Hunger strikes 1980 1981

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Hunger
strikes1980

1981
Ireland in Schools Durham Pilot Scheme
Raymond McCartney, 1980
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What were the hunger strikes about?

• Culmination of conflict over the status of
  republican prisoners
• Criminals or prisoners of war?
• Defined nature of conflict in Northern Ireland
• Local issue of law order or colonial war of
  global interest?
• Terrorists or freedom fighters in long republican
  tradition
• Questioned nature of British justice in Northern
  Ireland
• Nature of courts
• Behaviour of police prison authorities
• Three phases of protest
• Blanket protest, 1976
• Dirty protest, 1978
• Hunger strikes 1980 1981 (10 died)

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Chronology

• 1 May Special category status for paramilitary
  prisoners for
• certain offences withdrawn
• Such prisoners now regarded as criminals
• 14 Sept. IRA Blanket protest begins
• Mar. Dirty protest begins
• 26 Mar. End of special category status for all
  paramilitary prisoners
• 27 Oct. First wave of hunger strikes by IRA
  begins
• 18 Dec. First hunger strike ends
• 1 Mar. Second wave hunger strikes by IRA INLA
  begins led by
• Bobby Sands, IRA commander in the Maze prison
• 9 Apr. Bobby Sands elected to Westminster
• 5 May Bobby Sands dies 9 more die
  subsequently
• 29 July Compromise refused by hunger strikers
• 31 July First family intervention Paddy Quinn
  taken off hunger strike
• 20 Aug. 10th last hunger striker dies
• 3 Oct. Second wave of hunger strikes ends
• 6 Oct. Government announces changes in prison
  regime
• Irish National Liberation Army

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Republican view of British justice in Northern
Ireland A cartoon from Republican News,
published in Belfast, June 1980. Diplock courts
did not have juries, because of the problem in
Northern Ireland of witnesses being
intimidated. The case was tried by a judge.
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Where were paramilitaries held?

• HM Prison Maze, near Belfast
• aka The H Blocks, Long Kesh or The Maze or, in
  Irish, Ceis Fada
• Arranged in distinctive H-shaped blocks
• Run as a prisoner of war camp
• Internees lived in dormitories
• disciplined themselves with military-style
  command structures
• drilled with dummy guns made from wood
• held lectures on guerrilla warfare and
  revolutionary politics
• 1,500 prisoners, nationalists loyalists in 1978

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Maze prison 1970s Inside the loyalist UVF
compound
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Why were prisoners given such freedom?

• Since July 1972 not regarded as ordinary
  criminals
• After hunger strike in Crumlin Road Gaol, 1971
• Special Category Status (SCS) given to all
  prisoners convicted of scheduled terrorist crimes
• Effectively prisoner of war status with some POW
  privileges as in Geneva Convention
• Not to have to wear prison uniforms or do prison
  work
• Housed within their various paramilitary factions
• Allowed extra visits food parcels
• SCS withdrawn, 1 March 1976

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Why did government withdraw SCS?

• Change of security policy to re-position
  conflict
• Ulsterisation
• Reduce role of the British Army in favour of RUC,
  etc.
• Show NI conflict was an internal, rather than a
  colonial, problem in the eyes of the world
• Criminalisation
• Paramilitaries common criminals engaging in
  criminal acts of terrorism
• Not 'political prisoners' involved in a political
  conflict

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How well-informed was thenew security policy?

• Slow to recognise strength of view in Ireland
  that paramilitary activities were political, not
  criminal
• Prisoners regarded themselves as soldiers
  fighting
• legitimate historic war for Irelands
  freedom
• Wide support or sympathy for this view
• I would like you to know that my son is not
  a criminal.
• He was a bad boy and should not have shot
  that man.
• But if I thought he was a criminal I would
  never allow him
• to come inside my house again.
• Mrs McCloskey talking with Lord Gowrie,
  Minister of State for Northern Ireland, Sept.
  1981,
• just before taking her son, Liam, off his
  46-day hunger strike

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That told me a great deal about the attitude
and the mentality of the Republican
community. Jim Prior, new more open-minded NI
Secretary, Sept. 1981
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How did republican prisoners first protest?

