McKee21

Loyalist Graffiti
Peter McKee Archive // County Down, Antrim, Tyrone & L/Derry :: Loyalist Graffiti
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What is happening in the photo?

Loyalist graffiti, Northern Ireland, 1970s, reads: “Support the UVF, Sands rot in hell.”

UVF stands for the Ulster Volunteer Force, a loyalist paramilitary group, whose main goal was to combat Irish Republicanism, and more specifically the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and to maintain Northern Ireland’s status as part of the United Kingdom.

Sands is referring to Bobby Sands, a member of the IRA who died during a hunger strike while imprisoned at HM Prison Maze on the 5th of May, 1981.