Remembering our Heroes of 1916

In May 1972, Provisional IRA prisoners in Crumlin Road Jail,  Northern Ireland, started a hunger strike for the right to be treated as  'prisoners of war'. At the time, the British government of Conservative  Prime Minister Edward Heath was in ceasefire talks with the Provisional  IRA. Northern Ireland secretary William Whitelaw acceded to the  prisoners' demands, conferring 'special category' status on those  convicted of terrorism-related offences.

In 1976, the new Labour government ended Special Category Status amid  concerns that it was undermining prison discipline. Anyone convicted of  terrorism-related offences after 1 March that year would be treated as  an ordinary criminal. They would be imprisoned in the new, purpose-built  'H-Blocks' of the Maze prison and would have to wear prison uniform and  do prison work.

HM Prison Maze was built on the disused Long Kesh RAF base,  south-west of Belfast. Paramilitary prisoners had been held in 'long  huts' there during 'internment' (imprisonment without trial) from 1971  to 1975. The new, distinctively-shaped 'H-Blocks' were to become the  centre of protest over 'special category' status.

Protests began in September 1976 when Kieran Nugent, a Provisional  IRA member, entered the Maze and refused to wear prison clothes. He was  not provided with an alternative so dressed in a blanket, starting what  became known as the 'blanket protest'. By Christmas, there were more  than forty so-called 'blanketmen'.

In 1978, republican prisoners began a 'no-wash' or 'dirty' protest  after disagreements with prison authorities over sanitary facilities and  accusations of brutality. The situation escalated, with prisoners  smashing their furniture, refusing to wash or to leave their cells and  ultimately smearing cell walls with their own excrement.

When a hunger strike was proposed, the external leadership of the  Provisional IRA was opposed, fearing it would divert attention away from  its campaign of violence. With republican prisoners determined to act,  the Provisional IRA leadership gave way. 

Prisoners in the first hunger strike made five demands: the right to  wear their own clothes; the right not to do prison work; the right to  freedom of association; the right to organise their own leisure  activities; and the right to restoration of lost remission (reduction of  sentence).

The seven hunger strikers called off their strike 53 days later,  mistakenly believing their demands had been met by the British  government, by now a Conservative one led by Margaret Thatcher.

When it became clear their demands hadn't been met, a second hunger  strike was organised, beginning on 1 March 1981. It was led by Bobby  Sands, leader of the Provisional IRA prisoners in the Maze. Sands made  the strategic decision to organise the new strike with a staggered  start. A new prisoner would join each week, thereby creating sustained  pressure on the British government. The dirty protest was called off so  attention could be focused on the second hunger strike.

Four days after the strike began, the MP for Fermanagh-South Tyrone  died suddenly. Sinn Fein, a republican political party associated with  the Provisional IRA, nominated Sands for the vacant seat. On 9 April, he  was elected. Sands' new status as an MP created huge media interest,  but the British government made no concessions and Sands died on 5 May  1981, 66 days after he first refused food.

Within two weeks of Sands' funeral, three more strikers had died:  Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O'Hara. The position of the  British government remained unchanged.

In June, negotiations with the hunger strikers began when the Irish  Commission for Justice and Peace approached the British government's  Northern Ireland Office with a series of proposals. At the same time,  parallel discussions were being held between the British Foreign Office  and the external leadership of the Provisional IRA. By the end of July,  the British government had made concessions on everything except freedom  of association, but there was still no agreement and two more hunger  strikers, Joe McDonnell and Martin Hurson, had now died.

With further concessions unlikely, many prisoners' families, local  Catholic clergy and the external leadership of the Provisional IRA  supported an end to the protest. On 31 July 1981, Paddy Quinn's family  took him off the strike, but this was followed by the deaths of three  more prisoners - Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty and Thomas McElwee. On 20  August, Michael Devine died. On the same day, the wife of another  striker, Pat McGeown, agreed to him receiving medical attention. On 3 October 1981, the remaining hunger strikers ended their protest.

The new Northern Ireland secretary, James Prior, welcomed the  prisoners' decision. Three days later he announced that prisoners in the  Maze could wear their own clothes. Other privileges were restored and  over time the hunger strikers' demands were substantially met, but the  British government never made formal recognition of the prisoners' right  to political status.

During the 217 days of the protest, ten strikers died; seven from the  Provisional IRA and three from the Irish National Liberation Army  (INLA). Outside the prison, the death toll was considerably worse, with  61 people killed in sectarian violence during the seven months of the  strike.

Even though not all the demands were met, the it had attracted massive attention to their cause and led directly to  the rebirth of Sinn Fein as a political movement. When Bobby Sands'  parliamentary seat was held with an increased majority by his election  agent, Owen Carron, it did much to convince key republicans that they  should re-enter the political process, using a twin strategy of the  "Armalite [a type of gun] and the ballot box" to achieve their aims.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Irish_hunger_strike

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/why-h-block-hunger-strikers-were-not-force-fed-1.2706786