• Blanket protest
• Refused to wear prison uniforms
• Wore only prison blanket
• Started by Kieran Nugent, 15 Sept. 1976
• First IRA member convicted after SCS withdrawn
• Refused to wear prison uniform
• Placed in cell naked except for prison blanket
• Response of prison authorities
• Denied non-conforming prisoners all privileges
• No visits No food parcels No remission
• Assaults by prison officers
• Prisoners response
• Dirty protest, Mar. 1978

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What was the dirty protest?

• Began Mar. 1978
• IRA prisoners continued to wear blankets instead
  of prison uniforms
• Refused to leave cells wash
• Smeared cells with
• Excrement
• Menstrual blood (in Armagh womens prison)
• 500 protesters by 1980

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• I just smeared it on the wall. I ripped off a
  lump of the mattress to do it with.
• You were going against your whole socialization
  of how you were brought up.
• You were going against everything you'd ever
  learned about basic hygiene and manners and stuff
  like that.
• I lived like this from 1978 to 1981 - for three
  years.
• After a time, you became accustomed to it. The
  maggots, for example. I mean, nobody likes
  maggots. Youd be repelled by them. I dont think
  I could touch a maggot now. If there was one
  sitting here, you know, Id flick it away or get
  somebody else to do it.
• But you became so accustomed to them being in the
  cell, especially when winter was coming in and it
  was cold. They must sense where warmth is.
• You were literally waking up in the morning and
  there were maggots in the bed with you. It just
  gets to the stage where you just brush them off.
• I think the human spirit can become accustomed to
  any environment.
• Gerard Hodgkins

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What were the protesters demands?

• Right to wear their own clothes
• Right not to do prison work
• Right to free association with other prisoners
• Right to a weekly visit, letter parcel and to
  organise educational recreational activities
• Restoration of remission lost through protest

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What was the government response?

• Withdrew political status for all paramilitary
  prisoners
• People who may have once claimed an ideal
• are
• thugs and gangsters.
• Roy Mason, Secretary of State for Northern
  Ireland, 1978

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How did the protesters respond to government
refusal to restore SCS?

• Dirty protest making no headway
• Special category status even withdrawn from all
  paramilitaries
• Escalated protest
• 2 waves of hunger strikes
• 27 Sept. 18 Dec. 1980
• 1 Mar. 3 Oct. 1981
• Instigator
• Brendan Hughes, OC H-Blocks
• 170 prisoners volunteered in 1980

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What role had hunger strikes played in the
republican past?

• Irish republican hunger strikes
• since 1917
• 12 men had previously died,
• including
• Thomas Ashe, 1917
• Terence MacSwiney, 1920
• Seán McCaughey, 1946
• Michael Gaughan, 1974
• Frank Stagg, 1976

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What happened during the 1980 hunger strike?

• Began 27 Oct. 1980
• 7 men went on hunger strike 3 women at Armagh
• Underestimated determination of Margaret Thatcher
• Ended 18 Dec. 1980 in mistaken expectation of
  concessions

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Why were hunger strikes resumedin 1981?

• Resumed 1 Mar. 1981
• Discussions with government failing
• Initiative taken by prisoners themselves
• Leader Bobby Sands, IRA commandant in the Maze
• 10 died
• Ended 3 Oct.1981
• Some concessions announced 6 Oct. 1981

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Who died on hunger strike in 1981?

• Bobby Sands (26) Irish Republican Army (IRA) and
  Member of Parliament (MP)
• began hunger strike on 1 March 1981 and died
  on 5 May 1981 after 66 days without food
• Francis Hughes (25) Irish Republican Army (IRA)
• joined hunger strike on 15 March 1981 and died
  on 12 May 1981 after 59 days without food
• Raymond McCreesh (24) Irish Republican Army (IRA)
• joined hunger strike on 22 March 1981 and died
  on 21 May 1981 after 61 days without food
• Patsy O'Hara (23) Irish National Liberation Army
  (INLA)
• joined hunger strike on 22 March 1981 and died
  on 21 May 1981 after 61 days without food
• Joe McDonnell (30) Irish Republican Army (IRA)
• joined hunger strike on 8 May 1981 and died on
  8 July 1981 after 61 days without food
• Martin Hurson (29) Irish Republican Army (IRA)
• joined hunger strike on 28 May 1981 and died
  on 13 July 1981 after 46 days without food
• Keven Lynch (25) Irish National Liberation Army
  (INLA)

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Why were they in prison?

