Belfast tribute to Nelson Mandela

» Peadar Whelan

“The courage shown by Nelson Mandela and the ANC leadership on Robben Island and the that of Bobby Sands and the Hunger Strikers in the H-Blocks and Armagh in 1980 and 1981 are still an inspiration to us”

A NEW MURAL paying tribute to South African revolutionary Nelson Mandela, who recently celebrated his 95th birthday, was unveiled on Belfast’s Falls Road on Friday 9 August.

Local Sinn Féin Assembly member Fra McCann, himself no stranger to being behind prison bars, chaired the proceedings.

Sinn Féin representative Mary McConville, who was imprisoned in Armagh Jail at the time of the anti-criminalisation ‘no wash’ protest, was the main speaker.

She pointed to the similarities between the freedom struggles in Ireland and in South Africa and focused on the way the British and South African governments tried to break the struggles in the prisons by imposing inhumane regimes on captured activists.

“The courage shown by Nelson Mandela and the ANC leadership on Robben Island and the that of Bobby Sands and the Hunger Strikers in the H-Blocks and Armagh in 1980 and 1981 are still an inspiration to us,” Mary said.

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