Bobby Sands MP mural on the Falls Road, Belfast, Ireland UK, commemorating the 1981 IRA hunger striker with republican imagery and quotations.
Image details
Contributor:
Tony SmithImage ID:
HEW1F0File size:
33.7 MB (1.4 MB Compressed download)Releases:
Model - no | Property - noDo I need a release?Dimensions:
3880 x 3040 px | 32.9 x 25.7 cm | 12.9 x 10.1 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
22 December 2016Location:
mural at the Sinn Féin office, Falls Road and Sevastopol Street, West Belfast, Northern IrelandMore information:
Large republican mural of Bobby Sands on the gable wall of the Sinn Féin office at the junction of Falls Road and Sevastopol Street in West Belfast, Northern Ireland. Sands, born in 1954, was a member of the Provisional IRA, a prisoner in the Maze/Long Kesh and leader of the 1981 hunger strike protesting against the withdrawal of Special Category Status for republican prisoners. During the strike he was elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone. He died on 5 May 1981 after 66 days without food. The mural shows a smiling portrait of Sands framed by broken chains, republican emblems and inscriptions. Visible wording includes “Bobby Sands MP”, “Everyone, republican or otherwise, has their own particular role to play” and “Our revenge will be the laughter of our children”, a phrase widely associated with Sands and reproduced on this wall. A Bobby Sands image has appeared on this site since the late 1980s. The Sinn Féin office building was demolished and rebuilt around 2000, when the present mural composition was created on the new gable; Danny Devenny and Marty Lyons were among artists associated with it. The wall incorporates United Irishmen symbolism, including a harp and cap of liberty, while the border of breaking chains evokes imprisonment and release. The mural has been repainted and restored over the years. It stands on the Falls Road mural trail, where republican, nationalist, loyalist and other political wall art records aspects of the Troubles and their aftermath. Sands remains a deeply contested historical figure: revered within republican tradition, while the IRA campaign in which he participated caused deaths, injuries and lasting trauma. The mural is therefore both a memorial and a politically charged public artwork, illustrating how Belfast’s streets continue to carry competing memories of conflict, identity, imprisonment, protest and commemoration.
