Hunger
1980
strikes
1981
Ireland in Schools
Raymond McCartney, 1980
Durham Pilot Scheme
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)
Chronology
1976
1978
1980
1981
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certain offences withdrawn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
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.
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
Maze prison
1970s
Inside the loyalist
UVF compound
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
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
How well-informed was the
new 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 Ireland’s 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
‘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
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
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 women’s prison)
• 500 protesters by 1980
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. You’d be repelled by them. I don’t think I could touch a
maggot now. If there was one sitting here, you know, I’d 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
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
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
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
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
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
Why were hunger strikes resumed
in 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
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)
joined hunger strike on ? May 1981 and died on 1 August 1981 after 71 days without food
Kieran Doherty (25)
Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Teachta Dáil (TD; member of the Irish Parliament)
joined hunger strike on 22 May 1981 and died on 2 August 1981 after 73 days without food
Thomas McElwee (23)
Irish Republican Army (IRA)
joined hunger strike on 8 June 1981 and died on 8 August 1981 after 62 days without food
Michael Devine (27)
Irish National Liberation Army (INLA)
joined hunger strike on 22 June 1981 and died on 20 August 1981 after 60 days without food
Why were they in prison?
Bobby Sands IRA
Francis Hughes IRA
Raymond McCreesh IRA
Patsy O’Hara INLA
Joe McDonnell IRA
Martin Hurson IRA
Kevin Lynch INLA
Kieran Doherty IRA
Thomas McElwee IRA
Michael Devine INLA
Possession of a firearm
Various offences, including murder of
a soldier
Attempted murder, possession of a rifle,
IRA membership
Possession of a hand grenade
Possession of a firearm
Attempted murder, involvement in
explosions, IRA membership
Stealing shotguns, taking part in a
punishment shooting
Possession of firearms and explosives,
hijacking
Manslaughter
Theft and possession of firearms
What was it like?
You’re very sleepy and very, very tired and you’re sort of nodding off to
sleep but something’s 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 wasn’t afraid to die - and it wasn’t any sort
of courageous or glorious thing.
I think death would have been a release.
You can never feel that way again.
It’s not like tiredness.
It’s an absolute, total, mental and physical exhaustion.
It’s literally like slipping into death.
Laurence McKeown taken off hunger strike by his family on 6 Sept. 1981 on the 70th day.
Who was Bobby Sands?
1954
1972
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
9 Mar. born Rathcoole, predominantly Protestant part of Belfast
Family moves to new Catholic estate because of Protestant intimidation
Joins PIRA
Arrested & imprisoned for 4 years for arms possession
Arrested again after bomb attack on the Balmoral
Furniture Company Dunmurry, followed by a gun-battle
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
PRO for blanket protesters
Publishes short stories and poems in Republican News
under the pen-name ‘Marcella’, his sister’s name
Commandant of IRA in Maze
Negotiates with authorities to no avail
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
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
Why did Sands stand for
election 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
What was the result of election?
• Victory for Bobby Sands
–
–
–
–
Turnout
Sands
West
Majority
86.9%
30,492 votes
29,046 votes
1,500 votes
Click on link below for video of BBC report on election*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq7AR-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
– Introduced legislation preventing prisoners standing for parliament
Click on link below for video of Mrs Thatcher on ‘crime is crime’*
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=2582601761676462315
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.
* Requires internet connection
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?v=qGKppV9S_2k
* Requires internet connection
Funeral of Bobby Sands
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
Why did Margaret Thatcher
remain 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
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.
Daily Express, 1981
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
What public support was there
for the hunger strikers
at home & abroad?
Belfast
London
Dublin
NORAID, NY
Why did the hunger strikers refuse
chance of settlement after 6th death?
July 1981
Government’s ‘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
We were committed to something.
Unless someone was coming in and saying
‘Right, you have your own clothes, you won’t do
prison work, you have all your demands’,
short of that we wouldn’t 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
Why did the hunger strikes stop
on 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: Quinn’s mother asks for medical intervention
2 Aug: Quinn comes out of coma and says
‘Mummy, I’m sorry if I upset you.
It’s good to be alive.’
Paddy Quinn
• Only handful attend funeral of last hunger striker to die
‘Red’ Mickey Devine, died 20 Aug. 1981
• Government even more willing to compromise
How far did hunger strikers resent
the intervention of their families?
Laurence McKeown, whose mother ended his hunger strike on the 70th day.
Interviewer
How did you feel about your mother after she had taken you off?
Laurence McKeown
I didn’t 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 wasn’t politically committed to my ideas but she was
committed to me as a son.
I certainly didn’t ever say anything to her that would have
been hurtful.
I think much was left unspoken.
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.’
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
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, we’d 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 weren’t going
to die. You were relieved for your
family. On the other hand, you felt
guilty: that you’d actually ended
the hunger strike and you hadn’t
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.
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 Fein’s PRO, 1981
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)
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.’
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 SDLP’s 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 SDLP’s 15.2% of the vote
and 16 seats.
Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein’s 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