Starry Plough – Extramural Activity

A Perennial War

2022-10-232022-10-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is the scene at Kells Walk/Rossville St in the Bogside.

From left to right:

No Amnesty For British State Forces: “Democide is the murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide and mass murder. Democide is not necessarily the elimination of entire cultural groups but rather groups within the country that the government feels needs to be eradicated for political reasons and due to claimed future threats. – No amnestry for British state forces”

End British Political Policing (Saoradh (web))

Bobby Sands/IRPWA: “I’ll wear no convict’s uniform/Nor meekly serve my time/That Britain might brand Ireland’s fight/800 years of crime” [Francie Brolly song] (IRPWA (web))

Free All Political Prisoners! (IRPWA)

1981: 1981: “I am a political prisoner. I am a political prisoner because I am a casualty of a perennial war that is being fought between the oppressed Irish people and an alien, oppressive, unwanted regime that refuses to withdraw from our land.” [Bobby Sands’s diary, day 1] (IRPWA)

Unity Referendum Now!: “British occupation has been a disaster for the people of Ireland. A united Ireland is the way forward for all the people of Ireland.” (IRSP.ie)

40th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike: described previously in For A Socialist Republic (IRSM/IRSP)

“Peace” mural (with cross) from the Bogside Artists

In the shot above, our photographer has intervened and stood up the last panel of the “1981” board.

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2022 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f2.5, 1/550, ISO 100, full size 4000 x 3000

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2022 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f3.6, 1/850, ISO 200, full size 4000 x 3000

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2022 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f4.5, 1/850, ISO 200, full size 4000 x 3000

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2022 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f2.5, 1/850, ISO 200, full size 4000 x 3000

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2022 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f2.8, 1/800, ISO 100, full size 4000 x 3000

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2022 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f2.8, 1/640, ISO 100, full size 4000 x 3000

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2022 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f2.8, 1/600, ISO 100, full size 4000 x 3000

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1094 x 900)
Copyright © 2022 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f2.5, 1/550, ISO 100, full size 3648 x 3000

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2022 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f2.8, 1/680, ISO 100, full size 4000 x 3000

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2022 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f2.5, 1/640, ISO 100, full size 4000 x 3000

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2022 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f2.5, 1/640, ISO 100, full size 4000 x 3000
X10972
X10964 X10965 X10967 X10966 X10968 X10969 X10970 X10971 X10973

Galliagh Remembers

2022-09-052022-09-04Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This installation in Galliagh, Derry, has a portrait of each of the ten deceased 1981 hunger strikers on a large “H” as well as the central board shown above – the coffin being carried is that of Kevin Lynch – see For A Socialist Republic.

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2022 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f1.8, 1/1116, ISO 20, full size 4032 x 3024

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2022 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f2.4, 1/873, ISO 16, full size 4032 x 3024
X10989 X10987 Fern Rd

Their Struggle Is A Workers’ One

2022-07-052022-07-05Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Murdered for their political beliefs: Tom Berry, Robert Elliman, Robert Millen, John Browne”. All four had a connection Markets or Ormeau area of south Belfast. Millen, from the Ormeau area, was shot in 1973 by the UVF; he played on the same soccer team (Bankmore Star) as Thomas Berry, who was shot in a Short Strand GAA club; Elliman was shot in a Markets pub; John Brown (without the “e”) was shot in his Cooke Street home in front of his family. The first three were all Protestants; the latter three were among 11 people who died in the 1975 feud between the Officials and the Provisionals. (Lost Lives)

“The war they wage is not a war of bigotry or greed, their struggle is a workers one, so everyone may lead a life with rights and liberty, in a land where they can say “Up the Army of the people, the Official IRA”.” “Erected by the Official Republican Movement.”

Click and click again to enlarge (to 900 x 1200)
Copyright © 2022 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f2.4, 1/60, ISO 16, full size 3024 x 4032
X10390 Stewart St

After We Are Gone

2022-03-212022-03-22Extramural Activity1 Comment

Patsy O’Hara was born in 1957 Bishop Street, Derry, and joined Na Fianna in 1970 and the local Sinn Féin cumann in 1971 and, in August was shot in the leg by British soldiers. In 1972 he joined the Republican Clubs and in 1975 the IRSP. He was imprisoned multiple times, the final time being in January 1979 for possession of a hand grenade (Bobby Sands Trust). He went on hunger strike 41 years ago tomorrow (March 22nd) and was the first of the three INLA hunger strikers to die in 1981. The long-standing mural in Bishop Street was repainted for the 40th anniversary of his death. (For the previous version, see Let The Fight Go On.)

“Óglach Patsy O’Hara, INLA Derry Brigade, Irish hunger striker, who died after 61 days on 21st May 1981, age 23. Last words ‘Let the fight go on’.”

“After we are gone, what will you say you were doing? Will you say you were with us in our struggle or where you conforming to very system that drove us to our deaths?”

