London-/Derry

The Executive Collapses

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2015-08-04 WorkersStrikeDerryClose+

The Ulster Workers Council (UWC), formed in 1974 with the backing of the UDA, organized a general strike in opposition to the December 1973 Sunningdale Agreement – signed by the British government – which would have shared power with Nationalists in the north and established a cross-border council involving the Dublin government. The strike went on for two weeks in May 1974 (during which the Dublin-Monaghan bombings took place, killing 33 people in the Republic) and concluded with the collapse of the Northern Ireland Executive and rule reverting to Westminster.

The mural was painted for the 30th anniversary of the strike and is now partially covered with ivy (see below). For the mural in better days see M02610. The photograph reproduced can be seen on the Bel Tel.

2015-08-04 WorkersStrikeDerry+

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Flag Of Flags

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02766 2015-08-16 ThistleCourt+

Three images of flags. In the one above, flags are seen on either side of the Short Strand “peace” line: the Irish tricolour and the flag of Palestine stand over a Union flag hung next to the local bonfire site.

The second is a “flag of flags” in Tullycarnet – the Union flag, the cross of St. George,  St. Andrew’s Saltire, and the Ulster banner, all together around the red hand of Ulster and the crown, and “No Surrender”.

In the third, the flag of Hamas flies above the red-and-yellow Starry Plough of the Irish Republican Socialist Party in Derry’s Bogside.

02877 2015-08-28 FlagOfFlagsMagennis+

02805 2015-08-24 ArabFlag+

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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United Irishwomen

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2015-08-14 MnáNahÉireannLeft+

Here are two images of the extremes of the Mná Na hÉıreann mural.

In the four corners are circles of Betsy Gray, Anne Devlin, Mary Ann McCracken, and Máıre Drumm. Gray and McCracken were Presbyterians; Gray fought (or at least, was killed) in the 1798 rebellion, as did McCracken’s brother Henry Joy; Mary Ann went on to work for the poor of Belfast and lobby against slavery. Anne Devlin assisted in Robert Emmet’s 1803 rising. (National Graves Assoc) Máıre Drumm was vice-president of Sınn Féın and commander of Cumann Na mBan, who are shown marching on the right-hand side.

In the cloth cap and holding a rifle is Eithne Coyle, a leader and later president of Cumann Na mBan, imprisoned both by the Black and Tans before the treaty and after it by the Provisional Irish government (WP). For the photograph on which her pose here is based, see An Phoblacht‘s History Of Cumann na mBan, which also includes the photo of marching women (discussed previously in Mothering Sunday In Beechmount) though the faces have been changed here, presumably to those of more contemporary volunteers. The same is probably true of the third woman with a bin lids on the left – leave a comment or send an e-mail if you can put a name to any of these faces.

See also Do You Care?

2015-08-14 MnáNahÉireannRight+

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02734 X02737 h-block do you care? funeral republican ira

Do You Care?

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2015-08-14 MnáNahÉireannInsideLeft+

Here are two details from the Mná Na hÉıreann mural. This one shows three Derry women protesting the conditions in Armagh Women’s Prison and in the H-Blocks. This article on Mary Nelis (the protester on the right, with Kathleen Deeny and Theresa Deery) describes the photograph on which this part of the mural is based. The women in Armagh prison were allowed to wear their own clothes and so were not ‘on the blanket’ as their male counterparts in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh were. However, they did engage in a “no wash” protest, which lasted from February 1980 until March 1981, and three of them – Maıréad Farrell, Mary Doyle, and Margaret Nugent – joined the 1980 hunger strike.

In the second image, below, grieving mothers, wives, and sisters stand over a coffin draped in the Irish tricolour with paramilitary gloves and beret on top.

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Mná Na hÉıreann/Women Of Ireland

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2015-08-14 MnáNahÉireannMid+

Countess Markievicz, carrying a flag of Cumann Na mBan, and Ethel Lynch, carrying a flag of the Derry IRA, take centre stage in the Mná Na hÉıreann mural in London-/Derry/Doıre’s bogside. Markievicz is famous for her role in the Easter Rising of 1916 (WP); Lynch died in December 1974 of injuries sustained when a bomb exploded prematurely. (Derry Journal – also contains the photo on which the painting above is based.) Between them, “Liberty leads the people” waving an Irish tricolour.

This is the one of three posts detailing the 2014-09 piece. See also: Do You Care? and United Irishwomen.

Launched 2014-09-30. In-progress shot in Derry Journal.

2015-08-14 MnáNahÉireannFull+

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02738 X02733 brıogáıd dhoıre maire drumm mary-ann mccracken betsy gray anne devlin h-block armagh do you care

#DerryHappy

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2015-08-11 DerryHappy+

This 2015 mural in the Bogside in support of a Twitter campaign shows a brain giving birth to the idea of love, smiley faces giving the ‘V for victory’ salute and other cheery images and colours.

Update: Here’s Sinn Féin’s Martina Anderson being interviewed in August 2016 in front of the mural after a bonfire was erected and set alight at the bottom of the flyover (Derry Journal).

X03752 2016-08-16 Martina Bogside+

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Socialist Volunteers

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02757 2015-08-08 IRSPBoard+

The board above, on Derry’s Racecourse Road, commemorates two hunger-strikers from Derry, Patsy O’Hara and Michael Devine, both members of the INLA; the third INLA hunger-striker was Kevin Lynch, from nearby Dungiven. The seven others who died were members of the IRA, whose political wing was Sınn Féın, while the Irish Republican Socialist Party, who sponsored this board, serves as the political face of the INLA.

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02757 irish republican army IRSP páırtí poblachtach sóısıalach na héıreann plough stars red star raised Armalite vol bobby sands francis hughes ray mccreesh joe mcdonnell martin hurson kieran doherty tom mcelwee belfast armagh tyrone

The Thirtieth Of January 1972

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2015-08-07 GoyaDerry+

Above is a local interpretation of Robert Ballagh’s 1970 rendering of Goya’s The Third Of May 1808 in Glenfada Park, Derry/Doıre, site of four deaths on Bloody Sunday, 1972.

The original commemorates Spanish resistance to the forces of Napoleon (WP). For this Derry version, features from the city’s skyline – the Guildhall, St. Columb’s Cathedral, and an intact Governor Walker column – have replaced the original’s outline of Madrid, as well as an insignia of the Paras on the arm of a soldier. 

For Ballagh’s original (“1970”) version and a description and video of the launch see bloodysundaymarch.org. Here is an Eamonn McCann lecture on the political history of the Goya painting. Until recently, the piece above was adjacent to a version of Picasso’s Guernica.

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02720 Jim Wray, William McKinney, Gerard McKinney, Gerard Donaghy paratroop regiment