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The 'LaundryMen' series of drawings constitute one element of a much broader piece of research entitled 'The State of Liverpool' (see below). The drawings depict an infamous event in the history of the troubles in the North of Ireland. The fictitious laundry service toured Catholic areas touting for custom at cut-price rates. The clothes collected could then be subjected to forensic tests and returned the following week. Regular runs would also provide an opportunity for observation of particular suspect houses.

On the Twinbrook Estate, Belfast 20th October 1972, an undercover operation using a Four Square Laundry van was ambushed by the Provisional IRA.

Source: 'The Guineapigs' by John McGuffin (1974, 1981)Chapter 9 Down on the Killing Floor.

The State of Liverpool

The State of Liverpool will examine how planning decisions have effected the Bootle, Dingle, Huyton and Toxteth areas of Liverpool.
The study will investigate the proposition that planning policy effectively 'cut off' large areas of inner city and suburban Liverpool.

The three sections of the study are as follows:

a) Militarisation
A study of how military strategists and planners operated in Belfast and Derry from the start of the 1970's in order to compare their actions with that of the civil authorities in Liverpool during the same period.

b) The Disenfranchised
The effects on a society subject to a series of hostile and restrictive planning decisions.

c) The Way Out
A series of proposals to re-open and regenerate the ghetto.