physical force

McLarnan, McCabe, Doherty

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“Dedicated to the memory of INLA volunteer Matt McLarnon, Nora McCabe and Peter Doherty who were murdered in this area by British state forces during the 1981 H-Block hunger strike. A Mhuıre banríon na nGael guí ar a son”. The area in question is Clonard/Falls. Doherty and McCabe were hit by plastic bullets; McLarnon was shot by a sniper on Divis tower. Erected by a Sınn Féın group (Lower Falls/Clonard Committee) rather than INLA. Linden Street, Belfast.

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Free Niall Lehd

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Larne man and member of the Continuity IRA or Irish Republican National Congress (IRNC – see Join The IRNC and Maid Of Erin; also IRPC, who now have a Fb page, as does the Free Niall Lehd campaign) member Niall Lehd was initially arrested on explosives charges in 2014 (BBC-NI) and given early release in 2016 (An Phoblacht). He is associated with Ciaran Maxwell, who says that he became a republican bomb-maker out of fear (RTÉ | Express). He was returned to jail in March (Irish News).

Below is a wide shot from 2018-02 showing the advertising hoarding that appears to be disused and (another shot of) the ‘RIP Jamie’ graffiti below.

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Beır Bua

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In the background of this board can be seen the old Divis flats. The flats were built to replace the tightly-packed streets of the lower Falls. After the first three blocks were completed in 1969, there was a plan to have a mixture of flats all the way up to Dunville Park (“Phase 2” in this 30-minute BBC video on the flats, which also includes the story of its eventual demise.

On top are the words “saoırse [freedom]” and “beır bua [seize victory]”, along with imagery of the four provinces and a lark in barbed wire.

This board has been added to the “D company” corner at Northumberland and Divis streets (see Our Struggle Continues), in the (blacked out) spot of the Orlando nightclub shooting mural.

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Murdered By Cowards

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“In loving memory of Taughmonagh residents Brian McMillan, Alan ‘Rocky’ Meehan, Dennis Berrty (Sgt UDA), Thomas Vance (2 Para), Thomas Douglas. Murdered by cowards during the conflict in Northern Ireland. Those we love don’t go away, they walk beside us every day.”

McMillan and Meehan were civilians shot along with TA staff sergeant (and English Catholic) Joseph Flemming on July 9th, 1972.

Dennis Berry was shot by the UVF after leaving the UDA social club in Taughmonagh. According to Lost lives, “Reliable loyalist sources said the shooting was the result of a personal row rather than having any political or organisational basis.” (p. 441)

Thomas Vance died in the IRA’s 1979 ambush of the British Army at Narrow Water Castle, near Warrenpoint (WP), on the same day that Louis Mounbatten was killed. (Republican mural in the Peter Moloney Collection.)

Thomas Douglas was shot while walking along the street. His family denied he was a leading loyalist and simply a member of the Orange Order (CAIN | Fb).

This plaque has been added to the UDA memorial garden in Taughmonagh (at the corner of Finbank Gardens & Malfin Drive).

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Battle Of Long Kesh

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CR gas, along with CS, VX and other chemical agents, was developed at the MoD lab in Porton Down, and authorised and available for use from 1973 onwards against prisoners in Long Kesh (Guardian). Jim McCann was in Long Kesh during the ‘Battle Of Long Kesh’, when republican prisoners attempted to burn down the cages in which they were being kept in protest at conditions in the camp (An Phoblacht). His memoir, And The Gates Flew Open (An Ceathrú Póilí), continues the campaign by him and other prisoners to get the British to admit that the gas was used on inmates during the riot. The book was launched last month in the Cultúrlann.

In the lower left corner is a quoted telegram from Fr. Denis Faul, Fr. Raymond Murray: “To international Red Cross … Visited Long Kesh today with others … Request immediate investigation into use of CR gas … sub-human conditions … SOS … come immediately …” 20 Oct. 1974. These two wrote an 80-page report on the conditions at the camp following the event, entitled The Flames Of Long Kesh.

For more information, see the post on the similar 2014 mural that marked the 40th anniversary of the battle. In-progress shots are in a separate entry.

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32 Or Nothing

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This poster, which is all over the lower Falls, is in response to recent Gerry Adams  interviews, one with Peter Taylor, in which he told dissidents to “Go away”, and aninterview with Andrew Marr where Adams said that the IRA is gone: “We are not going anywhere, Gerry. 32 [county Ireland] or nothing … the IRA.”

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The Grey Wolf

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Tucked away at the end of Ashfield Crescent in north Belfast is the Dunmore base – there is another in Coleraine – of the North Irish Horse (web | Fb), a light cavalry reconnaissance unit of the British Army. It was originally created in 1902; after recent restructuring, it comes under the command of the Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry.

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