-262016-10-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

03741 2016-08-09 IntWall2016 Kilmainham+

This part of the new mural on the International Wall uses the area of Kilmainham jail where most of the leaders of the Easter Rising were executed in order to tie together the blanket protest – Kieran Nugent and Mairead Farrell are shown with raised fists – the hunger strikers – including Frank Stagg and Michael Gaughan on the ground – and Roger Casement, walking towards the gallows. Casement was executed not in Kilmainham but in Pentonville Prison, England, convicted of treason for his attempts to secure German rifles and machine-guns for the Rising.

Between Bobby Sands and Mickey Devine in the lower centre of the image is a 200th-anniversary stone in Maynooth/Maigh Nuad(h) of the 1798 rising. The photograph on which the mural’s version is based is available here. The Tree Of Liberty: What is that in your hand? It is a branch. Of what? Of the tree of liberty. Where did it first grow? In America. Where does it bloom? In France. Where did the seeds fall? In Ireland.

At the launch (on August 3rd) actor James Doran (see the final image, below) read from Casement’s speech from the dock after his conviction for treason.

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03740 2016-08-09 IntWall2016 Hunger Strikers+

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03713 2016-08-04 IntWall2016 Jim Doran+.jpg

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text: X03741 X03740 X03713 Divis St armagh women’s prison proclamation irish republic smash h block

	Neil on There Is A Light That Never Go…
	Mark ERVINE on Frederick Douglass
	Molly on The Maze Ablaze
	Rob Sieger on An Unrepentant Republican
	John Doherty on The Wide Blue Yonder

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