Series IV. Posters, 1972-1998, undated
Scope and Content Note
This series contains over 50 posters. The poster collection came with detailed annotations and notes for many of the items and this information has been preserved in the folder descriptions. The original groupings of posters has been maintained. While not all posters are listed at the item level, item counts are given for each category.
Batalion de San Patricio / A Flag to Fly Note: Poster and folder collected in Mexico during the 1993 tour organized by the Irish Mexican Association (3 items). The IMA was organized by Pat Goggins who was also the organizer of the Irish Forum. Prominent members included Chris Matthews of the IRC in Santa Cruz, and Marco Gonzalez, who lead a group of Mexican Army re-enacters. In addition to marching in both the St. Patrick's Day Parade and the Cinco de Mayo Parade in San Francisco, IMA lead a tour to Mexico to watch and participate in San Patricio memorials and to the California border to investigate conditions for illegal immigrants trying to cross the border. Mark Day, a documentary film maker in San Diego (and former Franciscan priest) was involved at the San Diego end. Mark had written a screenplay about the San Patricios and also produced a short documentary about them. Chris Matthews had written a play about the San Patricios called "A Flag to Fly" that was produced in Santa Cruz and Berkeley (and possibly Ireland). Folders about Chris Matthews and IMA are also found in the collection in Series I., 1993, inclusive
Box: 18, Folder: 5 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Free Bill Quinn (1 item) Note: This was a poster carried at demonstrations fighting Bill Quinn's extradition to England. Quinn was a San Francisco Irish American who had been recruited to the Provos by Chuck Malone. He was with the Provos for a few years then returned to San Francisco. He was arrested by the FBI on an extradition warrant by the British government and charged with shooting and killing a British policeman in London. He was extradited and served some time in jail. What's interesting about the photo is the graphic. The graphic of the man behind bars was one that the Officials used for Cabhair, their prisoners' aid group (see folder on Cabhair in Series I). It also appears in issues of the United Irishman before the Official IRA declared its ceasefire. There is some irony in the this in that the image was later used by a group supporting a Provisional IRA man., undated
Box: 18, Folder: 3 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Free Ireland Now: Delancey Street Foundation, John Maher (1 item) Note: This generic poster (includes a shamrock in the upper right hand side) wa created by John Maher of the Delancey Street Foundation and distributed at most of the Irish Action Committee events. Maher also distributed them at any other Irish demonstrations he and his people attended. Maher was an early proponent of branding and framing and he wanted to create a generic poster that Irish activists could bring to any event or demonstration – a message that was broad but not controversial, that wouldn't be dated., undated
Box: 17, Folder: 3 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Free the Birmingham Six – The Winchester Three and Judith Ward (6 items) Note: The poster was produced by the Justice Campaign for Irish Prisoners Abroad. This was a small group, lead by a Dubliner who was a graphic artist who designed the poster that was then distributed to support groups in Ireland, England, Canada, Europe, and South America. The poster was designed so that local groups could fill in the location of the demonstration. Also included are individual blown-up photos of the Birmingham Six when they first appeared in court (after the police had extracted their "confessions"). These photos were distributed to marchers to carry at the demonstrations., undated
Box: 17, Folder: 5 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Grand Jury Subpoeana / Ain't it Grand? (2 items) Notes: Two posters produced by the Bay Area Committee to Stop the Grand Jury. These posters were distributed by the Irish Community Defense Committee. Of note is that one of the individuals being grabbed by the throat in one of the cells has an IRA armband. Separate folders for "Grand Jury" and "Irish Committee Defense/Support Committee" in the collection., undated
Box: 17, Folder: 1 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
History in the Making: A Day of New Irish Film and various posters advertising cultural events (12 items) Note: Poster by the Irish Film Society of San Francisco listing a day of new Irish film at the Roxie Theater. Irish Film Society material is also found in Series I. Other posters contain information on festivals, plays, and the Bloomsummer festival sponsored by a short-lived Irish Community Television program. The poster for the Irish Fair at Fort Mason includes a graphic from the cover of program from an Irish Fair in 1894 (crossed Irish and American flags with a shamrock over both of them). John Jones has the original 1894 program in his collection and loaned it so the organizers could use the graphic. One small poster advertises a set of classes/workshops by the New College Irish Studies Program (See also Dan Cassidy Papers, AIA 049)., 1986-1991, undated, inclusive
Box: 18, Folder: 2 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Internment, undated
The Irish Hunger Strike Commemoration 1981-1991 (1 item) Note from donor: The commemoration was sponsored by an uneasy coalition of Provo and ISRP/INLA supporters. To say that things were tense would be an understatement., 1991, inclusive
Box: 17, Folder: 9 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Irish Republican Club Posters (15 items) This group includes posters from Sinn Fein (Official), later Sinn Fein the Workers Party, and groups or coalitions close to the Officials like the Union of Students of Ireland, Resource Protection Campaign, Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. Some of these posters were sold at book tables, others were just on display at events, 1972, undated
Box: 18, Folder: 4 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Irish Republican Club events: A set of posters announcing events sponsored or cosponsored by local includings: The Only Penetrable Point of a Tyrant is Fear of Death; Support the IRA (with Dick Tracy saying it, a bestselling poster); Bloody Sunday: A Commemoration (advertising a commemoration cosponsored by the IRCs and IAAA); A Spirit Thus Outraged Will Ever Turn and Come Again Demanding Justice (7 items) Note: Some of the posters were created by a group of anarchists who were sympathizers and used to work at the Starry Plough pub in Berkeley. Those posters had a TTG (Tree Toad Graphics) or Potato Underground or Pu logo. The last poster is an interesting case. A few years later the graphic and words showed up on the cover of The Plough, the newsletter of the Official Republican Movement is South Down/South Armagah: http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/the-left-archive-the-plough-from-the-official-republican-movement-in-south-downsouth-armagh-c-1977/ Posters and graphics, as well as people, moved back and forth between Ireland and the U.S. In this case, between Berkeley, California and Newry., 1976, undated
Box: 17, Folder: 8 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Northern Ireland Civil Rights, undated
Box: 18, Folder: 6 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Provo Posters: 20 Years of Death Squads / Disband the mUrDeRers /Victory to the Blanket Men Bloody Sunday / 18th Commemoration – Free the Birmingham Six (3 items) Note: Like the Irish Republican Clubs, Noraid and groups that supported the Provisional Republicans sold posters that were made in Ireland at events in San Francisco., circa 1998, undated
Box: 17, Folder: 7 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Stop the British Death Fleet: Irish Action Committee (1 item) Note: The Irish Action Committee was organized by John Maher, of the Delancey Street Foundation and was a coalition group that consisted of members of Irish Northern Aid, the Irish Republican Clubs, and assorted independent activists. The IAC was mainly involved in specific actions was not an ongoing organization. It was involved in demonstrations for the visit to San Francisco by the British Fleet, Prince Charles'svisit to the SF Bay Area, and the Reagan/Thatcher meeting. Series I also contains documentation of these events.
Box: 17, Folder: 2 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Posters: Patrick Pearse Commemoration, Anne Devlin IRC; "While you're muinchin your organic raisins...Remember you still gotta smash the state!"; Terence MacSwiney, Irish Martyr (1879-1920), undated
Box: 12, Folder: 4 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Posters: The Fureys, The Wolfe Toners - muscial events; several homemade posters in support of Bobby Sands and notices of closings on his death; Sinn Fein Workers Party posters, undated
Box: 18, Folder: 1 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
