THE only sign confiscated by the PSNI over a weekend when sectarian hate was plastered over countless loyalist bonfires has been returned – to republican West Belfast.
Red-faced police officers turned up in force at an address in Rodney Parade on Saturday to give back a two-piece artwork paying tribute to the late republican Kevin Hannaway, who passed away in January. Mr Hannaway was one of the 'Hooded Men' tortured by the British army after being arrested in the internment swoops of August 1971. The men's case became a legal cause célèbre over decades with the British government desperately trying to cover up their use of their barbaric torture system known as the 'five techniques'.
Mr Hannaway parted company with the mainstream republican movement and in latter years became associated with a number of dissident organisations.
The Kevin Hannaway tribute was due to be attached to a gable wall in Hugo Street off the Falls Road before its unveiling on Sunday, but before the large artwork could be put up the PSNI arrived on Friday at the house where it was being stored and took it away. Police say a small amount of drugs was also found on the premises and a 52-year-old man has been charged with possession of a class A controlled drug and offering to supply a class C controlled drug.
The unveiling event went ahead as planned on Sunday, attended by a crowd of around 200, including members of the Irish Republican Prisoners' Welfare Association (IRPWA), the dissident republican prisoners support group behind the artwork.
TRIBUTE: The unveiling of the Kevin Hannaway mural artwork went ahead on Sunday as planned
But the incident has caused huge anger in West Belfast because of the PSNI's repeated failure to move against sectarian and hateful signage erected on bonfires in Belfast and across the North. Police stood and watched, for instance, as a boat full of mannequins painted brown and black and dressed to look like migrants was hoisted on top of a bonfire in Moygashel, near Dungannon. The grotesque racist display – which attracted global media attention – was set alight on Thursday night while the PSNI stood and watched.
While the PSNI said they were investigating the boat and effigies as a racist hate crime, no effort was made to remove the display. It was the same story right across the six counties as a huge amount of sectarian and racist signage on bonfires was ignored by the police.
Phoenix Law, who acted for the homeowner and were responsible for the rapid return of the artwork, said: "Following legal action threatened by Phoenix Law, the PSNI have agreed to return a mural of the late Kevin Hannaway, one of the Hooded Men, which they had unlawfully seized from a West Belfast home on Friday."
Phoenix Law's Victoria Haddock, who acted for the Rodney homeowner, said: "There was no lawful basis for the seizure of this mural, which police have now agreed to return to my client following the issue of emergency pre-action correspondence. The seizure had no lawful authority under any search warrant nor any relevance to the offences for which my client was arrested.
"The bigger question for the PSNI is how they can justify the deployment of such draconian powers without any basis, at the very same time as refusing to exercise any power whatsoever to remove offensive and criminal materials placed on bonfires. Such exercise only gives rise to questions about discrimination, which we now intend to pursue via civil proceedings."
National Chairperson of the republican socialist group Saoradh, Stephen Murney, said after the seizure of the artwork: "Kevin Hannaway stands as one of the most significant figures in the modern Irish revolutionary struggle. A lifelong IRA volunteer, he served at every level of the organisation from the 1960s onwards. He was one of the Hooded Men, subjected to state-sanctioned torture during internment and later held senior positions such as Adjutant General and Quartermaster General in the IRA. As recently as 2020 he was once again interned in Portlaoise as a prisoner of war, remaining an unbowed IRA volunteer until his death.
RESPECTED: Kevin Hannaway was a veteran republican who gained fame as one of the 'Hooded Men' tortured by the British state
"This morning's actions prove what many already know: Kevin Hannaway terrified the British state when he lived, and they fear the power of his legacy in death. There is no clearer example of the crown forces' hypocrisy than this. While they mobilise to remove a republican mural from a private home, they refuse to act against loyalist mobs erecting racist and sectarian hate displays in places like Moygashel and loyalist parts of Belfast where bonfires endangering lives and entire communities took place uhindered."
A police spokesperson said: "Detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Serious Crime Branch carried out a search of a residential property in Rodney Drive, West Belfast, on Friday, 11th of July. During the search, a number of items were seized. A billboard was removed from the property while it was established whether the possession of the item constituted any possible offence. Following review, the billboard was returned to the property."
