1981 Irish hunger strike

Protest by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland January 2013 November 2018 thumb|upright=1.5|A commemoration on the 2006 25th anniversary of the hunger strike A five-year protest during the Troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland culminated in a hunger strike in 1981. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976 when the British government withdrew Special Category Status (prisoner of war rather than criminal status) for convicted paramilitary prisoners. In 1978, the dispute escalated into the dirty protest, where prisoners refused to leave their cells to wash and covered the walls of their cells with excrement. In 1980, seven prisoners participated in the first hunger strike, which ended after 53 days. The second hunger strike took place in 1981 and was a showdown between the prisoners and the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. One of the hunger strikers, Bobby Sands, was elected as a member of the British parliament; Kieran Doherty and Paddy Agnew were elected in the 1981 Irish general election to Dáil Éireann during the strike, prompting media interest from around the world. The strike was called off after ten prisoners had starved themselves to death, including Sands, whose funeral was attended by 100,000 people. The strike was the driving force that enabled Sinn Féin to become a mainstream political party. Background 1920 Cork hunger strike 1923 Irish hunger strikes Tradition of hunger striking He has chosen death:Refusing to eat or drink, that he may bringDisgrace upon me; for there is a custom,An old and foolish custom, that if a manBe wronged, or think that he is wronged, and starveUpon another’s threshold till he die,The common people, for all time to come,Will raise a heavy cry against that threshold,Even though it be the King’s.Yeats 2010 122Professor Anthony Bradley has summed up the crux of the play as that "the King is shown to reluctantly register the moral force and political efficacy of Seanchan’s hunger strike, precisely because he is willing to die for his beliefs". Yeats's play was probably originally inspired by the English suffragette movement, but following the death on hunger strike of Terence MacSwiney in 1920, Yeats rewrote the play's "new 'tragic ending'...as it suggests the Lord Mayor of Cork".Bradley 2009 21 Yeats's poem has become, says critic Niall Ó Dochartaigh, "the literary reference of choice for the Irish hunger strikes".O'Dochartaigh 2021 165 note W. B. Yeats The King's Threshold left 25em #ECFFDC The use of a hunger strike as a means of protest in Ireland is a tradition dating to pre-Christian times.Sweeney 1993a 421–422 This was not ascetic, but rather a way of publicly reprimanding those who deserved it. By fasting—possibly to death—on the doorstep of his master, the hunger striker enforced a claim against the other until either the latter gave in or the faster died.McCluskey 2000 93 n.64 This tradition carried on even into the Christian era, and there are documented cases of early Irish saints fasting against God.Binchy 1982 168–171 The tradition of ga Troscad—fasting against an opponent—and ga Cealachan—gaining justice through fasting—became codified in the 8th century ga Senchas Már.Fierke 2013 108 In the 20th century, there had been hunger strikes by Irish republican prisoners since 1917. Twelve men died on hunger strike prior to the 1981 strikes:White 1993 116–118 Thomas Ashe (1917), Terence MacSwiney (1920), Michael Fitzgerald (1920), Joe Murphy (1920), Joseph Whitty (1923), Andy O'Sullivan (1923), Denny Barry (1923) (see 1923 Irish hunger strikes), Tony D'Arcy (1940), Jack McNeela (1940), Seán McCaughey (1946), Michael Gaughan (1974), and Frank Stagg (1976).White 1993 116–118 Internment thumb|Terence MacSwiney, an Irish republican who died on hunger strike in Brixton Prison in 1920 Although The Troubles had been ongoing since 1969, internment—which had been used several times in Ireland during the 20th century by both the British and Irish Free StateHealy 1982 213—was not introduced until 1971.McCleery 2015 16–18 Internees were originally held in a disused RAF base in County Down, called Long Kesh. Later renamed HM Prison Maze, it was run along the lines of a prisoner of war camp, complete, says the author Thomas Hennessey, "with imagery reminiscent of Second World War POW camps surrounded by barbed wire, watchtowers and Nissen huts".Hennessey 2014 12Beresford 1987 13–16 Internees lived in dormitories and disciplined themselves with military-style command structures, drilled with dummy guns made from wood, and held lectures on guerrilla warfare and politics.Beresford 1987 13–16Although conditions in the huts were poor, this was not the government's main concern, but the overall loss of control by the authorities. The civil servant John Gardiner, reported that prisons of the compound type, each compound holding up to ninety prisoners, are thoroughly unsatisfactory from every point of view; their major disadvantage is that there is virtually a total loss of disciplinary control by the prison authorities inside the compounds... The layout and construction of the compounds make close and continued supervision impossible".Coogan 2002a 73 note Convicted prisoners were refused the same rights as internees until July 1972, when Special Category Status was introduced following a hunger strike by 40 Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) prisoners led by the veteran republican Billy McKee.McEvoy 2001 216Walker 1984 197Darby 2006 202 Special Category, or political status, meant prisoners were treated similarly to prisoners of war; for example, not having to wear prison uniforms or do prison work.Beresford 1987 13–16 On 1 March 1976, Merlyn Rees, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in the Wilson ministry, announced that paramilitary prisoners would no longer be entitled to Special Category Status.Coogan 2002b 264 This was part of Britain's long-term strategy of criminalisation in the north, the intention being to alter perceptions of the conflict from a colonial war to that of a campaign against, effectively, criminal gangs.Bourke 2003 164McKittrick McVea 2002 123Curtis 1998 51 The policy was not imposed retroactively and only affected those convicted of offences after 1 March 1976.Hennessey 2014 50 Long Kesh prisoners remained in the huts, but new intakes arrived at eight newly built cellular "H-Blocks", so called due to their layout.Purbrick 2023 22, 26, 31 After the introduction of the strategy of internment in 1971, both IRA violence and recruitment escalated.Sanders 2012 52–53In the event, this was the most intense period of their campaign, with approximately half the total of 650 British soldiers who died being killed between 1971–73.O'Brien 1993 135 In 1972 alone, the IRA killed 100 British soldiers and wounded 500 more. In the same year, they carried out 1,300 bomb attacks and 90 IRA members were killed.O'Brien 1993 119 note Blanket and dirty protests Blanket protest dirty protest IRA volunteer Kieran Nugent had been interned in Long Kesh in 1974,Coogan 2002a 97 but when he was arrested and convicted in 1976, he faced a very different prison regime. On 14 September, he was the first republican to be convicted since the withdrawal of status.Ross 2011 26 As such he was required to wear a prison uniform as every other, non-political, prisoner did. Nugent refused, telling the warder, "If you want me to wear a uniform, you'll have to nail it to my back",Kenney 2017 196 and wore a blanket in its place.Bréadún 2015 58 This began the blanket protest, in which IRA and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) prisoners refused to wear prison uniforms and either went naked or fashioned garments from prison blankets.Holland McDonald 1996 192–193 In 1978, after a number of clashes between prison officers and prisoners leaving their cells to wash and "slop out" (empty their chamber pots), this escalated into the dirty protest, where prisoners refused to wash and smeared their excrement on the walls of their cells.Taylor 1997 220Aretxaga 1995 124, 127 The scholar Begoña Aretxaga has suggested that, unlike the hunger strike which followed, "the Dirty Protest had no precedent in the political culture".Aretxaga 1995 124 The protest soon spread to the women's prison at Armagh, where not just faeces and urine but menstrual blood coated cell walls.Aretxaga 1995 124Ross 2011 83 These protests aimed to re-establish the political status expected by prisoners of war and were encapsulated in what became known as the "Five Demands":Wagner-Pacifici 1986 157Alonso 2007 104 The right not to wear a prison uniform; The right not to do prison work; The right of free association with other prisoners, and to organise educational and recreational pursuits; The