Text: Merry Christmas!

Year: 1980s.

Publisher: Provisional IRA.

Artist: Francis ‘Lucas’ Quigley.

Additional information: Illustration from a Christmas card published by the Provisional IRA in the 1980s showing Santa with a sackful of weapons and a RPG. Next to him stands a Christmas tree with a ballot box underneath, while ballots rain down in reference to the “Armalite and ballot box strategy”, whereby armed republican groups pursued their objectives both through violence and through elections (you can see Sinn Féin’s name on the tickets). Armalite was the manufacturer of many of the IRA’s weapons. The text at the bottom identifies Francis ‘Lucas’ Quigley as the artist, a republican prisoner at the maximum security Portlaoise Prison in Ireland (the prison held many members of the IRA during The Troubles).