20 minute read
Mícheál Mac Donncha
MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA presents Danny Devenny’s recent painting titled ‘The Session’ which depicts Bobby Sands along with John Lennon, Woody Guthrie, Víctor Jara and Ché Guevara. Mac Donncha also takes us through Danny’s prison experiences which were part of the inspiration for creating this striking work.
THE SESSION
BY DANNY D comrades, community agus ceol
“When I decided to create the painting, I hoped to have Bobby remembered not only for his death in the H-Blocks but also as we knew him - full of life, energy, serious and focused when needed, but also bursting with passion, laughter and craic. The same attributes that made him such a leader when called upon. How the great ones should be remembered.” – DANNY DEVENNY (RIGHT)
In the glow of light, tightly gathered in a cell, they play music and sing together. John Lennon, Bobby Sands, Woody Gurthrie, Victor Jara, Che Guevara. It is an extraordinary picture, a vision of revolutionaries who were also ordinary people who loved music and knew the value of friendship and comradeship. The picture can be seen in one way as Bobby’s dream of playing music with these men, something its creator Danny D was well placed to express as he was a friend and fellow political prisoner with Bobby.
“I think of him in his cell, big smile on his face, playing his guitar,” recalls Danny. He first met Bobby in Crumlin Road Prison when
Bobby came looking for a ‘hanky’, a cotton handkerchief decorated with republican images by Danny, the first flowering of his activist art.
In 1973, Danny had been arrested and wounded in an IRA bank raid that went wrong. He was lucky to survive, as was the RUC man who wounded and arrested him. Both were in a position to shoot the other fatally at close range. Neither did so. Many years later, Danny was confronted by a UVF gunman at An Phoblacht’s office in 44
Parnell Square, Dublin, where he was working. The gunman could have killed him, but shot him in the leg instead. No wonder Danny talks about having had several lives.
He is renowned for his long connection with the Short Strand district, but he jokes that it all began across the city on Durham
Street on the Lower Falls. His father and uncle were from County
Donegal and arrived during the 1921 pogrom and his uncle was wounded in a loyalist attack at that time. Danny’s father’s first wife
Molly McEvoy died young and he then married a Donegal woman, Mary Lafferty, Danny’s mother, who still lives in Short Strand to this day.
“I grew up in a mixed community. Apart from relatives, having Protestant cousins and friends, all my neighbours - their fathers were working in the shipyards. So, we grew up, we mucked around, sectarianism wasn’t talked about, wasn’t thought about. Bear in mind, my parents were from Donegal and we didn’t see ourselves as anything other than Irish from day one. My mother was from the Gaeltacht and went to an Irish speaking school.”
He recalls returning to Short Strand from a social outing one night in 1970, the very night when the district was attacked by loyalists, intent on another pogrom, who were thrown back by armed Volunteers of the IRA and civilians of the local defence committee.
• Bobby Sands and Danny D (circled) in the Cages of Long Kesh
The following year, on the day internment without trial was imposed, Danny joined the IRA. “I was probably one of the worst IRA men ever invented. I was told ‘go away there Dan and paint the walls!’” he laughs.
In jail, his artistic skills were discovered and he moved from decorating handkerchiefs to illustrating articles in Republican News. On his release in 1976, some of his comrades had died in the struggle or were re-captured and in jail again. Danny went to work full time for Republican News in Belfast in the period when British Labour Secretary of State Roy Mason was attempting to close down the paper. He failed and Danny, after another spell in jail, went on to head up the design and graphics of the newly amalgamated An Phoblacht/Republican News, based in Dublin from 1979. He speaks highly of the team of young people who transformed the paper into one of the most dynamic and popular revolutionary publications in the world.
Week by week, it chronicled the tragedy of the 1981 Hunger
Strike, which was deeply personal to Danny. It was he who had taken delivery of a ‘comm’ with one of the first pieces of writing for publication by his friend Bobby Sands. And based on an illustration of a sky lark he found in an ornithology book, Danny designed the image of the lark and barbed wire that illustrated Bobby’s story ‘The
Lark and the Freedom Fighter’, an image that became known as the
Spirit of Freedom, an icon to republicans from then on.
It was the rediscovery of Gerard Harley’s photographs of Bobby
Sands carrying a flag at a march in West Belfast in August 1976 (see An Phoblacht, Number 4, 2019) that gave Danny the image he needed to make ‘The Session’. He had long wanted to do it but lacked the right image of Bobby. The picture immediately captured people’s imaginations and prints of it now hang in many homes. He recalls that Bobby’s favourite singer was Rod Stewart on whom he styled his looks, earning him the nickname Rod in the Cages of Long Kesh. And his most vivid memory of Bobby singing was with the late Rab McCullough at a Christmas concert in the Kesh in 1975 when they sang ‘The Mandolin Wind’.
