Eddie Lives

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02857 2015-08-26 EddieStar+

Here is an update to a mural featured previously in Londonderry’s Waterside: The Trooper. British WWI Field-Marshall Douglas Haig’s “backs to the wall” quote originally stood above the image of Iron Maiden’s “Eddie” but this was replaced (when the mural was repainted in 2013 – see M10234) by the red fist and six-pointed star of the UFF on a black border.

See also the Visual History page for Eddie.

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02857 ebrington tce ulster freedom fighters

He Sowed That We Might Reap

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02871 2015-08-26 SeanDolanSociety+

The Derry branch of the 1916 Societies (Fb) is named after Sean Dolan, an IRA volunteer interned at the outbreak of WWII on the prison ship Al Rawdah (WP | saoırse32) before being moved to Crumlin Road gaol. He was released on grounds of ill health shortly before dying in 1941 at age 28 in Derry. The title of this entry comes from Dolan’s gravestone, which is in Ardmore (findagrave).

It was the 1916 Societies that hoisted an Irish tricolour from the roof of Stormont in June 2015 (BBC).

The wide shot below shows the 1916 board next to a Fıanna roll of honour and an IRSP O’Hara-McCreesh hunger-strikers memorial (see Socialist Volunteers).

02869 2015-08-26 RacecourseRdWide+

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X02871 X02869 racecourse rd derry

McMonagle

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02864 2015-08-26 LeafairPkMcMonagle+

This painted board (shown above) to INLA volunteer Neil McMonagle is in Leafair Park, Derry, close to the spot where McMonagle, aged 23, along with friend Liam Duffy, were shot by undercover British soldiers (specifically Sergeant Paul Oram of 14 Intelligence Company (WP)) on February 2, 1983. McMonagle died instantly while Duffy was wounded but survived. The official account alleged that both McMonagle and Duffy were armed; locals deny this. For an account of the killing and a tribute, see these obituaries from republican publications in 1983.

The board shows an armed McMonagle behind a stone wall with a Plough In The Stars flag with a blue background, with the view towards Buncrana (perhaps).

“Vol Neil McMonagle, Derry Brigade INLA. Killed in action 2nd February 1983. “They may kill the revolutionary but never the revolution.””

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Waked & Buried

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02855 2015-08-26 DevineRathkeele+

“In proud and loving memory of Óglach Mickey Devine. Died 20th August 1981 in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh after 60 days on hunger-strike. Mickey was waked and buried from this house [in Rathkeele Way, Derry], the family home of his sister Margaret. Also died 30th March 2005.” For an image of the open coffin within the house, see this An Phoblacht article. Here is a Guardian interview with Margaret (Devine) McCauley.

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X02855 INLA final last tenth hunger striker

Keep Your Eyes On The Road

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02859 2015-08-26 GlendermottEyes+

Above is a piece from the Release The Pressure (Fb) streetart festival in London-/Derry in July, one side full of technicolour eyes by Vyal One (web | Instagram) and the other with swirls by ArtByEoin (web | Fb). If you know who the artist was, please comment or e-mail; there doesn’t seem to be much info on-line about this piece.

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X02859 glendermott st

Red Mick

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02856 2015-08-26 DevineShantallow+

Michael “Mickey” (though here “Micky”) Devine was red-headed and was a founder member of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) in his native Derry (The Plough & The Stars) and also of the INLA (IRSP Derry). The mural on the gable shown above includes the socialist symbols of the red star and the plough, great bear (ursa major), or “big dipper” shining over the towers of Long Kesh, where Devine died on the 21st of August, 1981, after 60 days on hunger strike, the tenth and final striker to die.

The writing that can be seen faintly in the lower third (from a previous version of the mural) reads “They have served their British masters, the poor pathetic fools. They think that inhumanity and cruelty can break us. Haven’t they learnt anything? It strengthens us, it drives us on, for then more than ever we know that our cause is just. INLA Vol. Micky Devine, Long Kesh 1981”

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02856 shantallow derry

Watch Your Back

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02860-2015-08-26-internmentspeakout

Two republican boards at the Eastway roundabout on the eastern side of Creggan estate. The upper board shows an IRA volunteer with RPG-luancher – “Welcome to Creggan. Watch your back on the way out.” – the other is an IRPWA board urging people to speak out against internment of republicans in Maghaberry, Portlaoise, and Hydebank.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02860 irish republican prisoners welfare association

Roll Of Honour

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02870 2015-08-26 RollOfHonour2009+

Mural in Derry commemorating members of Na Fıanna Éıreann, the youth wing of the IRA. The names are listed in the order of death, from earliest to latest, beginning with fifteen-year-old Gerald McAuley who was shot dead in Clonard (Belfast) in 1969, and ending with John Dempsey shot on the Falls Road (Belfast) in 1981.

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X02870 michael sloan eamonn mccormick gerard donaghey david mcauley sean oriordan michael magee joseph campbell john dougal tobias molloy joseph comiskey bernard fox sean hughes michael marley neal mccrory robert allsop james templeton kevin mccauley james o’neill paul mcwilliams brıogaid dhoıre 1909-2009 oglaıgh na héıreann fuaır sıad bás ar son saoırse na héıreann sunburst ógra shınn féın