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THE HUNGERSTRIKE -
THE FINAL STRUGGLE
Seamus P. Metress Ph.D.
Chapter 1-- The
Ideology and Impact of the Irish Hunger Strike
The Sociohistorical Context of the Hunger Strike
The Hunger Strike is an
ancient Irish custom that was used for solving serious personal
and social problems. The concept was originally an
Indo-European method for fighting injustice. However, in Celtic
times, in Ireland when one was up against a more powerful
adversary on could literally starve oneself on the adversary’s
doorstep. This situation would hopefully shame or scare an
individual into concessions.
The Hunger Strike was
codified in the early Brehon Laws of Celtic Ireland. The process
of fasting was knows a Toscad. It was usually employed
against a chieftain by someone by someone of lower class. The
plaintiff had to serve notice to the defendant before commencing
a fast. In fact, the defendant of starvation was supposed to
fast along with the plaintiff. If the plaintiff died of
starvation the defendant had to pay an indemnity to the
plaintiff’s relatives and could be subjected to fearful
supernatural penalties.
St. Patrick used fasts on
several occasions in the fifth century in order to stamp out
heresy. In one case he employed it to force King Trian of
Ulster to treat his slaves better. Other Irish saints such as
St. Edna, St. Deelan, St. Brendan and St. Comgall practiced the
hunger strike. Douglas Hyde in the Literary History of Ireland
relates to a story of how several holy men commenced a
co-operative hunger strike against the King of Connacht.
Though the hunger striking
is not an exclusively Irish weapon against injustice, it has
been used since 1916 by Irish Republicans in their struggle for
freedom and social justice in Ireland. Patrick Daly first used
it in North Wales prison in 1916 but Tom Ashe in 1917 was the
first to die on hunger strike, after being force fed by the
authorities.
It would seem though that
Terrence MacSwiney is the “patron saint” of hunger strikes.
MacSwiney, the Lord Mayor of Cork and an IRA man, died on
October 25, 1920 in London’s Brixton Prison after a 74-day
hunger strike. MacSwiney was protesting his unjust imprisonment
by a government, which he did not recognize as legitimate. The
same government, I might add, whose emissaries murdered
MacSwiney’ s predecessor, Mayor Thomas McCurtain, in front of
his family.
MacSwiney’ s inaugural
address hints at his philosophy of resistance and resolve to
persevere. The following quote will serve as a brief example:
This contest on our side
is not one of rivalry or vengeance but of endurance. It is not
those who can inflict the most, but those who can suffer the
most, who will conquer.
During the course of the
hunger strike the British Home Secretary, Short, informed
MacSwiney “the consequences of refusing to take food would rest
wit the faster.” MacSwiney replied:
The consequences will
rest with you…that I would be free alive or dead will be
fulfilled…knowing the revolution of the opinion that will
thereby be caused throughout the civilized world and the
consequent accession of support to Ireland in her hour of
trial, I am reconciled to a premature grave.
Even in death he stood
firm, MacSwiney’ s last recorded words spoken to his sister
shortly before the end were:
I want you to bear
witness that I die a soldier of the Irish Republic. God save
Ireland.
MacSwiney’ s death shocked
the world and turned public opinion against the British. For
example, the London Times, certainly no friend of the Irish,
editorialized:
The death of MacSwiney
will have an effect, which will not be confined to the British
Isles.
The times of Brooklyn, N.Y,
wrote “He has done more for the cause for which he fought for
that a thousand rifles” In France Le Rappel pronounced “a ruder
blow to England than the loss of a whole battalion.” Finally,
an editorial from the Charleston-American in South Carolina:
In this very hour when
all the world is watching with surpassing wonder the struggles
of a heroic people for their freedom, other men are slowly dying
the deaths, which only saints can die. As the great leader of
his people, Terrence MacSwiney must and shall be given the place
of honor, as that place is by his right. Bu the humbler
patriots shall not be forgotten. These men are dying for a land
whose ground has been made holy by the blood of saints and
martyrs. To be a martyr in that land is not remarkable. For
centuries, its men, women, and little children have suffered the
torments of an earthly hell, established by the most monstrous
government that the world has ever known, because they have
dared to be loyal to their country. Until the chains of
tyrants of England are forever removed from the bodies of these
heroic people, they will continue to struggle for liberty, and
will die as the men within the walls of British prisons are
dying.
The sacrifice of the Lord
Mayor undoubtedly played a significant role in hastening the
eventual British withdrawal from at least part of Ireland.
