Contemporary Murals in Northern Ireland
- Republican Tradition

Republican Tradition: Figure 7

Hunger Strike Mural

Republicans only began seriously to paint murals during the hunger strike of 1981. The hunger strike, during whih 10 republican (IRA – Irish Republican Army – and INLA – Irish National Liberation Army) prisoners died, was a turning point in the development of Sinn Féin which eventually led to the current peace process. Consequently, the hunger strike is still commemorated, as in the mural painted in Lenadoon Avenue, West Belfast, in the spring of 1998. It depicts one of the dead hunger strikers, Joe McDonnell. The accompanying message, in McDonnell’s own words, reads: ‘Our rulers will stop at nothing to attain their ends. They will continue to rule and rob until confronted by men who will stop at nothing to overthrow them.’

Location and Date: Lenadoon Avenue, Belfast, 1998