Keiran Nugent (and Brendan Hughes) has been returned to the left-most spot on the International Wall.
This new board is closely based on the mural (shown in Belfast’s Infamous Prison) which was painted over in October in advance of the November 9th non-binding referendum in Catalonia (see Votes About Votes; the yellow background and some of the lettering from the Catalonia mural can still be seen in the image above). Nugent and Maıréad Farrell were then included in the hunger-strikers mural further down the wall: see I’ll Wear No Convict’s Uniform and Peace With Justice.
New in this version is the inclusion of a reference to the women’s protest in Armagh prison; one of the figures standing in front of the H/A holds the ‘Thatcher – Wanted for murder and torture of Irish prisoners’ poster that previously filled the top-left corner.
As reported at the time, after the Nugent/Hughes mural at the corner of Divis and Northumberland Streets (see Belfast’s Infamous Prison) was painted out to make way for a pro-Catalonia vote mural (see Votes About Votes), Kieran Nugent was added to the hunger-strikers mural further down the international wall, along with Mairéad Farrell, who was the second person, after Nugent, to refuse to wear a prison uniform. A blanketed Brendan Hughes has also been added, above the declaration of independence.
Below is a progress shot (previously posted in Votes About Votes); the original version of the hunger-strikers mural is in Peace With Justice.
Carson (above) and Craig (below), founders of the Ulster Volunteers and the first two leaders of the Ulster Unionist Party, stand watch at the edge of an outdoor pitch and children’s playground in New Mossley, beneath a flag of the 36th (Ulster) division (see wide shot below). Carson’s profile is shown next to the emblem of the 36th division; Craig is shown next to the flag of Northern Ireland.
Joe McDonnell was a Provisional IRA volunteer (óglach) imprisoned in the Maze H-blocks. He was the fifth hunger-striker to die, on July 8th, 1981 after 61 days. The Wolfe Tones wrote a ballad in his memory (for their 1983 LP A Sense Of Freedom), which FAI chief John Delaney was recorded singing in a Dublin pub a few weeks ago (November, 2014) after a 4-1 win by the Republic over the US in a friendly. He at first denied it was him, then apologized, and has kept his job (Guardian).
As of this morning (December 10th, 2014), the song, re-released by the Wolfe Tones as a charity Christmas single in aid of the Simon Community, is the #7 single at itunes.ie.
The mural above was painted in July by Gerard “Mo Chara” Kelly, on the Suffolk Road, Andersonstown, west Belfast.
Here are two details from the ‘Understand The Past’ mural in Mountpottinger Road which is gradually peeling away. For the mural in better days, see Understand The Past.
Triptych of Ian Paisley posters in Corporation Street, a composite of pieces from TLO’s “Doctored Paisley” series. For the middle panel, and more information about Paisley, see Demonizing Paisley. For more images, see this gallery on Slugger.
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.
“End partition” was the message on the mountain (Black Mountain/Slıabh Dubh) last week, shown here between Clonard Monastery on the left (where the Hume-Adams talks took place in 1988 and 1993) and the Cupar Way “peace” line on the right.
At the same time that the new David Ervine board was put in place, the existing board next to it, which dates to 2008, was spruced up. The image above is a wide shot of both boards, while the image below shows the commemorative casting in front. For the original board, see David Ervine; for explanations of the sculpture, including its pipe, prayer-book, ticket, and boots, see Memory Chair.
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).
Extramural Activity 