Working with other mural artists whom he is always quick to credit, Danny has created hundreds of murals in Belfast and in many places beyond. An activist first, he says:
THE SINGERS
John Lennon (1940-1980)
Of Liverpool Irish descent, John Lennon spoke out against internment in 1971 and Bloody Sunday in 1972. At an anti-interment march in 1971 he said: “If it’s a choice between the IRA and the British Army, I’m with the IRA. But if it’s a choice between violence and non-violence, I’m with non-violence. So, it’s a very delicate line.” He recorded two songs, ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ and ‘The Luck of the Irish’, both banned by the BBC. He met Irish republicans in New York, including the late Gerry O’Hare. He successfully fought US government efforts to deport him because of his progressive politics including opposition to the Vietnam war. Bobby Sands was among prisoners in Long Kesh who signed a petition to support him. He was murdered in New York on 8 December 1980.
Bobby Sands (1954-1981)
“Bobby loved John Lennon. He would have loved being in a session with him. And the others. He admired them all. There is a photo of a session of poitín-drinking prisoners in Cage Eleven which Danny based his painting on...Ewan McColl’s fine ballad ‘Tim Evans’ was one of Bobby’s first songs. Christy’s renditions led him to Woody Guthrie. James Taylor, Neil Young, Dylan, Bowie, Loudon Wainright III, and Leonard Cohen, all influenced him. He used the melody of Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald’ years later in the H Blocks for ‘Back Home in Derry.” - Gerry Adams
Woody Guthrie (1912-1967)
American singer-songwriter, socialist, anti-fascist. He championed working people and labour unions and their struggles, especially during the Depression of the 1930s. “I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world, and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you down a dozen times and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter how hard it’s run you down and rolled over you, no matter what colour, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you.”
• Bobby Sands (circled) and comrades enjoying a session in the Cages
“When asked the question, do you see yourself as an artist, well I always say Jimmy Lundy who sat beside me in primary school used to say to me all the time ‘Dan, you’re some artist!’ And that’s good enough for me.”
Danny’s recollections are laced with the names of comrades, friends, family, and community, especially those in Short Strand, where he is resident for nearly 60 years, though he says he is still seen as a “blow-in”. “My parents had 16 children and half the Short Strand are related to us now. It is like a village. Everyone knows each other and everyone looks out for each other.”
Danny D rarely signs his work. He is content to let the image go its own way and the message with it. He says that, whatever his talents, they have “sailed me through life” and he is not interested in adulation as an artist: “We are accidental celebrities. This is all about the community.” ■
The above article draws from Danny’s interview with Ruairi
Mac Corsáin in the Rebel Rebel Podcast. Full interview available on Youtube ‘Ro in Conversation With, Episode #5
Danny Devenney’ 29 June 2021.
Victor Jara (1932-1973)
Chilean singer-songwriter, poet, theatre director, cultural ambassador for the socialist government of President Salvador Allende. He started the ‘new song’ movement in Chile and became a powerful and popular performer with an international reputation. The democratically elected Allende Popular Unity government was overthrown in a military coup backed by the US Government in September 1973. Victor Jara was tortured and shot dead in the national stadium in Santiago and his body dumped on the street. In July 2018, eight retired Chilean military officers were sentenced to 15 years for Victor Jara’s murder.
Che Guevara (1928-1967)
Cuban revolutionary of Argentinian birth and Irish ancestry (Lynch). “We must strive every day so that this love of living humanity is transformed into actual deeds, into acts that serve as examples, as a moving force.” “I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves.” “The first duty of a revolutionary is to be educated.”
An Seisiún:
Do Danny Devenny
Cúigear cairde i gcillín le chéile Faoi sholas láidir ag seinm cheoil. John, Bobby, Woody, Che 's
Victor, Gáire á roinnt agus poitín á ól.
Ruaig á chur ar brón 's ar eagla Buille láidir in éadan daoirse Ceol an phobail, ceol gan srianta Amhrán ghrá 's amhrán saoirse.
Mícheál Mac Donncha
Britannia waives the rules
PEADAR WHELAN outlines the details and background to the British Government’s proposals to shut down investigations into ‘conflict era’ killings.
When Brandon Lewis, the British Secretary of State, took to his feet in the British Parliament on 14 July to outline the Tory government’s legislative package that would close down investigations into ‘conflict era’ killings, he knew his proposals would be rejected out of hand. He knew that his government would face the anger of all the North’s political parties and provoke the ire of groups representing the families of victims and survivors from across the political spectrum.