In addition to the impact
on world political opinion, MacSwiney’ s death raised some major
moral issues among theologians. The British exerted a great
deal of pressure on Pope Benedict XV to declare his death a
suicide. But the Pope made no statement; although it was
rumored the internationally respected Belgian theologian Arthur
Vermeersh gave Rome an informal opinion in the favor of
MacSwiney. The powerful political influence of the Irish church
in the Vatican also may have forestalled a papal opinion. The
Irish hierarchy in general did not question MacSwiney. He was
hailed as a hero and martyr for country, liberty, and God.
Archbishop Mannix of
Melbourne, Australia, enroute to Ireland made a public statement
in support of MacSwiney and against British terrorism in
Ireland. His remarks so upset Whitehall that a destroyer was
sent out to meet his ship and prevent him from landing in
Ireland. He was removed at sea and transported to London.
In September of 1920, P.J.
Gannon, writing in the prestigious Irish journal, Studies,
defended the morality of the Hunger Strike. Gannon said:
In a righteous cause a
man can risk his life though he may not take it… No hunger
striker aims at death, quite the contrary, he desires to lives.
Further on Gannon states,
His object is to bring
the pressure of public opinion to bear upon an unjust aggressor
to secure his release and advance a cause for which he might
face certain death on the battlefield.
During the strike, the
Revue de Clerge in France commented,
The reasons, which
motivate his conduct, are certainly grave enough to justify it.
It is a case of an individual life sacrificed for the life of a
nation, the common good preferred to a particular good.
In the United States, the
editors of America, on September 11, 1920, insisted that
suicide could not describe MacSwiney’ s action. They argued in
favor of MacSwiney based on the following four points:
1. fasting
itself is not evil in a hunger strike the good effects are as
immediate as the bad effects, revealing injustice and tyranny,
renewing the moral strength of persecuted fellow citizens, etc.
2. the
objective of MacSwiney’ s fast was in proportion to the gravity
of the ach. Namely, the vindication of a people’s rights.
3. his
intention was upright, he did not seek to destroy himself but to
live in a just society
The controversy over
MacSwiney’ s death continued for a number of years afterward.
As late as 1933, S.J. Hogan authored The Ecclesiastical
Review on Morality of Hunger Strike. In this work, Hogan
reviews most of the theological evidence for and
against MacSwiney’s case.
Hogan rejects the opponents of MacSwiney and suggests “that
hunger strike until death is lawful for proportionate grievance
and that it is lawful for a man to declare he will fast until
death in protest against injustice.” To Hogan, the death of the
hunger striker is “never antecedently certain and is never more
than probable…because there are conditions which, if fulfilled,
will break the fast.”
In all, twenty-two
Irishmen have died on Hunger Strike from 1917 to 1981. The
Hunger Strike has been used against not only the British, but
the Irish Free State as well. The Free State, like Britain, has
allowed Irish patriots to die for their political beliefs.
Republican prisoners
during this period have shown the following common
characteristics:
1. they
did not recognize the legitimacy of British rule of Ireland (or
for that matter “Free State”)
2. they
considered themselves soldiers involved I war with all rights of
prisoners of war
3. they
were using the only weapon still available to themselves in
order to fight social injustice and unjust imprisonment
In 1973-74 on of the most
publicized hunger strikes occurred in England, when four Irish
Republican prisoners demanded transfer to a prison in Ireland.
Dolores and Marian Price, Hugh Feeney and Gerald Kelly were
force fed for 200 days until the government agreed to transfer
them. A song “Bring Them Home” relates the plight of the Price
sisters and connects them historically to the Lord Mayor of
Cork.
“In
the jail that held MacSwiney
In the prison where he
died
Lie two daughters of
old Erin
And they fill my heart
with pride.”
More recently Michael
Gaughan and Frank Stagg died in the Parkhurst and Wakefield
British prisons in June of 1974 and February of 1976 while
fasting for political status. Gaughan’s death was commemorated
in the song Take Me Home To Mayo:
My body is cold and
hungry
In Parkhurst jail I lie
For the loving of my
country
On Hunger Strike I die
The return of Gaughan’s
body to his native Mayo was the occasion for a massive
republican funeral.
Stagg’s death and burial
was accomplished by both governmental and family intrigue. An
attempt was made to prevent the fulfillment of Stagg’s last
request, a republican funeral and burial. The funeral was
aborted by the Irish government as they hijacked the body and
buried it under a great quantity of concrete. However, a
republican burial detail accompanied by a priest, dug up his
body on night and reentered it in a republican plot in Ballina,
County Mayo, near his comrade Michael Gaughan.
In 1972, in
British-occupied Ireland, a mass hunger strike for political
status was called off on June 20 after twenty-six days, when
William Whitelaw announced concessions leading to special
status. These concessions were terminated by the British Labor
government on March 1, 1976. The government was attempting to
criminalize the participants in the war of freedom.
The republicans answer
came when Kieran Nugent refused to accept criminal status and
would not don prison clothes. The British response was to
confine Nugent in a cell in the H-Block 5 of Long Kesh without
clothes and only a blanket to cover himself. Thus began the
courageous H-Block protest. Prisoner after prisoner followed
Nugent on the protest until the numbers grew to over 400. the
“Blanketmen” as they became to be known, lived with no clothes,
horrible abuse, and unbelievable filth over four years.
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Chapter 2
-- The
Ideology and Impact of the Irish Hunger Strike
The Hunger Strikes of 1980-81
In the autumn of 1980,
protesting republican prisoners in the H-Blocks chose to use the
hunger strike as the ultimate political weapon. A hunger strike
began on October 27/1980 and ended December 18, 1980 when the
British agreed that prisoner’s demands for special status would
be met. The apparent settlement occurred as Sean McKenna, 53
days into his hunger strike; lay in a coma and close to death.
The settlement allowed the British to avoid death during the
Christmas season. This hunger strike also included three of the
protesting women prisoners from Armagh Jail; Mairead Farrell,
May Doyle, and Mairead Nugent.
However, attempts to hold the
British to their promises of 1980 failed in early 1981. The
British, of course, claimed they had never made a promise of
concessions, but even Cardinal O’Fiaich, the High Primate of
Ireland, confirmed that they had. In response to the British
deceit, a second hunger strike was initiated on March 1, 1981 by
Bobby Sands.
Bobby Sands and his comrades
sought basically the same demands as the earlier H-Block hunger
strikers:
1. the right not to wear
prison uniforms
2. the right not to do
prison work
3. the right to associate
freely with other political prisoners
4. restoration of the
right to earn remission of sentence
5. the right to a weekly
visit, letter and parcel, and the right to organize their own
educational and recreational pursuits.
Given the situation in British
occupied Ireland there were certainly just demands, Republican
prisoners in British occupied Ireland are charged under special
laws that allow them to be detained for 1 or 2 years without
trial (remand) and are tried in special Diplock courts with no
jury. Only a judge presides in these courts where all the
normal rules of evidence are suspended. They are also held
under special prison conditions in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh.
The H-Block Protest and
ultimately the Hunger Strike were a direct result of the overall
British policy in British Occupied Ireland for the past sixty
years. The British have allowed as fascist statelet to exist
that has denied nationalists equal voting rights, access to fair
housing and employment and the basic rudiments of social
justice. They have also propped up, with both money and
military force, the gerrymandered statelet whenever it was in
danger of disintegration. The troops that were supposedly sent
into Ireland in 1969 to protect Catholics were in reality sent
to support the crumbling state.
Northern Ireland was founded
through and insidious system of gerrymandering in 1921---the
process was known as partition. After 80% of the people of all
of Ireland voted for a united and independent Ireland in the
election of 1918, Britain responded as usual with as show of
military force and intimidation. When military forces failed
due to the innovative and courageous resistance of the IRA, they
chose to divide the island by a treaty, which was signed under
the threat of savage reprisals by the British Empire.
In order to assure that their
partition would succeed, the kept only 6 of historic Ulster’s
nine countries. This gerrymander assured a two to one loyalist
majority in the 6 remaining counties. This majority was allowed
to deny the most basic human and civil rights to the nationalist
minority. Further, the Intolerable socio-political situation in
Northern Ireland has encouraged greater emigration from the
nationalist community, thus helping to perpetuate a loyalist
majority.
When the peaceful civil rights
demonstrations of the late 1960’s were destroyed by loyalist
violence, the government fell. Once again, the British army
arrived to play its role as a protector or loyalist privilege
and bigotry. On August 9, 1971, they introduced internment
without trial resulting in hundreds of people being jailed and
harassed. In 1973, they introduced juryless Diplock courts with
power of convicting solely on the basis of a confession signed
by a suspect while in police custody. Lord Diplock, the
originator of this system, feels that justice is a “matter of
gut feeling.” Amnesty International has shown that most
confessions were obtained by torture.
On March 1, 1976, as previously
mentioned, the British made an attempt to criminalize the
prisoners and began to deny special category status to political
prisoners. The prisoners would have to wear prison uniforms and
accept prison work assignments. This was the beginning of the
H-Block protest. The prisoners refused to wear the uniform and
were placed in a cell with only a blanket and denied all
privilege ordinary accord prisoners.
The blanketmen
were locked up naked for 24 hours a day and subjected to
total deprivation of exercise, fresh air, the company of other
humans, and reading material. When the prisoners came out to
wash, they were beaten and humiliated by the guards and not even
allowed to wear their blankets. So they decided not to wash.
When the guards started to do the same thing when they went to
the toilet, the prisoners started to use the chamber pots in
their cells. When the guards wouldn’t let them empty the pots,
the prisoners dumped them out the window. But the guards
shoveled it back into the cells or dumped the pots on the cell
floor. The men then began to smear the waste on the walls in
order to keep the floor on which they sat, ate, and slept clean
and dry.
The situation in the H-Blocks was described by Cardinal O’Fiaich
as unbearable and like the sewer pipes in the slums of
Calcutta. It was from over 4 years of these conditions that,
eventually, the hunger strikers emerged. After years of
degradation, beatings, filth, poor food, and general abuse, the
men used the only weapon available to them to fight the system,
and that weapon was their lives.
A common misconception
perpetuated by the media was that the IRA ordered the hunger
strike. It was also hinted that if a hunger striker gave up the
fast, he would be harmed. However, in Ireland, it was a
well-known fact that the IRA was against the initiation of a
hunger strike. The leadership felt it would divert important
resources from the war effort.
Once the hunger strike commenced, the IRA supported the strikers
and their families without reserve. Throughout the fast, the
IRA repeatedly stressed the voluntary nature of the operation.
Further, three of the dead hunger strikers were members of the
Irish National Freedom Liberation Army, a distinctly separate
revolutionary group.
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Chapter 3
--
The
impact of the hunger strike
Skeptics
may suggest that only minimal concessions have been made. Thus, what has
the death of ten young men accomplished. Th e courage and idealism of
the hunger strikers has resulted in many former apologists questioning
both the British presence and the system of justice in Northern Ireland.
On May 31, 1981, the London Sunday Times published a major international
survey that concluded:
the hunger strikers have rekindled a flagged interest in Ulster and
its problems, as a result, world opinion has begun to shift away from
the British government and in favour of the IRA.
The Sunday
Times of Rome reported:
that the television coverage of the hunger strikers funerals had
brought home to many Italians the fact that the IRA was not the Ulster
equivalent of the Red Brigade terrorists. No Red Brigade terrorist could
make an appearance in public like the IRA men did at the hunger strikers
funerals. For many Italians the sight of hooded gunmen bearing forbidden
arms parading before television cameras in front of the whole world,
relying on the protection of the crowd, meant that the writing was on
the wall for the British in Ulster.
In the
United States, Prince Charles' June, 1981 visit to New York became a
political disaster. Protestors from all walks of life harassed him and
his party and disrupted his itinerary. Princess Margaret's planned visit
was cancelled for fear of a similar reaction. The state legislatures of
Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, California and Pennsylvania passed
resolutions in support of the hunger strikers demands, as did many
municipal governments and labor unions. Around the world messages of
support ranging from left-wing revolutionaries like the Sandinistas to
the highly volitile government of Iran were forthcoming. For example, in
Portugal, the parliament passed resolutions during both hunger strikes
condemning Thatcher's handling of the situation and supporting the
prisoners demands. During the first hunger strike Thatcher threatened to
cut off diplomatic ties with Portugal, but the parliament persisted in
its support during the second hunger strike as well. At the same time
Lisbon's right-wing newspaper carried the
headline:
Thatcher Murdered Bobby Sands
In Spain
both the Catalonian and Basque parliaments extended their support to the
hunger strikers. In France all four major trade union federations
supported the prisoners demands and President Mitterand sent condolences
to Bobby Sands' family. All the major Indian newspapers attacked the
British actions in Ireland.
At home, in
occupied Ireland, the H-Block protest and the hunger strike brought
together many factions of the nationalist community. Groups that had not
effectively worked together in the past came together in massive display
of solidarity. The Catholic church was not part of this solidarity. The
hierarchy especially did nothing to apply pressure to Margaret Thatcher.
In the end it was the church that was instrumental in pressuring the
families of the remaining hunger strikers in order to end the hunger
strike.
The hunger
strike highlighted four other facts of life to the nationalist people:
I .that Irish "Free State" politicians were afraid to confront
Margaret Thatcher and in many cases took a collaborationist posture.
2. that the SDLP was not a political party representative of the
nationalist people of northeast Ireland
3. that the British still had little concern or respect for the lives of
Irish people
4. that the Catholic church hierarchy was too timid to confront the
British in the arena of world opinion and for the most part adopted a
collaborationist posture.
The
election of Bobby Sands to the British parliament disproved the British
contention that the "men of violence" had little political support.
Thatcher's reaction was to attempt to invalidate the result, a move that
was thwarted by members of the Scots Nationalist, Welsh Nationalist and
Labour parties. The republicans had used the ballot box and won. The
British government's response seemed to confirm the nationalist
contention that the electoral process counts only when it supports the
government's position.
The Hunger
Strike strengthened the resolve of nationalists to rid their country of
British rule. This is
evident in the increased political activity, the balladry, and the
murals and slogans along the streets of British occupied Ireland.
More
recently, the election success of the Sinn Fein party may in part be due
to the political base built during the hunger strike. The broad based
community support exhibited during the hunger strike may have encouraged
the republican movement in their new approach, based on the ballot as
well as the armalite. The necessity for a political as well as an armed
struggled emerged from the death camps of northeast Ireland. In the
words of Bobby Sands:
It must be said that an armed people are by no means a sure guarantee
to liberation. Our guns may kill our enemies but unless we direct them
with the politics of a revolutionary people they will eventually kill
ourselves. Guns don't win wars; guns and bombs may kill a man but they
cannot lead a man ... nor will they ever coerce an unyielding man to
yield.
There are
moralists who would question the right of an individual to die in this
manner. However, these same moralists would not think of questioning the
early martyrs of the church who died for such things as their virtue,
their refusal to deny papal infallibility or the seal of confession.
Some analysts have once again raised the spectre of suicide, an opinion
generally more popular in
America and England than in Ireland. Father Salvatore Riccardi, CP
writing in Sign Magazine, suggests that the hunger strike was not
suicide because the purpose was to win rights, not die. Since the main
thing intended was protest, he feels that this separates it from
suicide. Furthermore, he feels that because the attainment of rights was
uppermost, and death was "not willed" it cannot be called "a means" to
the end. The possibility of death is accepted but not as an inevitable
result of the action.
When Bobby
Sands started his strike, Father Faul, the prison chaplain, asked him,
"Bobby, why don't you go all the way and refuse to take water and salt?"
Bobby answered, "Because I don't want to die." The hunger strikers did
not intend to kill themselves but wanted to force better conditions for
their comrades. They hoped that the threat of their death might pressure
the establishment to grant their demands before they died.
Raymond
McCreesh was quoted in the Irish Times of June 20, 1981, as saying:
My consciousness of my Irish identity is holding me together, giving
me strength to go through with this, because to me nothing is more
important than the freedom of my land.
Michael
Devine, the last hunger striker to die, wrote shortly before joining the
hunger strike:
There is nothing that any human being values more than life. Every
man clings to it with every ounce of strength of his being. To willingly
surrender it is acknowledged as the greatest sacrifice any man can make.
Not only to die, but to choose a death which is slow and agonizing,
further serves to illustrate the depths of courage and sincerity among
the men in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh. What it takes to willingly undergo
this ordeal, willingly undergo suffering, none of us can possibly
imagine ... We here are helpless. All we have to give is our lives.
Rev. John
Foley, C.S.P. maintains that moral decisions faced by these men must not
be treated as a matter of personal feelings, but as a means of achieving
a greater good for a people who are still a part of 800 years of
repressive colonial rule. He indicates that their sacrifice and the
likelihood of resulting civil disorder may not be viewed as causing more
harm than good in light of the long history of evil and the potential
for future years of oppression. The hunger strikers would have to view
their deaths as the beginning of the end to ongoing chronic violence,
socioeconomic oppression, an unjust system of incarceration, and the
killing of innocent people.
Reverend
Denis O'Callaghan, professor of Moral Theology at Maynooth, was quoted
in the Irish Press:
H-Block prisoners must endure intolerable conditions and do not have
the opportunity for more normal forms of protest.
O'Callaghan
rendered this judgment even though he is apparently not sympathetic to
the republican
movement.
It is
impossible to know intimately the motivation, ideology and general state
of mind of each hunger striker. But the general theme of not wanting to
die is common to all. All of the hungers strikers that expressed
themselves on the subject seem to believe that this was their only
weapon to fight an intolerable system. A system so intolerable that ten
dedicated young men, in an effort to change it were willing to endure
the horrors of a painful death by starvation where the body literally
digests itself.
Those
casting negative judgment on the morality of the hunger strike as a
weapon of social dissent are victims of culture bound analysis. The
hunger strike must be viewed in an Irish sociohistorical context and in
the light of the cultural and psychological genocide that has
characterized British rule in Ireland. Most critics who seem to dwell on
the relationship of the hunger strike to suicide fail to address
themselves to the reasons why young men must resort to such an avenue of
social change. Rarely do they question the gerrymandered fascist
statelet of Northern Ireland, a state that is based upon the
institutionalized discrimination of the nationalist people.
In closing
let me recall the words of Padraic Pearse, the Irish poet, the Gaelic
scholar and the murdered Irish revolutionary of 1916:
1 will take no pike. I
will go into battle with bare hands. 12
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Chapter 4
--Songs of the
H-Blocks and the Hunger Strikers
Irish resistance to
British oppression has always been documented and handed down to later
generations through the medium of folksong. The H-Block and Hunger
Strike protests were not exceptions. Christy Moore, one of Ireland's
premier traditional musicians, wrote and sung the song Ninety Miles From
Dublin. It is a haunting song that describes the torture, abuse and the
courageous resistance of Irish prisoners of war in the H-Blocks of Long
Kesh concentration camp.
Prisoners of War is
what we are
And that we must remain
The Blanket protest must not fail
British torture is in vain.
Moore describes the
process of interrogation, convictions and daily abuse that are the lot
of Irish republican prisoners. He also exorts the people of the south of
Ireland to force the government of Ireland to challenge the British
treatment of their countrymen.
Francie Brolly, a
school teacher who was interned during 1973-75 in Long Kesh, wrote and
sung a defiant ballad H-Block. Francie's brother Eunan was a comrade of
Kevin Lynch in H-Block 3. This was a ballad heard over and over at the
funerals of the Hunger Strikers.
I'll wear no
convicts uniform
Nor meekly serve my time
That Britain might, brand Ireland's fight
Eight hundred years of crime.
Mick Hanly, another
traditional singer composed and sung a lament On the Blanket.
And if we stay
silent we're guilty
While these men lie naked and cold
In H-Blocks tonight remember the fight
Of those on the blanket
With the death of
Bobby Sands, the Ballad of Bobby Sands appeared, originally sung by a
group called the Irish Connection. It tells the story of not only Bobby
but Frankie Hughes, Ray McCreesh, and
Patsy O'Hara locked in ultimate combat with the British oppressors.
An Irish soldier to
the last
A criminal he would not be cast
And so began the long death fast
Of Bobby Sands from Belfast
It also bitterly
highlights British intransigence.
Proud Britannia hide
your face
Throughout the world you are a disgrace
How many more must take the place
Of 13obby Sands from Belfast
Kieran's Song, in
honor of Kieran Doherty, starts off with:
He was born in Belfast
In Andersonstown
Brought up without fear
Or respect for the crown
and further in the chorus
God keep you Kieran
We pray every night
And bless all the young men
Who keep on your fight
A song about the
legendary Francis Hughes tells of how Hughes Lives on Forever.
The Role of Honor is
a stirring tribute to all the dead hunger strikers. It exhorts:
Read the role of honor
For Ireland's
bravest men
We must be united
In memory of the ten
England you're a monster
Don't think that you have won
We will never be defeated
While Ireland has such sons.
New verses for old
songs were penned such as for Ireland's Fight for Freedom:
Oh Bobby Sands from
Belfast Town
He kept Tone's ancient vow
To fight till death the ancient foe
That cursed English crown
So he died a martyr's death alone
To free the Northern Gael
In England's concentration camp
That grim, dark H-Block cell.
Finally, Christy
Moore recorded a song, The Time Has Come. It is a subtle story of the
hunger strike. So subtle is its message the Irish Radio didn't realize
that it was a political song. When they were finally alerted to its real
meaning the song was banned from the airwaves. Its third verse appears
below:
How the Sorrow
touched us all
In those final days.
When it was time
She held the door
And touched his sallow face.
The flame he lit while leaving
Is still burning strong.
By the light it's plain to see
The suffering still goes on.
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Chapter 5
-- The
Republican Martyrs of 1981
BOBBY SANDS
Bobby was born March 9,
1954 in Abbots Cross, North Belfast. He was only fourteen when
people began marching for civil rights in Belfast. He observed
first, the beating of peaceful civil rights demonstrators, and
later the burning of his neighbor's home by roaming Orange mobs.
Bobby watched his practically defenseless community attacked and
terrorized. Bobby's own family was driven from its home by
sectarian hate mongers and he was driven off his job at the
point of a gun.
The British Army arrived
to supposedly keep the peace but simply added to the
establishment's political punch. First came internment without
trial and then the murder of innocent civilians by British
paratroopers on "Bloody Sunday" in Derry
At eighteen and one-half,
Bobby joined the IRA and by the autumn of 1972 he was arrested.
He refused to recognize the court and served a 31/2 year
sentence in Long Kesh under special category status. Upon his
release in 1976 he rejoined the IRA but was recaptured within 6
months. After 11 months on remand, he was sentenced by a
Diplock court to 14 years imprisonment.
Bobby wrote about freedom
and confinement from his prison cell under the pseudonym,
Marcella. His essays and poems are both inspiring and
analytical, displaying a broad world view, a keen grasp of
history and exceptional insight into human nature
He was the spokesman for
the first group of Hunger Strikers, After the British reneged on
their agreement of December 18, 1980, Bobby decided to lead a
second hunger strike. He started his fast on March 1, 1981.
Sixty-six days later on May 5, 1981, Ireland had lost a
brilliant leader and a courageous patriot. During his fast he
was elected to the British parliament from Fermanagh/South
Tyrone. His election on April 9, 1981, was secured by twice as
many votes as Mrs. Thatcher received in her election. But the
ballot box was again ignored just as it was in 1918. However,
Bobby's election destroyed the British myth that the IRA had no
popular support
FRANCIS HUGHES
Frankie was born on
February 28, 1956, in Beliaghy, County Derry, the youngest of
ten children. He formed his own independent service unit which
joined the IRA in 1973. He became a legend throughout occupied
Ireland and went on the run in 1975, seldom sleeping in the same
place for long. Frankie would even phone the "Brits" to let them
know where he was. He was responsible for the death of many
British soldiers. For these reasons he was branded the most
wanted man in northeast Ireland
After a shoot-out with the
Special Air Services (SAS), in which he was wounded, Frankie was
captured on March 16, 1978. He was captured in full military
uniform and therefore eligible for prisoner of war status
according to the Geneva Convention of 1948. In February of 1980,
he was sentenced by a Diplock court to life imprisonment. On
March 15, 1981, Frankie joined Bobby Sands on hunger strike. He
died 59 days later an May 12, 1981. After his death the Brits
tried to arrest his body under the Flags and Emblems Act, even
roughing up his aggrieved family. Even in death the most wanted
man in Ireland was still feared by the British. Symbolically his
death occurred 65 years later on the same day the British
executed another great Irish soldier, James Connolly
PATSY O'HARA
Patsy was born on July 11,
1957 in Derry City. As a young boy he witnessed the brutal
batoning of peaceful civil rights marchers. He joined the Fianna
na Eireann and later the Patrick Pearse Sinn Fein Cumann in the
Bogside. On January 30, 1972 he was an eyewitness to the "Bloody
Sunday" massacre. In 1975-76 he was held on remand for 19
months, but was acquitted of what was a "frame up." After his
release he joined the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA)
He was arrested in
January, 1980 and sent to Long Kesh for eight years. The
evidence consisted of the testimonies of two British soldiers
who saw him throw something into the bushes. On March 22, 1981,
he joined Bobby Sands and Francis Hughes on hunger strike.
Sixty-one days later on May 21st he died on the same day as Ray
Mc Creesh. Patsy's dead body was desecrated after death, his
nose was pushed in and his body burned over fifty times with
cigarette butts. Once again, convincing evidence of man's
inhumanity to man, and the lack of British respect for the life
of an Irishman
RAYMOND
MCCREESH
Ray was born in Camlough,
County Armagh on February 25, 1957. He lived and fought in an
area of the six counties which the Brits themselves have half
fearfully and half respectfully given the name "bandit country."
In early 1973 he joined the Fianna na Eireann and later that
year the IRA. He had an intense interest in Irish history and
language. He was captured on June 25, 1976 after a shoot out
with British Paratroopers and then beaten for three days before
charges were filed. In March of 1977, a Diplock court sentenced
him to fourteen years.
Even though he was
captured at age 19 he had almost three years active military
service behind him. Ray joined the Hunger Strike on March 22,
1981, and sixty-one days later on May 21, 1981
JOE
MCDONNELL
Joe was born on September
14, 1951 on the lower Falls Road in Belfast. In 1970 he and his
young wife, Goretti, were driven from their home in Lenadoon by
a loyalist mob. He was interned in Long Kesh concentration camp
in 1973 and upon release joined the IRA in West Belfast. The
McDonnell home was frequently subjected to raids by British
occupation forces. .
He was captured in October
of 1976 and the following September sentenced by a Diplock court
to fourteen years. The charge was the possession of an unloaded
revolver. Actually, four men, including Bobby Sands, captured
with Joe, were charged with the possession of the same revolver
and sentenced to 14 years.
On May 9, 1981 he replaced
the murdered Bobby Sands on Hunger Strike. While on strike he
ran for the Irish Dail from Sligo/Leitrim and lost by only 315
votes. His campaign was waged by his courageous wife, Goretti.
Sixty-one days later on July 8, 1981, another Irish soldier was
dead. While the whole world watched on TV the McDonnell funeral
procession was attacked by the British army of occupation
MARTIN HURSON
Martin was born September
13, 1956 near Dungannon in County Tyrone. He was raised in an
area where the social injustices of a fascist state were
everywhere evident. Upon arrest on November 11, 1976 he was
taken to Omagh Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Barracks for
interrogation. He was severely beaten during a two day period of
questioning in order to force him to sign a self-incriminating
statement.
After a year on remand he
was tried and sentenced, but later won a retrial because of the
procedures at Omagh. The second trial threw out the Omagh
evidence, but convicted him by another forced statement made at
Cookstown during a later interrogation. Martin was considered a
criminal even though the four RUC men who interrogated him and
fellow prisoner James Rafferty were later charged with
assaulting Rafferty
Martin joined the Hunger
Strike on May 27, 1981 when Brendan McLaughlin had to give up
because of a bleeding ulcer. Forty-six days later as a result of
medical complications, Hurson suddenly went into convulsions and
died
KIERAN DOHERTY
Kieran was born October
16, 1955 in the Andersonstown area of West Belfast. He came from
a republican background but politics were not discussed in the
Doherty home. Kieran moved toward active republicanism after
observing the forced internment of his neighbors in 1971. He
joined Fianna na Eireann and later the IRA.
He was interned without
trial from February, 1973 to November, 1975. Upon release he
went on the run and gained a reputation in the IRA as an
excellent soldier as well as a perfectionist. He was captured in
August of 1978 and although unarmed at the time, charged with
possession. After 17 months remand in Crumlin jail, he was
sentenced by a Diplock court to 20 years
While in prison Kieran
became a fluent Gaelic speaker. In the fall of 1980 he joined
the first hunger strike. On May 22, 1981 he replaced Ray
McCreesh on the second hunger strike and 73 days later on August
2, 1981 he died. While on Hunger Strike he was elected to the
Irish Dail by the voters of Cavan/Monaghan. So much for no
support in the "Free State."
KEVIN
LYNCH
Kevin was born May 26,
1956 in Portvillage, County Derry. He had a passion for the
Gaelic games and was a member of the Gaelic Athlete Association
(GAA). At fourteen he joined the Fianna na Eireann and later the
Official IRA. In 1972 after the Officials declared a ceasefire,
he left them and joined an independent active service unit. He
worked for three years between 1973-76 in England, but upon
returning to Ireland he joined the INLA.
In December of 1976 he was
arrested and interrogated for three days at Castlereagh,
followed by a year remand in Crumlin jail before being sentenced
by a Diplock court to ten years.
His total dedication to
the blanket protest led to his putting up with a raging
toothache for three weeks, rather than come off the protest to
get dental treatment
Kevin joined the fast May
23, 1981 and 71 days later on August 1, 1981 he died. While on
Hunger Strike he ran for the Irish Dail in Water- ford, a county
far from Long Kesh. Still, he received 8% of the first
preference votes (3,337).
TOM
MCELWEE
Tom was born November 30,
1957 in Bellaghy, County Derry. Frankie Hughes, the second
murdered hunger striker, was his cousin. At age fourteen, he
joined the Fianna na Eireann and later joined an in- dependent
active service unit founded by Frankie Hughes. In 1973 the
entire unit joined the IRA. On October 9, 1976 a premature bomb
explosion injured Tom and his brother, Benedict. Tom lost an eye
and after being released from the hospital he was sent to
Crumlin jail a week before Christmas, 1976. In September, 1977 a
Diplock court sentenced him to 20 years
Tom joined the first
hunger strike in 1980 and immediately volunteered for the second
one. He began his fast on June 8, 1981 and 62 days later, on
August 8, he became the ninth patriot to die. Tom's coffin was
carried by his eight sisters in a final tribute to their
murdered brother.
MICHAEL DEVINE
Micky was born May 26,
1954 in Springtown Camp on the outskirts of Derry. In Springtown
the family lived under miserable slum conditions in a hut that
leaked. In 1960 he moved to the Creggan where his father died,
followed six years later by his mother. At fourteen he watched
civil rights marchers beaten by the RUC in Derry, and he joined
the struggle. In 1971 he joined the Official IRA and in 1972
watched British paratroopers murder thirteen civilians on Bloody
Sunday. The sight of the wooden coffins convinced him that the
violent overthrow of Britain was the only way
In 1974 he left the
Officials and joined the Irish Republican Socialist Party
(IRSP). He founded the Peoples Liberation Army to protect IRSP
members from the "Officials." In 1975 he was actively involved
in the formation of the INLA. Micky was arrested on September
20, 1976 and after 9 months on remand, a Diplock court sentenced
him to twelve years. Micky joined the strike on June 22, 1981
and 60 days later on August 20th, he became the 10th and last
murdered patriot. The church denied him the right to a
republican funeral, so his family buried him from home.
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