• Bobby Sands IRA Possession of a firearm
• Francis Hughes IRA Various offences, including
  murder of a soldier
• Raymond McCreesh IRA Attempted murder,
  possession of a rifle, IRA membership
• Patsy OHara INLA Possession of a hand grenade
• Joe McDonnell IRA Possession of a firearm
• Martin Hurson IRA Attempted murder, involvement
  in explosions, IRA membership
• Kevin Lynch INLA Stealing shotguns, taking part
  in a punishment shooting
• Kieran Doherty IRA Possession of firearms and
  explosives, hijacking
• Thomas McElwee IRA Manslaughter
• Michael Devine INLA Theft and possession of
  firearms

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What was it like?

• Youre very sleepy and very, very tired and
  youre sort of nodding off to sleep but
  somethings telling you to keep waking up.
• This was the thing that kept everybody going
  through the hunger strike in trying to live or
  last out as long as possible.
• I knew death was close but I wasnt afraid to die
  - and it wasnt any sort of courageous or
  glorious thing.
• I think death would have been a release.
• You can never feel that way again.
• Its not like tiredness.
• Its an absolute, total, mental and physical
  exhaustion.
• Its literally like slipping into death.
• Laurence McKeown taken off hunger strike by his
  family on 6 Sept. 1981 on the 70th day.

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Who was Bobby Sands?

• 1954 9 Mar. born Rathcoole, predominantly
  Protestant part of Belfast
• 1972 Family moves to new Catholic estate because
  of Protestant intimidation
• Joins PIRA
• Arrested imprisoned for 4 years for arms
  possession
• 1976 Arrested again after bomb attack on the
  Balmoral
• Furniture Company Dunmurry, followed by a
  gun-battle
• 1977 Imprisoned for possession of a revolver from
  which bullets had been
• fired at the police after the bombing
• No evidence linking him with bomb attack
• 1978 PRO for blanket protesters
• 1979 Publishes short stories and poems in
  Republican News
• under the pen-name Marcella, his sisters
  name
• 1980 Commandant of IRA in Maze
• Negotiates with authorities to no avail
• 1981 1 Mar. begins hunger strike
• 9 Apr. elected MP for Fermanagh South Tyrone
• 5 May dies on 66th day of hunger strike
• 7 May 70,000-100,000 attend his funeral

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Why did Sands go on hunger strike?

• I am a political prisoner
• because I am a casualty of a perennial war
• that is being fought between
• the oppressed Irish people and
• an alien, oppressive, unwanted regime
• that refuses to withdraw from our land.
• I believe and stand by the
• God-given right of the Irish nation to sovereign
  independence, and
• the right of any Irishman or woman
• to assert this right in armed revolution.
• That is why I am incarcerated, naked and
  tortured.
• Bobby Sands, writing on the first day of his
  hunger strike

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Why did Sands stand forelection to Westminster?

• Great publicity potential
• Fermanagh South Tyrone was winnable
• Late member an independent, sympathetic to hunger
  strikers
• Unionist opponent dour Fermanagh farmer
• All other candidates opposed to Unionists
  withdrew

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What was the result of election?

• Victory for Bobby Sands
• Turnout 86.9
• Sands 30,492 votes
• West 29,046 votes
• Majority 1,500 votes
• Click on link below for video of BBC report on
  election
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vgq7AR-uDmu0
• Worldwide publicity for Sinn Fein IRA
• Encouraged other prisoners or supporters to stand
• Westminster, August 1981
• Owen Carron filled Sands seat standing as
• Proxy Political Prisoner candidate (prisoners now
  unable to stand)
• Dáil Éireann, June 1981
• Kieran Doherty (h/strike d. 2 Aug.)
  (Cavan-Monaghan) Paddy Agnew (Louth)
• But no change in government policy
• Margaret Thatcher, prime minister, adamant

Mrs Thatcher said We are not prepared to
consider special category status for certain
groups of people serving sentences for
crime. Crime is crime is crime, it is not
political.
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What was the reaction to his death?

• British government
• Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister
• Mr. Sands was a convicted criminal. He chose to
  take
• his own life. It was a choice that his
  organisation did
• not allow to many of its victims.
• Humphrey Atkins, Secretary for State for
  Northern Ireland
• I regret this needless and pointless death.
• Nationalist/Catholics
• Rosaries petrol bombs
• Click on link below for video of BBC report on
  reactions in Belfast http//www.youtube.com/watch
  ?vqGKppV9S_2k

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Funeral of Bobby Sands
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• Faced with the failure
• of their discredited cause,
• the men of violence have chosen
• in recent months to play
• what may well be their last card.
• Margaret Thatcher after 4 deaths, May 1981

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Why did Margaret Thatcherremain adamant?

• Continued IRA violence
• Particularly influenced by murder in Derry of
  Protestant woman census worker, married with 2
  young children, during election campaign shot
  in back of head.
• Ulster unionist opinion
• She thought that if she gave way on it
• this would have a very large impact on
• the Protestant population.
• Jim Prior, Secretary of State for Northern
  Ireland

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Ulster Unionist view of hunger strikers
IRA From 1981 pamphlet Self-Inflicted An Exposure
of the H-Blocks Issue by Peter Robinson of the DUP
The bombing on 17 February 1978 killed 12 badly
burned many more with a huge fireball. 400
people, all Protestants and loyalists, were
attending the annual dinner dance of the Irish
Collie Club.
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Daily Express, 1981
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What can be said for against the views of Bobby
Sands Margaret Thatcher?
I am a political prisoner because I am a casualty of a perennial war that is being fought between the oppressed Irish people and an alien ... regime that refuses to withdraw from our land. Bobby Sands, writing on the first day of his hunger strike, 1 March 1981 We are not prepared to consider special category status for certain groups of people serving sentences for crime. Crime is crime, it is not political. Margaret Thatcher, 21 April 1981
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What public support was therefor the hunger
strikersat home abroad?
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Belfast
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London
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Dublin
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NORAID, NY
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Why did the hunger strikers refuse chance of
settlement after 6th death?

• July 1981
• Governments Mountain Climber initiative
  offering concessions in writing, giving most of
  what had been demanded, was rejected.
• IRA
• Some thought IRA wanted to extract the maximum
  propaganda advantage from this conveyor belt of
  death
• Prisoners
• Anything less than what their comrades had died
  for
• would be betrayal

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We were committed to something. Unless someone
was coming in and saying Right, you have your
own clothes, you wont do prison work, you have
all your demands, short of that we wouldnt have
entertained it. It was all or nothing at that
stage. The fact that so many people had died
made us even more determined. Laurence McKeown,
Hunger striker, recalling discussions in July 1981
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Why did the hunger strikes stopon 3 October 1981?

• Tireless work of Fr Denis Faul
• Family determination not to let sons die
• 31 July 26 Sept 5 prisoners taken off hunger
  strike by families
• Paddy Quinn
• 17 June Quinn goes on hunger strike
• 31 July Quinns mother asks for medical
  intervention
• 2 Aug Quinn comes out of coma and says
  Mummy, Im sorry if I upset you.
• Its good to be alive.
• Only handful attend funeral of last hunger
  striker to die
• Red Mickey Devine, died 20 Aug. 1981
• Government even more willing to compromise

Paddy Quinn
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How far did hunger strikers resent the
intervention of their families?
Laurence McKeown, whose mother ended his hunger
strike on the 70th day.
InterviewerHow did you feel about your mother
after she had taken you off? Laurence McKeown I
didnt feel any way different about her because I
just knew that she had stood by me all that time
anyway. I could understand her point of view. A
number of people had made interventions. She
wasnt politically committed to my ideas but she
was committed to me as a son. I certainly didnt
ever say anything to her that would have been
hurtful. I think much was left unspoken.
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Why was the government more inclined to
compromise?

• Change of NI Secretary, 13 September 1981
• Jim Prior replaced Humphrey Atkins
• Prior impressed after visiting Liam McCloskey
• McCloskey on 45 day of hunger strike
• It had a profound effect on me. I expected to
  find someone who was very uptight and struggling
  and very uncomfortable.
• But this man seemed to be serenely quiet and
  content
• with himself and not in any particular pain.