Bishop Street, Derry

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 800)
Copyright © 2022 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
Camera Settings: f18, 1/400, ISO 400, full size 5184 x 3456

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 800)
Copyright © 2022 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
Camera Settings: f18, 1/400, ISO 400, full size 5184 x 3456

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 800)
Copyright © 2022 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
Camera Settings: f18, 1/400, ISO 400, full size 5184 x 3456
X09795 X09796 X09797

Remember The Hunger Strikers

2022-03-192022-03-19Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here are two IRSP pieces commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike. The first, above and immediately below, is from Ard Eoin/Ardoyne (Béal Feirste/Belfast) with colour (or at least, colour-ised) portraits of the ten who died on either side of an image from Keven Lynch’s funeral cortège. It is the same as the board seen on the lower Falls in For A Socialist Republic. At the bottom is a poster from Strabane calling people to gather in remembrance in Derry.

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1102 x 850)
Copyright © 2022 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f2.4, 1/120, ISO 16, full size 3920 x 3024

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2022 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f2.4, 1/130, ISO 16, full size 4032 x 3024

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2021 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f1.8, 1/393, ISO 20, full size 4032 x 3024
X08443 X09031 X09032

Unsung Heroes

2021-12-302021-12-31Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“The young and the old rallied around/To help fight the forces of the British crown/Unsung heroes too many to name/Defended Unity flats and never sought fame”. Unity flats were built in 1968 to replace the old Carrick Hill but immediately came under repeated attack by loyalists from the nearby Peter’s Hill and Shankill; by 1987 their demolition had been approved but because of difficulty in rehousing residents (Hansard), the new Carrick Hill was not completed until 2009 (BelTel). The flats have a Facebook page, Growing Up In Unity Flats. The plaques shown today are on the side of the newsagents in the new Carrick Hill.

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 800)
Copyright © 2021 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f4.9, 1/80, ISO 400, full size 4896 x 3264

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2021 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f5, 1/80, ISO 250, full size 4032 x 3024

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 900)
Copyright © 2021 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f4, 1/80, ISO 100, full size 5616 x 3744

From The Plough To The Stars

2021-10-062021-12-10Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“A free Ireland will control its own destiny from the plough to the stars.” James Connolly explained the significance of “the plough in the stars” (Ursa Major) as a symbol of Irish revolutionary socialism. He and Seamus Costello, heroes of the IRSP (web) are painted on James Connolly house in Chamberlain Street, Derry. Also home to Teach Na Fáilte, the Republican Socialist Ex-Prisoners group.

A Democratic, Secular, Socialist Republic

2021-06-182021-06-18Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

In April, the Workers’ Party (web | web | tw | Fb | Fb) suffered a leadership challenge and a split in which its sole elected representative – Ted Tynan on Cork county council – left the party (statement). This is only the latest in a long line of splits, going back to the formation of the modern Workers’ Party, from a split in Sinn Féin in 1970 (WP).

“National Commemoration Committee – erected in memory of all those comrades who dedicated their lives for the establishment of a democratic, secular, socialist republic. ‘I have given whatever I had to give for the party, the people of Ireland, and for a better world, but others have given more, much more. Comrades have given their lives’ – Tomás Mac Giolla TD. ‘For the unity of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter.'”

See recently: Secular, Socialist, And Anti-Sectarian

For A Socialist Republic

2021-05-242022-11-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Saoirse go deo.” INLA volunteer Kevin Lynch went on hunger strike 40 years ago yesterday, May 23rd, 1981. He would die 71 days later, on August 1st. His funeral is depicted above, part of a new IRSP/IRSM board commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strikes. The Tricolour (for the IRA) and Starry Plough (for the INLA) are used as blankets on the prison beds. The board is flanked by two other IRSP boards, one against the PSNI (“96% of Divis residents do not support the PSNI – defund, disarm, disband”) and one dedicated to founder Seamus Costello (“He was the only one who truly understood what James Connolly meant when he spoke of his vision of the freedom of the Irish people.” – Nora Connolly at Costello’s funeral) that was previously in Hugo Street.

Staff Captain Joe McCann

2021-05-172021-07-18Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Joe McCann was IRA/OIRA OC in the Markets area of Belfast. He was famously photographed among burning buildings in Inglis’s bakery, during protests against the introduction on internment, crouched beneath a Starry Plough and holding an M1. (For more, see Battle Of The Markets, which features the same photograph.) For McCann’s death the following year (on April 15th, 1972) see Joe McCann. This new board replaces a tarp in the same location: see On The Brink Of Sectarian Disaster.

Click and click again to enlarge (to 1200 x 1040)
Copyright © 2021 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f4, 1/800, ISO 80, full size 3420 x 2964
X08135 X08134 X08136 Clondara St civil rights for everyone Liam mcmillen republican movement soldier of the people James Nora Connolly

	Extramural Activity on The Scales Of Justice
	Mark ervine on The Scales Of Justice
	paddyduffy on The Spirit Of Commerce
	Extramural Activity on If Needed, We Shall Rise …
	Sam Leikind on If Needed, We Shall Rise …

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: