Blanketmen: An Untold Story of the H-block Hunger Strike

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O’Rawe, receiving a death threat in 1991, kept silent for many years but as the century turned, and the armed struggle gave way to the Peace Process, he decided that it was his duty to expose “duplicity”. The family of INLA volunteer Patsy O’Hara, the fourth hunger striker to die in the protest of 1981, wish to offer our heartfelt gratitude to Séamus Kearney for organising the Blanketmen/Armagh Women reunion at the Emerald Roadhouse last Saturday night. Much of the Irish left found it difficult to connect with the anger surrounding the hunger strikes. They tended to view support for the hunger strike as support for the PIRA and reactionary sectarian violence, and rejected the idea that the movement could have broad working-class support beyond Northern Catholics.

O’Rawe attempts to peel “away the layers of carefully scripted myths that have surrounded this momentous event in Irish history, the most insidious being that the prisoners were always in complete control of the hunger strike”. For what? Five rights: not to have to wear prison uniform, not to do prison work, to have free association among themselves, to receive weekly parcels/ visits and unlimited letters and to have their remission returned.

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The right of free association with other prisoners, and to organise educational and recreational pursuits; Brendan Hughes’s family was there and Brendan was honoured on the night as he was the OC on the first blanket; Kieran Nugent’s family was there too, Kieran was the first blanketman. Contrary to the militarists’ policy, however, were leaders in Sinn Féin who wanted the end of the policy of abstention (refusing to take seats in British or partitionist legislatures) and give the party more focus on winning elections.

The former prisoner says he agreed to join the project because it was a "breath of fresh air" and represented a plurality of opinion. The British government’s attitude would only harden after 1979, with the election of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government. She would refuse any concession of political status, insisting, “crime is crime is crime, it is not political”. Her government would go on to obstinately blame the IRA for the prisoners’ tragic deaths, while also labelling them all terrorists. Escalation We need to know about the big issues - the economy, health, the environment. I agree with unionists when they say about the potential to lose the National Health Service in a united Ireland. I'd love to see NHS being part of 32-county Ireland but we need to answer questions about funding beforehand." IRA man Seán McCaughey died on hunger strike (11 May 1946) in Portlaoise Prison. McCaughey was demanding political status, refusing to wear prison clothes and was kept naked (except for a blanket) in solitary confinement for nearly five years. [3] During the 20th century a total of 22 Irish Republicans died on hunger strike while demanding political status - see Groups who have conducted hunger strikes in List of hunger strikes. In mid June 1943 a form of blanket protest was carried out by Irish Republican prisoners in Crumlin Road Jail when 22 prisoners went on a "strip strike' for political status. Each morning every article (except a towel) was removed from each cell and the prisoners were left to sit on the floor until night time when the bedding was returned. [2]Only a few years earlier, Republican prisoners Michael Gaughan (d.1974) and Frank Stagg (d.1976) had died in English jails while on hunger strike for political status and repatriation to Ireland – the former as a consequence of brutal attempts to force-feed him. It is a considerably dangerous form of protest, and having Volunteers slowly die in prison after years of fighting had the potential to depress the movement rather than inspire it.

Sectarian division has only worsened, with frequent hate crimes and riots leading to so-called ‘peace walls’ erected between neighbours. There were Republican hunger strikes in British prisons and internment camps throughout the War of Independence and after, when control was passed over to the Free State. The youngest hunger striker ever, May Zambra, joined a 1923 hunger strike at 17 years old. Due to the Civil War, some anti-Treaty prisoners were not released until 1932, and many found themselves interned again during the Second World War. Don’t remember any UK countries going Bankrupt, standard of living pretty good, uses the pound which is always strong. Frustrated by stasis, O’Rawe and his comrades, including officer commanding, Brendan Hughes or ‘The Dark”, and public-relations officer, Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane, instituted a ‘no-wash’ protest.The situation was getting out of control, and the British state stepped-up repression of Republicans to appease Paisley’s ‘No Surrender’ mobs – who were preparing for all-out civil war. The Blanketmen However, the Army Council of the IRA rejected the offer and six more men died, the last one on August 20. The strike ended, partly due to the strikers’ families intervening, on October 30 and, soon after, most of the rights demanded were granted. Despite the reservations from Republican leaders, PIRA prison commander Bobby Sands began the 1981 hunger strike on 1 March. Sands joined the Provisionals at the age of 18, after he lost his apprenticeship and his family was forced to move home due to intimidation from loyalist gangs.

O’Rawe’s account of the organisation of the hunger strikes displays an unsurprising disconnect between the Army Council on the outside and the inmate leaders. In relation to linking up with a party that was historically critical of the IRA, Mr O'Rawe said he believed the "SDLP were right and demonstrably so". Mr O'Rawe will join more than two dozen community activists, academics, business people and politicians in exploring the priorities for potential constitutional change.Now a successful writer with a number of factual and fictional books under his belt, the self-styled "independent republican", who cut ties with Sinn Féin in 1985, has accepted an invitation to sit on the experts and reference panel of the SDLP's New Ireland Commission. We got 1,200 people to come to the event which was more than we hoped,” said Séamus. “There were 400 medals and the 400 medals are all gone, so it was a success all round. A FORMER IRA prisoner who has agreed to be part of the SDLP's New Ireland Commission has said the party's historical opposition to violence has been vindicated by the north's continued place in the United Kingdom.