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What terms were offered accepted?

• Series of partial concessions
• announced by Jim Prior, 6 Oct. 1981
• The concessions ( only partial gain for
  protesters)
• Prisoners to wear own clothes all the time
• 50 remission of time lost through protests
• Greater freedom of association between adjacent
  wings of the H-blocks
• More visits
• Review of definition of prison work
• Defeat/tragedy?
• Almost same terms as on offer 3 months earlier,
  when only 6 had died
• Had 4 men died needlessly?
• Prior too sensible to claim victory

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How did the hunger strikers feel when they gave
up on 3 October 1981?
Gerard Hodgkins, who at its end had been fasting
for twenty days, had mixed emotions.

• The hunger strike had started out as a prison
  struggle for political status but it came to
  encapsulate the whole struggle for us. We
  believed that if we lost out on this one, wed
  lost the war and everything that went with it.
  Everything we had sacrificed to date would have
  been in vain. We genuinely believed that we had
  to hold out. We hoped to salvage something.

On one hand you felt relieved that it was over,
that you werent going to die. You were relieved
for your family. On the other hand, you felt
guilty that youd actually ended the hunger
strike and you hadnt achieved what you set out
to achieve. Although you were going to live, you
had to live in the knowledge that there were ten
men dead who had set out on the same journey. You
wonder, Have I betrayed them? Have I betrayed
their families? I would still think about it
even to this day.
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What were the consequences?

• Human cost
• Deaths of hunger strikers and many others
• IRA Brighton bomb, 16 October 1984
• Target was Margaret Thatcher 5 people killed
• Closer collaboration between London Dublin
• Strengthen constitutional nationalism against
  Sinn Fein
• Anglo-Irish Agreement, 1985
• Watershed in Sinn Fein history
• Election victories paved way for more political
  approach
• Armalite ballot box strategy
• 1982 General election Gerry Adams took
• West Belfast from the SDLP
• Later overtook SDLP in Northern Ireland

Who here really believes that we can win the war
through the ballot box? But will anyone here
object if with a ballot box in this hand and an
Armalite in this hand we take power? Danny
Morrison Sinn Feins PRO, 1981
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Rise of Sinn Fein at the expense of the SDLP
DUP UUP Alliance Others SDLP Sinn Féin
(2007) Seats won Vote share 36 30.1 18 14.9 7 5.2 3 8.0 16 15.2 28 26.2
(2003) Seats won Vote share 30 25.6 27 22.7 6 3.7 3 7.5 18 17.0 24 23.5
(1998) Seats won Vote share 20 18.14 28 21.25 6 6.5 9 8.67 24 21.9 18 17.63
Northern Ireland Assembly elections, 1998-2007
(108 seats)
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Power-sharing Executive Assembly 2007
How far would you agree with the Northern Ireland
prison official who said that The hunger strike
was a magnificent achievement.
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Historians verdict

• The hunger strikes transformed the political
  context of the Northern Ireland problem.
• Now, republican prisoners appeared in the
  unfamiliar role of being prepared to accept
  suffering for their cause rather than simply
  inflicting suffering on its behalf.
• The mass turnouts at the prisoners funerals
  revealed that the standing of the prisoners in
  Catholic areas had risen dramatically and this
  was soon reflected in a novel development, an
  impressive Sinn Féin electoral intervention.
• By June 1983 Sinn Féin had obtained some 13.4 of
  the vote in the North which compared well with
  the SDLPs 17.9.
• In the 2007 election to the Northern Ireland
  Assembly Sinn Féin far outstripped the SDLP. They
  won 26.2 of the vote and 28 seats to the SDLPs
  15.2 of the vote and 16 seats.
• Martin McGuinness, Sinn Feins number 2 and
  ex-IRA man, became Deputy leader of a new
  power-sharing Executive and Assembly, with a
  significant Irish dimension.
• However, Northern Ireland remains part of the
  United Kingdom.
• Adapted from P. Bew G. Gillespie, Northern
  Ireland. A Chronology of the Troubles