It seems that the British government is also calculating that they can sideline the concerns of the Dublin government, as these plans will supersede the Stormont House Agreement of which Dublin is a joint guarantor, and the United States administration of Joe Biden, which has kept a clear watching brief on political developments in Ireland.
It is an indication that the Johnson government is driven by the same ‘Britannia Waives the Rules’ worldview that drove the Brexit campaign!
It is now clear that there was only one objective for this Tory government; ditching the Stormont House Agreement to close down any avenue of investigation into its politico-military campaign in Ireland and that providing an amnesty for its soldiers who killed Irish civilians is a secondary consideration.
That the British government would elevate cynicism and crassness to the level it has should come as no surprise to anyone, let alone anyone in Ireland. And if anyone in Ireland is surprised at the extent of the legislation outlined by the
• Brandon Lewis, British Secretary of State and British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson
North’s Secretary of State Brandon Lewis on 14 July, then they have misread the signs.
These signs were there on Tuesday May 11 when Justice Siobhan Keegan, sitting as coroner in the Ballymurphy Massacre inquest cases, ruled that all ten people killed by British paratroopers were unarmed, posed no threat and were unjustifiably killed. That same day, the British Queen’s speech opening parliament stated that a “statute of limitations” for killings which occurred during the conflict in the North would be enacted.
At the time, Mark Thompson of Relatives for Justice reacted to the proposed legislation and the timing of its announcement saying, “When you think Britain can’t go any lower, it does”.
While Lewis’s speech was flagged up with speculation that a statute of limitations barring prosecutions for offences committed prior to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement would be at the heart of British government legislation, the wide ranging nature of the legal framework outlined to an almost empty chamber caught most observers on the hop.
The suggested legislation according to Lewis “will apply equally to all troublesrelated incidents”. And although he is making no difference between the combatant groups, viewing the IRA no differently from their opposition British forces including Britain’s proxies in the loyalist death squads, it is nonetheless geared towards ensuring that British soldiers active in Ireland during Operation Banner would not face prosecutions if they were involved in killings.
However, Brandon Lewis is also advocating an end to inquests into conflict related deaths, stopping police ombudsman investigations as well as any civil actions stemming from inquest findings. This clearly proves that this British government is intent on closing down any inquiry that shines a light on the actions of the British state and its forces during the conflict.
Since the 2013 conviction, and subsequent release, of British Marine Sergeant Alexander Blackman for summarily executing a wounded Taliban fighter in Afghanistan, successive British governments have been in a quandary over how to legislate to provide an amnesty for
JIM SLOAN JIM McCANN TONY ‘TC’ CAMPBELL
BRENDAN MAGUIRE JOHN LOUGHRAN AMBROSE HARDY
those who killed in the illegal Iraq and Afghan wars.
The Overseas Operations Bill, whose long title is ‘A Bill to Make provision about legal proceedings and consideration of derogation from the European Convention on Human Rights in connection with operations of the armed forces outside the British Islands’, was the part solution to that particular conundrum.
It follows a long line of British derogation from European human rights legislation
and provides an amnesty for those who, like Blackman, executed a wounded man who could have been taken prisoner.
However, this law couldn’t be used to protect British soldiers responsible for killing and other offences in the North due to the British claim of sovereignty over the Six Counties which sees the British present the Northern conflict as “an internal law and order” problem, ignoring its colonial roots and centuries old occupation.
The underpinning legal problem for successive British governments was the application of Article 2 compliant inquests, conducted under European Court of Human Rights strictures, which found Britain in breach of human rights standards, found many killings such as the Ballymurphy killings unjustified thus leading to a number of British soldiers facing prosecution for murder.
One such case is that of former Life Guards soldier Dennis Hutchings, who is on trial for the attempted murder of 27-year-old Tyrone man John Pat Cunningham.
The Hutchings case has become the lighting rod that has attracted the British political and military establishment, the right wing press, and of course unionist militarists in a campaign to exonerate the actions of the British soldiers in the North.
The term ‘vexatious prosecution’ has crept into the discourse around legacy as the defenders of British Army killers, in one of the great ironies of the conflict, attack the legal system that protected them for years.
That protection was evident when the Paratrooper Regiment killers A and C of 'Official IRA' Volunteer Joe McCann were acquitted of his killing in May this year.
The anger felt at the collapse of the McCann case was compounded just weeks ago when Soldier F, the only Para charged over the Bloody Sunday killings, and Soldier B, charged with shooting dead 15-year-old Daniel
NEW LODGE 6 INQUEST
The North’s Attorney General has ordered a fresh inquest in to the killing of six unarmed men in the New Lodge area of North Belfast over 3 and 4 February 1973.