right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week; Full restoration of remission lost through the protest.Taylor 1997 229–234The last demand was a later addition; at the time of the 'Smash H-Block' conference, the demands comprised the first four.Ross 2011 62 note Initially, the dirty protest did not attract a great deal of attention, and even the IRA regarded it as a side issue in the context of the armed struggle.Taylor 1997 217Holland McDonald 1996 261 It began to attract attention when Tomás Ó Fiaich, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, visited the prison and condemned the conditions there.Taylor 1997 221–222 O'Fiaich subsequently told the press, "I was shocked at the inhuman conditions prevailing in H-Blocks... The stench and filth in some of the cells, with the remains of rotten food and human excreta scattered around the walls was almost unbearable. In two of them I was unable to speak for fear of vomiting."Taylor 1997 221–222 In 1979, former MP Bernadette McAliskey stood in the election for the European Parliament on a platform of support for the protesting prisoners and won just under 34,000 votes, even though Sinn Féin had called for a boycott of the election,Sinn Féin were not against elections per se; as the author F. Stuart Ross points out, "the very issues of An Phoblacht/Republican News that condemned the McAliskey campaign had asked readers to support Sinn Féin candidates in twenty-six county local elections".Ross 2011 26 note and on one occasion, Martin McGuinness heckled her with a megaphone during a public meeting.Ross 2023 137 Other republicans believed that her standing would be a diversion from the military campaign, and the Maze prisoners released a statement emphasising that, in their collective opinion, only physical force could remove the British.Walker 2006 66–67 Although McAliskey had stood solely on a prisoner's rights ticket, there was no intention of turning the popular support the campaign had exposed into an organised movement at that time.Walker 2006 67 However, the dirty protests had now lasted nearly three years, and morale inside was felt to be dangerously low.Ross 2011 61 One ex-blanketman recalled that "the more experienced men spoke for the rest of us when they said they were nearly at the end of their tether".O'Rawe 2005 67 Shortly after this, a "Smashing H-Block" conference took place in West Belfast in October 1979. Over 600 people, from many republican or left-wing organisations attended.Ross 2011 62 This led to the formation of the broad-based National H-Block/Armagh Committee on a platform of support for the "Five Demands", and included seasoned activists such as McAliskey, Eamonn McCann and Miriam Daly.Maume 2015Ross 2011 63, p.68 n.69 The period leading up to the hunger strike saw assassinations by both republicans and loyalists. The IRA shot and killed a number of prison officers,Taylor 1997 217Beresford 1987 20 while loyalist paramilitaries shot and killed a number of activists in the National H-Block/Armagh Committee. These included a UFF gun attack which badly injured McAliskey and her husband,Ross 2011 111Taylor 1999 168 the assassination of Miriam Daly by the UDA while her house was under military observation,Maume 2015 and, of the Irish Independence Party, John Turnley's death at the hands of the UVF.Finn 2019 146McDonald Cusack 2008 97McDonald Cusack 2004 116–118 1980 hunger strike With the three-year anniversary of the dirty protest approaching in 1979, the prisoners presented a proposal for a hunger strike to the external leadership. Although this was rejectedRoss 2011 61—former prisoner Laurence McKeown has said this proposal was "unknown to most prisoners"McKeown 2001 76—the external leadership "conceded, reluctantly" that they had no alternative proposal.McKeown 2001 76 In June 1980, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rejected a claim by the prisoners that their treatment during imprisonment was against the Convention on Human Rights on the grounds that the dirty protest was self-inflicted.Ross 2011 81–82 On 27 October 1980, republican prisoners in the Maze began a hunger strike. The strike garnered 148 volunteers, but a total of seven were selected to match the number of men who signed the Easter 1916 Proclamation of the Republic.White 1993 173O'Rawe 2005 103–104 The group consisted of IRA members Brendan Hughes, Tommy McKearney, Raymond McCartney, Tom McFeely, Sean McKenna, Leo Green, and INLA member John Nixon.O'Rawe 2005 103–104Clarke 1987 124Holland McDonald 1996 268thumb|Tommy McKearney, who took part in the blanket protest, dirty protest and 1980 hunger strike On 1 December, three prisoners in Armagh Women's Prison joined the strike. These were Mairéad Farrell (age 23), Mary Doyle (24) and Mairéad Nugent (21); Farrell stated that the intention was to "create an additional source of pressure on the authorities". In four days, their average weight loss was 9 lb kg. They were moved to a single clean cell two days after beginning and were in a stable condition.Wahidin 2016 160Hennessey 2014 94 In the Maze, the seven men were in the prison hospital where they were weak but generally stable, except for McKenna and McKearney, who deteriorated faster than their comrades. They remained defiant, however, and refused to accept less than the settlement of the Five Demands. The British government, while offering extensive prison reform, refused to acknowledge political status.Hennessey 2014 108–110, 114 The women's strike lasted nineteen days, finishing on 19 December. Twenty-six women remained on the dirty protest at Armagh.Wahidin 2016 160 Token three-day fasts broke out sporadically in Belfast Prison.Hennessey 2014 114 In a war of nerves between the IRA leadership and the government, with McKenna lapsing in and out of a coma and on the brink of death, the government appeared to concede the essence of the prisoners' five demands.Taylor 1997 229–234 The republicans were unsure whether the British position of refusing to negotiate could itself be a negotiating position, although this was emphatically denied by the Northern Ireland Office. The situation escalated on 15 December when twenty-three more prisoners joined the Maze strike. McKenna was by now gravely ill, and McKearney close behind; the eyesight of both had deteriorated.Hennessey 2014 114 Following "intense" and "highly secret" negotiations involving the Irish Government, the British clarified their position in a thirty-page document detailing a proposed settlement, which touched on many of the demands, although without conceding any. With the document in transit to Belfast, Hughes—having already been informed that rights to free association and to their own clothing had been granted, which he deemed 'close' to what they wanted—took the decision to save McKenna's life and end the strike after fifty-three days on 18 December.Taylor 1997 229–234Hennessey 2014 116–118In an interesting corollary, on 12 December, six UDA men in the Maze also began a hunger strike for the same five demands as the republican prisoners but also including a demand for segregation from them. The British considered it "ostensibly a publicity stunt and that the participants had no intention of killing themselves".Hennessey 2014 112 note Later, however, Hughes stated that the reason he called it off was purely to save McKenna's life and explicitly not because he expected British concessions or a prisoners' victory.Kelly 2021 128 Sands believed that the strikers "were beat by a few lousy hours".O'Hearn 2006 165 The final British offer made no promises but gave assurances that the government "will, subject to the overriding requirements of security, keep prison conditions—and that includes clothing, work, association, education, training and remission—under continuing review".O'Dochartaigh 2021 176 1981 hunger strike thumb|300px|Maze prison outside of Belfast where the hunger strike took place By January 1981, it became clear that the prisoners' demands had not been conceded. The republican movement—"unconvincingly", argues Kelly—blamed Britain, insisting that Thatcher had reneged on her promises.Kelly 2021 129 Instead, for example, of the right to their own clothes, which the prisoners believed had been conceded them, it became clear that they would have to wear prison-issued clothes until they could demonstrate full compliance with the regime. Sands saw this as "a demand for capitulation rather than a step-by-step approach", argues O'Dochartaigh, and began pressuring the external leadership to authorise another hunger strike.O'Dochartaigh 2021 178 The investigative author R. K. Walker has reported one member of British Intelligence as believing that The British government duped the IRA into believing the prisoners' demands had been granted. He said the British government deliberately created a state of confusion among the hunger