Sacred Ireland by Jon Michael Riley Ireland1 | Page 36

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Gable mural in Belfast’s Short Strand neighborhood. A Celtic helmeted woman, perhaps a modern rendition of
the legendary Queen Maeve, sybolizes Ireland, surrounded by faces of those who were assasinated or died as
guests of the British or in the hunger strikes at Long Kesh Prison in the 1970s and 80s. The inscription along
the roofline says, “May their names be among the heroes of Ireland”. On the far right is Bobby Sand’s statement: “Our revenge will be the laughter of our children.” He died in 1981 after 66 days without food.

The Irish Proclamation in both Irish, on the left, and English, carved in Wicklow granite at Arbor Hill, the mass grave of the seven signers of the
Proclamation who faced a British firing squad: Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, Thomas Clarke, Thomas MacDonagh, Sean MacDermott, Joseph
Plunkett and Eamonn Ceannt. For Irish nationalists, this is Holy Ground.

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