Known as the New Lodge 6, the men were gunned down in a series of shootings that had all the hallmarks of a combined ‘dirty tricks’ operation.
In the initial shooting, around 11pm on Saturday 3 February, IRA Volunteers Jim Sloan and Jim McCann were shot dead from a passing car, most likely by members of the British Army’s undercover Military Reaction Force (MRF), at the junction of the New Lodge and Antrim Roads.
As locals came on to the streets, British Army snipers opened fire from the top of the New Lodge Flats and Duncairn Gardens.
Four men, IRA Volunteer Tony ‘TC’ Campbell, Brendan Maguire, John Loughran, and Ambrose Hardy lost their lives, while Charlie Carson was severely wounded.
None of the Volunteers who died that night were on active service and were unarmed when killed. As per their modus operandi, the British branded the dead as “gunmen”.
With the news that Attorney General Brenda King has ordered a new inquest comes the hope that the families and survivors of the killing spree will get answers to the many questions about that night, not least that the British Army operation was a planned ambush involving the MRF and those stationed on the high rise flats.
In the 48 years since the killings, locals have maintained that the first shootings, outside Lynch’s bar, were carried by the British Army’s covert MRF unit as a ruse to draw the IRA onto the streets, presenting themselves as targets to British snipers deployed on the flats, who for the first time in the North, would be using newly developed infrared night sights.
Were this scenario to be substantiated in any way, it would expose the tactics of the British at the time in the North using death squads such as the MRF while also proving that the British planned the situation to allow them to ‘battle test’ a new weapon.
In 2017, King’s predecessor as Attorney General John Larkin refused to order a fresh inquest and referred the case to the Director of Public Prosecutions to ask the PSNI to investigate the case, the implication being that AG Larkin believed a ‘criminal’ investigation was warranted.
However, the DPP refused to investigate, resulting in it going back to King’s office who has reopened the case. Significantly, this sets the original inquests aside and means the new hearing will take place under the Article 2 Right to Life compliant rules set out by the European Court of Human Rights.
Essentially this means that the coroner can examine all the circumstances around the killings which could happen under the old regime where only the deceased could be identified and the date, place, and cause of death dealt with.
If the British government’s new legislation is enacted in full, the facts of what happened on the New Lodge Road will forever be buried in a British secret files bunker and the families of those massacred will never see justice as the military planners and their political overlords will remain beyond scrutiny. ■
• Family members and supporters of the Tyrone man John Pat Cunningham (left) protesting near the scene of his killing by former British soldier Dennis Hutchings
Hegarty also in Derry, had the cases against them dropped.
The latest announcement by British Secretary of State Lewis will facilitate blocking inquests and Ombudsman investigations and also prevent families from taking civil actions against the British state. It will ensure that those in the British establishment who were ultimately responsible for the actions of Britain’s forces and who controlled the unionist death squads will not face scrutiny.
Mark Thompson of Relatives for Justice (RFJ) in an angry response to Johnston and Lewis’ legacy proposals accused the British of the “mother of all cover ups”.
Thompson said, “these unilateral proposals have no political or community support whatsoever. The British government signed the Stormont House Agreement on legacy in 2014, which provided for human rights compliant investigations with full accountability for all sides. From that day and hour, it has attempted to back track and undermine the agreement”.
According to the RFJ director, “there are over 450 complaints residing with the Police Ombudsman’s Office which
relate to RUC misfeasance in public office and criminal wrongdoing regarding state and non-state killings. There are over 45 inquests waiting to be heard and 40 awaiting progress; these inquests largely involve the state withholding information, even from coroners,” he said.
Thompson added that, “for two decades, a cabal of senior officers in the PSNI, former members of RUC Special Branch, and the Ministry of Defence have been fighting families tooth and nail, and using secret courts and other proceedings to prevent effective investigation, delay investigation, and discredit investigations. Their work has resulted in today’s announcement”.
Echoing Thompson’s remarks, Sinn Féin Joint Head of Government in the North Michelle O’Neill said these “unilateral proposals are a clear breach of the British government’s Stormont House Agreement and their New Decade New Approach commitments ...[and] is opposed by all five main political parties in the north and the Irish government.
“If the current legacy process is to deliver for victims in a human rights compliant manner, there can be no amnesty or statute of limitation for British state forces or intention to interfere with due legal process in respect of legacy inquests, judicial reviews, civil cases or prosecution cases involving British soldiers already before the courts”. ■
• 'Official IRA' Volunteer Joe McCann
• 15-year-old Daniel Hegarty who was killed on Bloody Sunday