strikers by moving McKenna, who was close to death, to a hospital outside the prison. He said this had the effect of creating uncertainty within his colleagues, who would not know if he was about to die or had died.Walker 2006 92–93 Walker's source argues that this was a Pyrrhic victory for the government, as it heightened the resolve of the prisoners in the event of another hunger strike.Walker 2006 92–93 Prison authorities began to supply the prisoners with officially issued civilian clothing, as had been announced.English 2003 195–196 The Secretary of State, Humphrey Atkins, had already begun preparations for dealing with a second hunger strike based on the lessons of the first one. These included the behaviour of the military, close liaison between the NIO and Belfast community and church leaders, with the Irish government, and the attitude of the United States. In Dublin, the Irish Taoiseach, Charles Haughey recommended the British continue the strategy of "a good mixture of ingenuity, subtlety and sensitivity" that had served them the previous year.Hennessey 2014 156–157 On 4 February, the prisoners issued a statement saying that the British government had failed to resolve the crisis and declared their intention of "hunger striking once more".English 2003 195–196 The prisoners gradually wound down the dirty protest, requesting baths and shaving and allowing themselves to be moved to new cell blocks. The blanket protest continued. The seven volunteers who had recently ended their hunger strike publicly announced their support for another, although Sands was still concerned at this point that the external leadership might veto a strike.Hennessey 2014 157, 126, 131 The leadership did not, in fact, and desperately sent in comms attempting to dissuade Sands from another hunger strike. But Sands intended to "send a clear signal to his own superiors that he 'meant business'".O'Hearn 2017 158 The second hunger strike began on 1 March, when Bobby Sands, the IRA's former officer commanding (OC) in the prison, refused food.Sands had taken over from Brendan Hughes as OC when Hughes commenced his hunger strike.Walker 2006 94 note The date was deliberately chosen as the fifth anniversary of the withdrawal of status.Walker 2006 94 A statement from the prisoners was issued by Danny Morrison, Sinn Féin's publicity director:White 2017 177 We have asserted that we are political prisoners and everything about our country, our arrests, interrogations, trials, and prison conditions, show that we are politically motivated and not motivated by selfish reasons or for selfish ends. As further demonstration of our selflessness and the justness of our cause a number of our comrades, beginning today with Bobby Sands, will hunger-strike to the death unless the British government abandons its criminalization policy and meets our demand for political status.White 2017 177 I am standing on the threshold of another trembling world. May God have mercy on my soul. My heart is very sore because I know that I have broken my poor mother's heart, and my home is struck with unbearable anxiety. But I have considered all the arguments and tried every means to avoid what has become the unavoidable: it has been forced upon me and my comrades by four-and-a-half years of stark inhumanity... I ate the statutory weekly bit of fruit last night. As fate had it, it was an orange, and the final irony, it was bitter.Sands 1981Sands kept a diary for the first 17 days of his fast.Sands 1981 note Excerpt from Sands's diary, 1 March 1981 left 25em #ECFFDC Before commencing his hunger strike, Sands had designated Brendan McFarlane as O.C. of IRA prisoners. When McFarlane asked why he was chosen instead of Séanna Walsh, Sands is said to have replied: "Séanna is my best mate. When a crisis develops, Séanna will not let me die. You will. You have to”. 1 March 2025 Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane obituary: IRA figure linked to kidnapping, killings and prisoner escape Irish Times https://www.irishtimes.com/obituaries/2025/03/01/brendan-bik-mcfarlane-obituary-ira-figure-linked-to-kidnapping-killings-and-prisoner-escape/Sands organised the strike along lines which made his death—and several more—effectively inevitable.Moloney 2007 208 Unlike in the first strike, the prisoners joined one at a time and at staggered intervals; Sands started first and was, therefore, almost certain to die, and die first.Moloney 2007 208 This was intended to arouse maximum public support and exert maximum pressure on Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher,Taylor 1997 237 which the republican movement initially struggled to generate. The Sunday Sands began his strike, 3,500 people marched through West Belfast; this was compared to 10,000 marchers four months previously.Taylor 1997 239–240 Edward Daly, Bishop of Derry, condemned the return to hunger strike as being not "morally justified" while Sands held journalists' interviews from his bed. Food was given to Sands every day, although this was refused.Hennessey 2014 161–162 One of Sands's fellow prisoners reported how food would sit there all day, and when it was taken away at night, the warders "would accuse Bobby of having eaten a pea as they had put '130 on the plate and now there are only 129'."Campbell McKeown O'Hagen 1994 148 The author and researcher Ed Moloney has argued, on Sands's strategy, that it meant that "if any hunger striker died, the moral pressure on those who followed to continue through to the end was huge. The fast also guaranteed that if there were deaths, the North would be pitched into a crisis every fortnight or so until the end. As an instrument for destabilizing political life in Ireland, it was beyond historical comparison."Moloney 2007 208 On 5 March, Thatcher flew to Belfast for a lightning visit, in an attempt to reassure the Protestant community of the government's continuing commitment to the Union. She denied it was a response to the latest hunger strike, saying "it ought to be as natural for the Prime Minister to visit this part of the United Kingdom as for her... to visit Lancashire or Kent", and that she wished to build a "healthy and harmonious society" in the north.Kelly 2021 130 She summarised the government's philosophy in a speech before leaving: Once again we have a hunger-strike at the Maze Prison in the quest for what they call political status. There is no such thing as political murder, political bombing or political violence. There is only criminal murder, criminal bombing and criminal violence. We will not compromise on this. There will be no political status.Kelly 2021 130Hennessey 2014 164 However, she also seems to have not held the prisoners themselves responsible for their actions, and even regret, at their forthcoming deaths:Wee 2007 68 I cannot interfere with the hunger strike; we do not force feed. If those people continue with the hunger strike it will have no effect whatsoever. It will just take their own lives for which I will be profoundly sorry because I think it is a ridiculous thing to do, that it is a ridiculous way to try to go about."Wee 2007 68 Ten days later, Sands was joined by Francis Hughes. On the 22nd, Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O'Hara began their fasts.Walker 2006 94 The British strategy, at first, was to wait it out and allow time to collapse the strike as it had done in 1980.O'Dochartaigh 2021 179 In the meantime, though, "the strike was quickly overtaken by other events" outside Belfast.Walker 2006 94 Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election On the same day Thatcher visited the north, Independent Republican "unity" MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone Frank Maguire died, resulting in a by-election.Ross 2011 117Maguire himself was a former IRA man who had been interned during the Border Campaign, had never made his maiden speech in Westminster, but has frequently visited—and was an outspoken supporter of—the prisoners' campaign.Ross 2011 117 note According to McAliskey, it was already intended that Sands should win Maguire's seat. She later told how Frank was going to make his first speech in Westminster announcing his resignation.Ross 2011 118 There was debate among nationalists and republicans regarding who should contest the election: Austin Currie of the Social Democratic and Labour Party expressed an interest, as did McAliskey and Maguire's brother Noel.Ross 2011 120 After negotiations, they agreed not to split the nationalist vote by contesting the election. This was unpopular in the SDLP, whose ex-leader Gerry FittTonge 2002 70—until 1978, the party's only MP and now a Unity MP—criticised the SDLP for abstaining, and Currie himself later said he was "extremely angry and frustrated" not to have been chosen as his party's candidate.Campbell 2015 229Murphy 2007 298–299 Sands thus stood as an Anti H-Block candidate and had a clear run against Ulster Unionist Party candidate Harry West.Taylor 1997 239–240Moloney 2007 211–212 Sands was allowed to stand under the Criminal Law Act 1967, which allowed convicted criminals to be elected.Kelly 2021 130Unless convicted of High Treason.Kelly 2021 130 note The election took place on 9 April, and following a high-profile campaign, Sands was elected to the British House of Commons with 30,492 votes to West's 29,046, amounting to over 52% of the vote.Kelly 2021 131Murray 1998 107 The result "gravely alarmed" the government, which almost immediately began looking at ways of disqualifying the new MP.Kelly 2021 131The House of Commons considered expelling Sands, but legal advice instructed that he was "legally entitled to election and that those who voted for him knew that he was and would remain in custody".Kelly 2021 131Hennessey 2014 177–178 note It also alarmed the unionist community, to whom Sands was merely a convicted terrorist. An Enniskillen councillor protested that Fermanagh unionists were "astounded" that the Catholic community elected Sands as they did. Harry West said afterwards, "Now we know the types of people who are living among us".Dawson 2007 264–265 The Anti-H Block cause received a profile boost: now that a British MP might starve to death, Bowyer Bell says, "the international media began to arrive".Bowyer Bell 2008 501 The New York Times described the result as "a stunning blow to the Protestant establishment of Northern Ireland" and that it "cast into doubt the view often expressed by politicians in London that the IRA is supported only by a fringe of the Catholic voters". For its part, the Irish Times also reported the election as "a serious embarrassment to the British Government" and a "body blow for those who claimed that most Nationalists would not support paramilitary organisation". The Times, meanwhile, concentrated on whether it was possible to remove Sands from office, and noted that, in any case, "even if he is allowed to keep his seat, he is likely to be dead of starvation soon".Mulcahy 1995 455 Sands's election victory raised hopes that a settlement could be negotiated, but Thatcher stood firm in refusing to give concessions to the hunger strikers. She stated, "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".Coogan 2002b 281 In the blaze of the world's cameras, several intermediaries visited Sands in an attempt to negotiate an end. These included three Irish MEPs, Síle de Valera—granddaughter of Éamon de Valera—Neil Blaney and John O'Connell,Coogan 2002b 281 as well as Pope John Paul II's personal envoy, John Magee.Ross 2011 129 Several European Commission of Human Rights (ECHR) officials also sought a meeting with Sands, but he refused unless representatives of the IRA and Sinn Féin could attend, and this the Maze authorities could not allow.Dickson 2010 281Taylor 1997 242–243 Labour MP Roy Mason also visited Sands in order to tell him that when he died, he would get no sympathy or recognition from the British labour movement. This appears to have alienated moderate Catholics, however.Sales 1997 78 With Sands close to death, the government's position remained unchanged, with Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Humphrey Atkins stating that "If Mr Sands persisted in his wish to commit suicide, that was his choice. The Government would not force medical treatment upon him."Beresford 1987 242–243Wharton 2015 172 Sands died in the early hours of 5 May 1981; Hughes was two weeks behind him and the next two a week behind Hughes.Hennessey 2014 206, 196 Small-scale rioting broke out almost immediately, particularly in the interface area of New Barnsley.Hennessey 2014 209 The Gaelic Athletic Association was condemned by an Irish Republican Socialist Party councillor for banning anti-H Block activity on its premises.Ross 2011 141 Other elections Sinn Féin had traditionally abstained from electoral politics, seeing it as reinforcing colonial rule in the north and an illegal and illegitimate process in the south.Feeney 2003 290–291 Local elections in the south were contested, but although there were increasing calls for this approach to be expanded to the north, the most recent attempt—in November 1980—was voted down at the party's Ard Fheis.Albeit that this was more on the grounds of tactics and resources rather than the principle itself.Bréadún 2015 61 note The death of Sands necessitated another by-election in Fermanagh and South Tyrone. This time the Anti-H Block candidate was Owen Carron, Sands's election agent. Held on the day Devine died, Carron won the by-election with an increased number of votes.Smyth 1987 186 The increasing electability of republican candidates worried the Irish government. Anti-H Block candidates won over 40,000 first preference votes at the 1981 Irish general election, and elected two prisoners to the Dáil, Paddy Agnew to Louth and hunger striker Kieran Doherty in Cavan-Monaghan.Wahidin 2016 40 n.35 Neither took their seat.Bréadún 2015 62 Joe McDonnell narrowly missed election in Sligo–Leitrim.Sanders 2012 133O'Brien 1993 119 The election victories of Doherty and Agnew denied power to Charles Haughey's outgoing Fianna Fáil government, which lost their narrow majority.O'Brien 1993 123Moore 2024 33O'Rawe 2005 140 Gerry Adams saw these results primarily as a warning to the next Irish government to "move on the prisoners' demands".Ross 2023 143 There were also local elections in Northern Ireland on 20 May, although Sinn Féin did not contest them.White 2017 183 Some smaller groups and independents who supported the hunger strikers gained seats, such as the Irish Independence Party with 21 seats, while the IRSP (the INLA's political wing) and People's Democracy (a Trotskyist group) gained two seats each, and a number of pro-hunger strike independent candidates also won seats.Berresford Ellis 1985 336 The British government passed the Representation of the People Act 1981 to prevent another prisoner from contesting the second by-election in Fermanagh and South Tyrone, which was due to take place following the death of Sands.Coogan 2002b 279 On 4 July, the prisoners stated they were not asking for preferential treatment, saying, "We would warmly welcome the introduction of the Five Demands for all prisoners".Taylor 1997 245 Prisoner communication Until the late 1970s, the blanket protest was effectively a passive one. Because the prisoners would not wear uniforms, they could not come out of their cells, even for Masses or visits. The problem with this all-or-nothing "macho"O'Hearn 2017 150 strategy is that it made communicating with the outside world much harder, and it was difficult to get word out about the conditions they dwelt in.O'Hearn 2017 151 It also undermined morale, both in the Maze and on the outside.McEvoy 2001 85 The situation changed with the arrival of Brendan Hughes in the H Block; Hughes, supported by Sands, advocated coming out of cells, not just to improve their own existence but, more importantly, to allow them to take advantage of the opportunities visits presented for smuggling.O'Hearn 2017 151McEvoy 2001 85 n.22 The Adams/Hughes stratagem also made prison protests more sustainable in the long term.O'Dochartaigh 2021 166 It also improved internal and external communications, the weaknesses of which had been exposed in the first hunger strike, when Sands and Hughes could not meet, and there was little up-to-date information being shared.O'Dochartaigh 2021 175 Internally, prisoners in one wing could generally shout to another wing, especially at night. Other methods they developed were creative, such as tying items onto a blanket-thread string, tying the other end to a button, and then "shooting the button" across the corridor under cell doors.O'Hearn 2017 150 External communication was maintained via prison visits. These allowed the prisoners to send out letters and receive items from the outside, such as ball point refills, cigarette papers—for both smoking and writing on—tobacco, and quartz crystal radios.O'Hearn 2017 151McEvoy 2001 85 n.22 For smuggling goods and letters, the prisoners' mouths and body cavities provided not just a practical method of importation but another act of resistance against the prison regime.McEvoy 2001 43 Cavities for the Maze prisoners included rectal, throat and nasal passages, as well as within foreskins and navels.McEvoy 2001 85 n.22 One prisoner became known as "The Suitcase" on account of how much he could carry inside him, while another set a record with 40 commsJune 2025 under his foreskin.Feldman 1991 198–200Mac Giolla Chríost 2012 34 The long-term effect of the change of prisoner strategy and the opening up of lines of communication in 1978 was that, three years later, the world now had a thorough, if a third party, knowledge of conditions inside the Maze, due to the volume of information that had previously come out.O'Hearn 2017 151 David Beresford, a Northern Ireland correspondent for The Guardian in 1981, researched the methods the prisoners used to collect equipment, as the H Blocks had been designed to constrain prisoners' communications. Although the prisoners had the final say on who visited them—they had to send their VOs to the governor—they were generally expected to accept the recommendations of the Army Council, which was interested in maximising the number of couriers available. If possible, these couriers—nearly all of them women—would also be family or friends of the prisoner. They brought and received comms. These were tiny letters, written on cigarette papers and wrapped in clingfilm during transportation, either internally or under clothing: "The system became so efficient that on occasion the external leadership could expect to get a message in, a reply out and a second message back in in a single day".Mac Giolla Chríost 2012 33–34Beresford 1987 30 Continuing violence Paramilitary activity Even before Sands's death, pro-prisoner violence was occurring. British businessman Geoffrey Armstrong of British Leyland was giving a speech to the Dublin Junior Chamber of Commerce when three balaclavad men shot him in the legs while shouting, "This action is in support of the H-Blocks".Bowyer Bell 2008 501Ross 2011 119 The IRA denied responsibility. Violence was not confined to the IRA. Other incidents included the shooting and wounding of UDA councillor Sam Millar at home on Shankill Road by the INLA. There were retaliatory UDA killings in Belfast; an RUC officer was blown up by a car bomb, and a woman in Derry was assassinated while collecting census forms door to door.Bowyer Bell 2008 501 The IRA released a statement that attacks on security services would increase.Wharton 2015 174 The first paramilitary victim following Sands's death was Constable Peter Ellis, who was shot by the IRA on 6 May in New Lodge.McKittrick Kelters Feeney Thornton 1999 859 The following day James Power, INLA, was blown up by his organisation's own bomb near his home in the Markets area.McKittrick Kelters Feeney Thornton 1999 860 The Lost Lives project has calculated that around 50 people lost their lives in the period between the death of Sands and the taking off of Devlin.McKittrick Kelters Feeney Thornton 1999 859–877 Following Hughes's death, the Irish country homes of James Comyn, a British High Court judge, and Lord Farnham, were burned out by the IRA,Hennessey 2014 221 and in Belfast, the night before his burial, there were seven shooting incidents and an explosion.Hennessey 2014 228 Two days later, Constable Stephen Vallely died when an RPG hit his Land Rover; he was the first RUC to be killed in a rocket attack.McKittrick Kelters Feeney Thornton 1999 862 Attacks on security forces continued and became more intense when there was a burial. Soldiers were killed by a landmine in Newry; a police officer was shot outside a pub;Ryder 2002 253 reservist Colin Dunlop was shot in the Royal Victoria Hospital, the conflict's first Mormon casualty.McKittrick Kelters Feeney Thornton 1999 867 Further hunger striker deaths were met with further street violence; following the death of O'Hara, for example, the police were attacked, and a man was killed by a plastic bullet.Hennessey 2014 242 The IRA killed 13 policemen, 13 soldiers—including five members of the UDR—and five civilians. The seven months were one of the bloodiest periods of the Troubles, with a total of 61 people killed, 34 of them civilians.Taylor 1997 237 Prison officers became a favoured target by the IRA: eighteen had been killed in the run-up to and duration of the first hunger strike,Smyth 1987 183 as well as two prison governors,Hennessey 2014 460 including Albert Mills in 1978.McKittrick Kelters Feeney Thornton 1999 771 This was the republican movement's means of upping the ante against a relatively soft target.Ross 2011 25 Former IRA prisoner Richard O'Rawe has argued that, from the perspective of the prisoners, prison staff waged a campaign of violence against them, including beatings and testicular squeezings.O'Rawe 2010 16 Funerals thumb|Memorial for those who died in the hunger strikes at Milltown Cemetery in Belfast By late April, with Sands on the verge of death, the British government was making plans to deal with the popular consequences. Atkins briefed Thatcher that not only were thousands expected to turn out for Sands's funeral, but large-scale rioting was expected. The RUC's main priority was to prevent demonstrators from entering Protestant areas, which were already being spoken of as defended by Protestant paramilitaries.Hennessey 2014 196 Although Sands's funeral—attended by around 100,000 peopleWalker 2006 65—on 7 May passed off peacefully, that night, violence broke out across Belfast; security forces were attacked with acid and petrol bombs.Hennessey 2014 218 Ten thousand people attended the funeral of Francis Hughes,Mentel2024 68 which took place "not without some controversy", argues Hennessey.Hennessey 2014 227 The Times Northern Ireland correspondent Chris Ryder described an "undignified chase" across South Belfast after his body was handed over to his family. The family, and the wider republican movement, wanted the remains to be taken via the Falls Road and Toomebridge—where receptions had been laid on—whereas the RUC had directed it be taken from the Maze to his place of burial, Bellaghy.Ryder 2002 253 The police considered any other route—which would have to march past Protestant areas—too dangerous for both security forces and civilians.Hennessey 2014 227Further, reports Ryder, the IRA had taken over St Agnes's, on Andersonstown Road for the remains to rest, against the wishes of the parish priest.Hennessey 2014 227 note As such it was decided to give Hughes a police convoy, although the chief constable, Jack Hermon, was "less certain than one would like" of the exact statutory powers under which the force did so.Hennessey 2014 227–228 Hermon's priority for the future was that—however many more funerals there might be—the IRA would not be in control.Hennessey 2014 228 Both McCreesh's and O'Hara's funerals were accompanied by paramilitary colour parties, speeches and other trappings. The former passed without incident, but O'Hara's descended into rioting.Hennessey 2014 218 Next to die, McDonnell's funeral experienced some of the worst violence yet. The British Army, through an airborne observation post, attempted to arrest the IRA firing party that had volleyed over the coffin, and this led to rioting when the crowd stopped them. Walker argues this was a tactical decision by the government, and "gave the authorities a chance to demonstrate that there would be no let up in their battle against the IRA—not in jail, not on the streets and not at funerals".Walker 2006 125 Black flags were flown from nationalist homes: these were intended to express both grief and anger towards the government, but they also contained an implicit threat towards those deemed the strikers' opponents.Bryson McCartney 1994 39 Response British–Republican negotiations thumb|1990s photo of Margaret Thatcher, then-former UK prime minister|alt=Thatcher's face at a later date Despite Thatcher's oft-repeated mantra that she "did not talk to terrorists",Kelly 2021 127 historians agree that the British government had been negotiating with elements of the IRA since 1972, when the first ceasefire was arranged between Willie Whitelaw and a delegation including Martin McGuinness, Gerry Adams and IRA chief-of-staff Seán Mac Stíofáin.Taylor 1997 140–143English 2003 157 The same occurred with church-backed talks in 1974–1975.Scull 2019 62 Historians and political observers are also aware that "behind closed doors she did authorize discussions with the Irish Republican movement".Kelly 2021 127 This back-channel line of communication between the IRA Army Council and the higher echelons of the British government was "painstakingly created" in 1972 and involved many of the same individuals for the next 20 years. It was known about by the prime minister and overseen by MI6.O'Dochartaigh 2021 73 However, it was complicated by the fact that when the talks with Whitelaw had been exposed in the tabloids, he had banned further direct communications.O'Dochartaigh 2021 74 Thomas Hennessey has argued that the Prime Minister's "hand was literally all over the 'deal'" accepted by Hughes in December 1979,Hennessey 2014 8 and the speed with which the government were able to present a working hypothesis to Brendan Hughes in the Maze—regardless of its acceptability—told the republican movement that the British were, in fact, willing and able to negotiate. Morrison admitted that the British were "taking a big risk here, dealing with us, because that alone is a huge