1999 Photo Contest, Portraits, 2nd prize
Photographer

Seamus Murphy

for Guardian Weekend Magazine

01 January, 1998

Many refused to accept the 'Black and Tan' medal awarded to veterans of the War of Independence (1919-1921) against the British, as it represented acceptance of the result - an Ireland divided into independent and British-ruled territories. In 1916, leaders of the Easter Rising against British domination were executed by firing squad in the yard of Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin, Ireland. The event catalyzed thousands of young men and women to take up arms and fight for Irish independence. Today, surviving veterans of the original Irish Republican Army number among the world's oldest revolutionaries. Most pride themselves that theirs was a military battle, fought against soldiers and not civilians.

About the photographer

Seamus Murphy

Seamus Murphy's work as a photojournalist has taken him on frequent assignments to Afghanistan, but also across the world, from Iran, the Palestinian territories and Iraq, to Ken...

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