From the onset the viewer is faced with the Christ-like imagery of the mural. The gentleman in the foreground, Raymond McCartney, is seen gazing into the distance, past this realm and into something deeper. With a blanket draped over his shoulders, a long hair and beard, and a gaunt face McCartney is depicted as the martyr of the hunger strikes. The Christ imagery recalls Christ’s fasting in the desert and the suffering dealt in the hands Standing directly in front of a red “H”, representative of the “H-Block” prisons of Long Kesh, and the clouds of the background representing a “spiritual storm over the six counties of Northern Ireland,” remind the viewer of the far spanning gravite of the hunger strikes.
One of the artists of the mural recalls his experience, “My memory of painting this mural was spending an afternoon at Raymond McCartney’s home listening to his personal account of the hunger strike which was both horrifying and fascinating.” The prison window on the top left corner is “a window in Armagh women’s prison where women went on hunger strike to show solidarity with the hunger strikers in Long Kesh. The significance of this mural is its inclusion of various state of Northern Ireland during the hunger strikes.
The monochromatic scheme is interrupted by a single hint of color- the red “H”. The use of the red contrasts the somber tone of the two figures, serving as a reminder of the boundaries imposed while imprisoned without political status. The unevenness in the size of the two figures is perhaps a commentary on the lack of validation that the female hunger strikers received. Portrayed further back in the composition and of smaller size than McCartney, the female hunger strikers’ gender remains ambiguous; further supporting the lack of acknowledgement the female hunger strikers received.