story—'you shouldn't talk to these people', and here you are, flying somebody over".O'Dochartaigh 2021 174 Kenneth Stowe—at the time Permanent Under-Secretary of State of the NIO—later said that Thatcher was "fully aware" of the necessity in negotiating with Sinn FéinWhich Thatcher considered analogous to negotiating with the IRA Army Council directly.Kelly 2021 127 note if one wished to settle Northern Irish affairs.Kelly 2021 127 According to Thatcher's biographer, Charles Moore, Adams and McGuinness wanted to bring the hunger strike to an end but required something to take back to the republican movement which demonstrated British good faith. Moore says that Thatcher allowed Adams to receive some further concessions while rejecting the fundamental premise of status.Moore 2016 599 According to Adams, it was the government who "opened up contact" but then closed it the moment the first hunger strike was called off.Adams 2003 9–10 However, lines of communication remained open after the end of the 1980 hunger strike, and were still available on the outbreak of the next. Indeed, soon after her election, Thatcher spoke to US president Jimmy Carter on the telephone in which she stated that her preferred strategy was through "patient and persistent negotiation".Hennessey 2014 8 Publicly, however, it was a different story. In December 1980, the NIO's PUM, John Blelloch emphasised to a republican contact that there could be no question of negotiations while the strike was ongoing.Hennessey 2014 103, 324 When Northern Ireland Office (NIO) officials did meet, on occasion, with republicans, these were generally called "exercises in clarification" rather than negotiations. This was so as not to send the wrong message to observers, particularly to unionist leaders. Even so, John Molyneux, leader of the UUP, wondered if the British understood they would "have difficulty" in persuading people that this was all the talks amounted to.Hennessey 2014 107 Hence the British talked to republicans through third parties, such as members of the religious community,Churchmen had traditionally be seen as negotiators between the British Army and the IRA since Operation Demetrius; they "lent gravitas, even legitimacy, to republican negotiations with the British".Scull 2019 48, 56–57 From the British perspective, however, the involvement of religious leaders was not always "particularly helpful".Scull 2019 116 note rather than to Sands or Hughes directly.Hennessey 2014 130 For example, the Pope's envoy, John Magee, met with Atkins as he did Sands; again, Atkins emphasised that this did not constitute negotiation. To Magee, Sands appeared to understand this, stating that he merely wanted "satisfaction" on the question of the demands. However, the result was thatHennessey 2014 201 At the end of the meeting Atkins explained, and Father Magee accepted, that the Secretary of State could not see him again because to do so would risk creating the impression that some form of negotiation was going on. There was no question of negotiation, and Atkins would need to continue to make that quite clear.Hennessey 2014 202 Thatcher continued, in public, to maintain her stance that "you can't compromise with violence". Meeting Protestant religious leaders, though, she was prepared to admit that, whatever the public view of the IRA, there was "a lot" of sympathy for their ideals among Catholics.Hennessey 2014 250 By May, Atkins was enjoining upon Thatcher a policy of responding positively to external proposals—such as from the ECHR—which would also prevent the government from being "sucked into any kind of negotiation".Hennessey 2014 251 O'Fiaich also believed more input from the ECHR would be useful, and that he and Father Crilly could join them; but again, O'Fiaich emphasised that he was not negotiating. In the event, Thatcher turned the suggestion down in case it looked as though the ECHR were her emissaries.Hennessey 2014 285, 291, 324Scull 2019 210 Privately, contact between the NIO and contacts of the republican leadership continued. In early June 1981, communications were sufficiently advanced for there to be "a rich crop of rumours" circulating in the British press as to whether Thatcher was, in fact, negotiating with the IRA. As a result, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) threatened to release a statement condemning her government for brinkmanship and requesting that civil servants be allowed openly into the Maze to negotiate.Hennessey 2014 331–332 The government was also under increased pressure from senior police echelons and military commanders to take a more conciliatory approach, sufficient for Atkins to urge a change tactics upon Thatcher.O'Dochartaigh 2021 180 The four days before McDonnell does saw intense negotiations. Duddy telephoned Tom, his contact in the shady areas of government when communication lines open, at 2230. This was to advise the British that the prisoners would likely be responding in the next few hours. His next call to Tom—at 0230 the following day—lasted two and a half hours. Duddy attempted to gain as much information on British tactics as he could. The issue of clothing seemed most easily resolvable. By 0500, Duddy had a fair amount of information to take back to the leadership. Morrison took the news into the Maze; Tom phoned Duddy later that afternoon, seeking information on the IRA's likely view. Twenty-four hours and eight lengthy phone calls later, on the evening of 6 July, Atkins, Thatcher, the senior civil servant Philip Woodfield and others met to discuss these reports.O'Dochartaigh 2021 180–182 Atkins could not afford to appear soft, but in view of the time pressure—McDonnell was by now close to collapse—he suggested to Thatcher that "we should communicate to the PIRA overnight a draft statement" addressing the five demands. Work, for example, would constitute light-weight, domestic tasks or studying for Open University, while association would be dealt with by local supervisory officers.Hennessey 2014 331–332 Thatcher edited the draft to reduce its conciliatory tone, signalling that while they might soften their approach to uniform, work and association were not included. Another meeting just past midnight on the 8th saw the same group meet. This time, Atkins suggested resending the earlier proposal but emphasising that in the event of non-acceptance, "the British government would immediately issue an alternative statement". By 0210, McDonnell had gone into a coma, which, at that point, the republican leadership was not aware of, although the government was.O'Dochartaigh 2021 182–183 Previous prisoners had not died until they had been in a comatose state for around 48 hours, so it is possible that the government thought it had some hours still to negotiate in.O'Dochartaigh 2021 183 Joe McDonnell died the same early morning as the statement was released, a couple of hours before it was read to the prisoners by the Governor and a civil servant.Hennessey 2014 331–332 The external leadership heard of the death on the radio.O'Dochartaigh 2021 184 The prisoners were dismayed at what they saw as government hypocrisy. After weeks of being told that the government would not talk to them, they managed to send in an NIO official hours after McDonnell's death.Hennessey 2014 335 The prisoners were insisting on open negotiations by the end of July. When pressed on this by the Dublin government, the British response was that "we have always understood the Irish Government to be opposed to all forms of negotiation with subversive organisations... [so] that is not possible".Hennessey 2014 372O'Dochartaigh has described the detailed sources available for this period; everyone involved was writing something down:We know the details of these contacts from three different sources. Duddy recorded both republican and British positions in his handwritten diary, along with brief personal comments while 'Tom'Tom was most probably Donald Middleton, a British diplomat, who had been heavily involved in previous government negotiations with paramilitaries—including Loyalists—and had run the MI5 safehouse in Laneside, by Belfast Lough.Craig 2014 298–299, 311 note wrote detailed reports on the first eight phone calls (over a period of fifty-two hours). We also have detailed records of British government drafts of positions to be conveyed through this channel. The republican leadership’s record of the contacts, including the 'comms' smuggled in and out of the prison, was published in Beresford’s Ten Men Dead in 1987."O'Dochartaigh 2021 180 note International thumb|alt=road named after Boby Sands in Tehran|Roadsign for Bobby Sands Street, Tehran In Ireland, there were demonstrations in many towns, including the burning of Thatcher-style effigies. Vigils were held with paramilitaries attending in some cases, and in Dublin, Gardaí were attacked with petrol bombs. In Lisbon on 7 May, a crowd of several hundred marched on the British Embassy and were addressed by a Sinn Féin speaker, while in Reykjavík, a demonstration outside the embassy condemned Britain for having "savagely attacked the ranks of Irish Freedom Fighters" in a statement. Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa praised Sands, in Oslo—where Queen Elizabeth II was touring—pro-IRA graffiti appeared, and in India, opposition MPs stood for a minute's silence. A street outside the embassy in Tehran was renamed from Churchill Street to Khiyaban–E Bobby Sands, and members of the Iranian Embassy in London attended Sands's funeral.Hennessey 2014 218O'Hearn 2006 377The embassy subsequently changed its mailing address to refer to an entrance door around the corner from the main entrance, to avoid having to use the name of Bobby Sands on their letterhead.O'Hearn 2006 377 note Over the course of the strikes, the British government faced increasing international opposition. In France, the Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson talked of the strikers' "supreme sacrifice", and threatened to boycott the royal wedding that July;Beresford 1987 410 in response the British Ambassador, Reginald Hibbert, pointed out that it was no different to how the French government treated demands for Corsican independence when it was backed by the FLNC's armed struggle.Hennessey 2014 221–222 The French Communist Party praised the strikers in a statement to the embassy,Hennessey 2014 58 and in New York City, the consulate said they dare not fly the Union Flag for fear it would be stolen and burnt in protest,Beresford 1987 410 while in Milan, the Red Brigades firebombed a British Leyland showroom.Hennessey 2014 221 In France students chanted "fr L'IRA conquérir", while in Italy 5,000 students burnt union flags.Wharton 2015 174 Approximately one thousand people attended a public mass in New York's St Patrick's Cathedral by Cardinal Cooke calling for reconciliation, while also in the city Longshoremen boycotted British ships.Wharton 2015 174 In London, the Queen was also met with a banner protesting Sands's "murder" when she opened Wood Green Shopping Centre in North London in May.Hennessey 2014 221 However, The Washington Post supported Thatcher's position, agreeing with her in an editorial that the safety of the state was at risk.Hennessey 2014 58 On the death of Doherty, the Dáil's national flag was lowered to half mast as was traditional on the death of a sitting member;Walker 2006 132 he had lasted, at 73 days, the longest yet.Ross 2011 141 Deaths and end of strike When, on 5 May, Sands died in the prison hospital on the 66th day of his hunger strike,Moloney 2007 208 Humphrey Atkins issued a statement saying that Sands had committed suicide "under the instructions of those who felt it useful to their cause that he should die".Ellison Smyth 2000 102 More than 100,000 people lined the route of his funeral, which was conducted with full IRA military honours. Margaret Thatcher showed no sympathy for his death, telling the House of Commons that "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."Beresford 1987 242–243 In the two weeks following Sands's death, three more hunger strikers died. Francis Hughes died on 12 May, resulting in further rioting in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland, in particular Derry and Belfast. Following the deaths of Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O'Hara on 21 May, Tomás Ó Fiaich, by then (Catholic) Primate of All Ireland, criticised the British government's handling of the hunger strike.Murtagh 2018 439 Despite this, Thatcher continued to refuse to negotiate a settlement. She stated, "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", during her visit to Belfast in May.Ellison Smyth 2000 102 We, the protesting political prisoners in the H-Blocks and the men on hunger strike, have reluctantly decided in this the seventh month of the hunger strike to end our fast. We have been robbed of the hunger strike as an effective protest weapon principally because of the successful campaign waged against our distressed relatives by the Catholic hierarchy, aided and abetted by the Irish establishment (the SDLP and Free State Political Parties) which took no effective action against the British Government and did everything to encourage feelings of hopelessness among our kith and kin. The success of this campaign meant that the British Government could remain intransigent as the crucial political pressure which flows from the threat of death or actual death of hunger strikers was subsiding not increasing.Hennessey 2014 439 Hunger strikers' abridged statement from the Maze, 3 October 1981 25em #ECFFDC Following the deaths of Joe McDonnell and Martin Hurson, the families of some of the hunger strikers attended a meeting on 28 July with Catholic priest Father Denis Faul. The families expressed concern at the lack of a settlement to the priest, and a decision was made to meet with Adams later that day. At the meeting, Father Faul put pressure on Adams to find a way of ending the strike, and Adams agreed to ask the IRA leadership to order the men to end the hunger strike.Taylor 1997 248 The following day, Adams held a meeting with six of the hunger strikers to outline a proposed settlement on offer from the British government should the strike be brought to an end.English 2003 202 The six men rejected the settlement, believing that accepting anything less than the Five Demands would be a betrayal of the sacrifice made by Sands and the other hunger strikers who had died.Taylor 2001 239 Richard O'Rawe has suggested, on this, that by now, "'no compromise' meant 'no strategy'" and that the prisoners were "shackled" by a "frantic desire" to prove that no hunger striker had died in vain.O'Rawe 2005 193–194 In September 1981, after a cabinet reshuffle, James Prior took over at the NIO. Prior was deputized by Lord Gowrie, later suggested having "quiet admiration for what he saw as the dying men's misguided courage".Bates 2021The Times 2021 Prior's and Gowrie's appointments to the Northern Ireland office led to what Hennessey has called a "fissure" in the strike. By now, all parties—British and republican—knew that the impetus for the strike's continuation came from within, not outside of, the Maze.Hennessey 2014 440 When Doherty died, critics of the strike became louder,Ross 2011 141 and began pointing the finger at individuals such as Adams as having the power to end the strike.Ross 2011 142 The priest who officiated at McElwee's funeral harangued "those that had called the hunger strike" for not ending it: several mourners, including McAliskey, walked out in protest.Ross 2011 143 Family interventions Gowrie was in a difficult position. He had to make it clear that government could not act under duress, or while a threat of violence hung over the proceedings. He was clear to the families, at a Stormont meeting on 28 SeptemberHennessey 2014 446–447—a meeting that would have been unthinkable for both sides a few months earlierFlynn 2011 247—that he would negotiate with the prisoners. But he also acknowledged to them that, in his view, there was much that could be done after the strike ended.Hennessey 2014 446–447 The families represented McCarville, McElroy, Pickering, Hodgins, Quinn, McMullen and Sheehan. Gowrie was positive to them, although he urged them to make their views known publicly, not just to him.Hennessey 2014 444–445 In the meantime, another three strikers—Pickering, Hodging and Devine—joined the fast, although, to some extent, this was soon to be counterbalanced.Ross 2011 146 The first family to intervene in the strike was that of Paddy Quinn, whose mother requested medical support to save his life on 31 July. The following day Kevin Lynch died, followed by Kieran Doherty on 2 August, Thomas McElwee on 8 August and Michael Devine on 20 August.Taylor 1997 249–251 Not every family was willing to intervene. Doherty's family complained that Catholic churchmen had split the families' united front, and rejected their involvement. The prisoners themselves considered that the influence of moderate nationalists was pervasive in their struggle.Walker 2006 132 Devine was the last to die, on the same day as Carron's election victory. Before he went into a coma, Devine rejected medical intervention, telling his sister, "Now, there's to be no needles".Hennessey 2014 439 On 4 September, the family of Matthew Devlin approved medical treatment, and he was taken to the Royal Victoria.Hennessey 2014 435 Two days later, Laurence McKeown's became the fourth family to intervene and ask for medical treatment to save his life; Cahal Daly issued a statement calling on prisoners to end the hunger strike.Mentel 2024 144 Liam McCloskey ended his strike on 26 September after his family