By Barry McNally
In September 1987 I was born, 6 years previous to this the hunger strike of 1981 was in its concluding weeks. By this time ten men had died on the hunger strike and a number of other men were on various stages of the hunger strike. Some slipping in and out of consciousness. Morale was low, people felt helpless and the British remained intransigent.
The hunger strike of 1981 for me, like so many others equate with the Easter rising of 1916.
I was not born at the time of either of these events however both have had a huge impact on my life and also on the Irish republican movement. Both events were a showdown between Irish republicans and possibly the strongest empire in the world - that of the British. My interpretations of 1981 come from publications, songs, media, dramatisations, my family, ex combatants and indeed Ex POWs themselves. As already stated I didn’t live through the turbulent time of the period of 1980 / 81. However I grew up with a sense that these men were special in some way. A familiar sight was handicrafts made by POWs with the faces of the 10 men on them. Pictures of the men adorned the walls of our home alongside the 7 signatories of the 1916 Easter rising.
In 1981 the war had been going on for just over 10 years, the prisons were filling up with republican prisoners, the IRA were ‘flat out’ at the military campaign and British strategists were doing their damnest to portray the republican struggle as criminal.
And so in 1976 the British adopted to policy of ‘criminalisation’. This would involve removing POW Status from prisoners sentenced for their role in the conflict. We all know the story of the first blanket man Kieran Nugent and the path which the Blanket protest took.
POWs were wrapping themselves in blankets, wiping excrement in their cells for 5 years. Within these first few years of the commencement of the blanket protest Republican POW’s had a sense that things were not moving forward in regards the issue of POW status and the Blanket and dirty protests.
Many POWs who were in Long Kesh at the time described the Hunger Strikes of 1980 / 81 as inevitable.
The men and gallant women in Armagh who participated in the 1980 / 1981 Strikes are owed a lot. They took on the might British policy in Ireland and smashed attempts to label the republican struggle as criminal.
To me the 1981 hunger strikers were people who I never knew but seemed to know. To others they were friends, comrades, brothers, fathers, the list is endless. They were ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances. Where else in the world would you get hundreds of prisoners living in the most inhumane conditions to prove the legitimacy and righteousness of a cause?
On the outside also the RUC were firing plastic bullets in their thousands and attacking the funerals of the hunger strikers, even hijacking the hearses carrying the remains of our comrades. A member of Na Fianna Éireann, Fian John Dempsey was also killed in West Belfast as the news of Joe McDonnell death broke and so the death and suffering at that time was not only confined to the H-Blocks
Reflecting on his time on hunger strike as ex POW once told me that his decision to go on the hunger strike was based on the fact that he couldn’t or wouldn’t allow the republican people outside of the jail be labelled as criminal. This struck me deeply, to realise that the men were not hungering for their own welfare and status, but for the people on the outside also. It really brought home to me the Bobby, Frank, Raymond, Patsy, Joe, Martin, Kevin, Kieran, Thomas and Mickey died so that we and the republican community wouldn’t be labelled as criminal.
The deaths of the ten men continue to inspire another generation of republican youth.
When I look at that period I have mixed emotions. I feel anger with pride. Anger at the British government and those who stood by while 10 men died. But also pride in that these 10 brave men gave up their lives for something that they wouldn’t live to see. They did not die just for the 5 demands; they died for their people, for justice and for freedom.
If it had not been for the hunger strike I would question if I would be involved in the republican struggle or involved in Ógra Shinn Féin. I believe there is an onus on republicans to contribute to the struggle for Irish freedom, the same struggle that the ten men and thousands more laid their lives down for. We must do justice to our fallen comrades and strive forward and secure a 32 democratic socialist republic in Ireland.
‘It is then we will see the rising of the moon’
Beirigi Bua
2 comments:
"The deaths of the ten men continue to inspire another generation of republican youth."
Very Much True...Well Done with this post Barry!
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