said they would ask for medical intervention if he became unconscious, and it became clear that the families of the remaining hunger strikers would also intervene to save their lives.Walker 2006 138 The NIO noted these early interventions as the "first major setbacks" in the strike: the impact of the strike was immediately lessened by the increasing likelihood that deaths would be avoided from then on.Hennessey 2014 439–440 Bernard Fox was taken off on 24 September (he was "dying too quickly"), and Liam McCloskey took himself off two days later after family told him they would request intervention.Hennessey 2014 447 Hunger striker John Pickering later recalled realising, by the end of September, that "we were not persuading, and we would not be able to persuade, our families not to intervene".Campbell McKeown O'Hagen 1994 258 Another striker, Pat McGeown, argues that the families were susceptible because the later round of deaths—"with no apparent critical situation and no crisis situation and no major attempts at negotiation"—seemed to them increasingly pointless.Ross 2011 153 n.88 Responses By 2 October it had become apparent that the family of every remaining hunger striker was intending to intervene when it became necessary.Hennessey 2014 447 The strike was called off at 3:15 pm on 3 October.Walker 2006 138 The time was deliberately chosen by the IRA leadership as the Sunday papers would have already gone to print by then, and the expected tabloid triumphalism would be more muted over 24 hours later.Ross 2011 157 The prisoners' statement, penned by O'Rawe, "keelhauled the Catholic Church, the SDLP and the Dublin government for letting down our fallen comrades".O'Rawe 2005 237 Morrison claimed that it had been "subverted by people within the Irish establishment, by the SDLP, but particularly by the Irish hierarchy who are working on the emotions and putting moral pressure on the understandably distressed relatives". He also argued that the strikes had shown that the government—privately—recognised the IRA as a legitimate anti-imperialist army with whom they would have to negotiate someday. Unsurprisingly, Bernadette Devlin and Adams also both condemned the British government, while O'Fiaich called on the government to show "generosity and compassion".Hennessey 2014 447–448 In Ireland, John Hume also called for a magnanimous gesture from the British, while the Taoiseach called upon the IRA to abandon the armed struggle.Hennessey 2014 449 In the north, the British Israelite Robert Bradford, of the UUP, accused Britain of making a deal with the IRA and granting them concessions,Bradford was to be assassinated by the IRA in his constituency surgery the next month.Mentel 2024 176–177 note while his party leader, Molyneux, did not believe that any deals existed, but advised the government against being blackmailed into further concessions. The DUP were also "gravely suspicious" that a deal had been brokered. Thatcher, then in Australia, announced that she was "delighted to hear that this waste of life is at an end".Hennessey 2014 449 Labour MP Tony Benn criticised the actions of his own party, writing at the time, "I was infuriated that Don Concannon, our Front Bench spokesman on Northern Ireland, should have gone to the Maze prison to interview the hunger strikers and then said on television that the Labour Party agreed 100 per cent with the Government and endorsed everything".Ross 2011 147 n.21Benn 1990 124 Three days later, Prior announced partial concessions to the prisoners, including the right to wear their own clothes at all times.Taylor 1997 251–252 Recreation was also addressed, with wings now being permitted to mingle in common areas and yards.Hennessey 2014 449—450 The only one of the Five Demands still outstanding was the right not to do prison work. Following sabotage by the prisoners and the Maze Prison escape in 1983, the prison workshops were closed, effectively granting all of the Five Demands but without any formal recognition of political status from the government.Beresford 1987 332 Participants of the 1981 hunger strike The original pathologist's report recorded the hunger strikers' cause of death as "self-imposed starvation". This was later amended to simply "starvation" after protests from the dead strikers' families. The coroner recorded verdicts of "starvation, self-imposed".O'Keeffe 1984 349 Although ten men died during the course of the hunger strike, thirteen others began refusing food but were taken off hunger strike, either for medical reasons after intervention by their families or because the strike was called off. Many of them still suffer from the effects of the strike, with problems including digestive, visual, physical and neurological disabilities.Wharton 2015 226Kirbas Sutlas Kuscu Karagoz 2008 318 +KeyAffiliationReason for ending strikeIRAINLADeathIllnessFamily interventionStrike called off NameParamilitary affiliationStrike startedLength of strikeDate of strike endingReason of strike endingBobby SandsIRA1 March66 days5 MayDied, aged 27.Francis HughesIRA15 March59 days12 MayDied, aged 25.Raymond McCreeshIRA22 March61 days21 MayDied, aged 24.Patsy O'HaraINLA22 March61 days21 MayDied, aged 23.Joe McDonnellIRA8 May61 days8 JulyDied, aged 29.Brendan McLaughlinIRA14 May13 days26 MaySuffering from a perforated ulcer and internal bleedingCain 2020Grisham 2014 147 n.40Howard 2006 78Kieran DohertyIRA22 May73 days2 AugustDied, aged 25.Kevin LynchINLA23 May71 days1 AugustDied, aged 25.Martin HursonIRA28 May46 days13 JulyDied, aged 24.Thomas McElweeIRA8 June62 days8 AugustDied, aged 23.Paddy QuinnIRA15 June47 days31 JulyTaken off by his familyCain 2020Grisham 2014 147 n.40Michael DevineINLA22 June60 days20 AugustDied, aged 27.Laurence McKeownIRA29 June70 days6 SeptemberTaken off by his familyCain 2020Grisham 2014 147 n.40Pat McGeownIRA9 July42 days20 AugustTaken off by his familyCain 2020Grisham 2014 147 n.40Matt DevlinIRA14 July52 days4 SeptemberTaken off by his familyCain 2020Grisham 2014 147 n.40Liam McCloskeyINLA3 August55 days26 SeptemberHis family said they would intervene if he became unconsciousCain 2020Grisham 2014 147 n.40Mentel 2024 150Patrick SheehanIRA10 August55 days3 OctoberEnd of hunger strikeCain 2020Grisham 2014 147 n.40Jackie McMullanIRA17 August48 days3 OctoberEnd of hunger strikeCain 2020Grisham 2014 147 n.40Bernard FoxIRA24 August32 days24 SeptemberSuffering from an obstructed kidneyCain 2020Grisham 2014 147 n.40Wharton 2015 221Hugh CarvilleIRA31 August34 days3 OctoberEnd of hunger strikeCain 2020Grisham 2014 147 n.40John PickeringIRA7 September27 days3 OctoberEnd of hunger strikeCain 2020Grisham 2014 147 n.40Gerard HodginsIRA14 September20 days3 OctoberEnd of hunger strikeCain 2020Grisham 2014 147 n.40James DevineIRA21 September13 days3 OctoberEnd of hunger strikeCain 2020Grisham 2014 147 n.40 Aftermath thumb|300px|A hunger strike memorial in Derry's Bogside on Free Derry Corner The British press hailed the hunger strike as a triumph for Thatcher, with The Guardian newspaper stating "The Government had overcome the hunger strikes by a show of resolute determination not to be bullied".Beresford 1987 331 At the time most thought the hunger strike a crushing defeat for the republicans, a view shared by many within the IRA and Sinn Féin, but Sands's by-election win was a propaganda victory, and the hunger strike became a Pyrrhic victory for Thatcher and the British government. Richard English argued that Thatcher effectively "breathed life" back into the republican movement in 1981.English 2003 207–208White 2006 282 Sands became a martyr to Irish republicans,Rowan 2004 84 while Thatcher became "a republican hate figure of Cromwellian proportions",English 2003 207 with Danny Morrison describing her as "the biggest bastard we have ever known".English 2003 207–208 Authors Jack Holland and Henry McDonald have speculated that Thatcher's uncompromising attitude may have stemmed from the death of her close friend and associate Airey Neave, who was assassinated by the INLA in the House of Commons underground car park a few months before her election.Holland McDonald 1996 216 As with internment in 1971 and Bloody Sunday in 1972, IRA recruitment was boosted with the hunger strike, resulting in a new surge of paramilitary activityEnglish 2003 207–208 and galvanising old members back into service.O'Dochartaigh 2021 187 Thatcher's uncompromising stance had alienated much of the nationalist community.Sales 1997 81 This mass mobilisationWhite Demirel-Pegg 2017 142 also had the consequence of strengthening the northern—and younger—leadership of Adams, McGuinness and Morrison against the old guard as represented in Dublin by O'Bradaigh and O'Connell.White Demirel-Pegg 2017 138 In contrast with the comparatively peaceful late 1970s, violence surged in the wake of the hunger strike, with widespread civil disorder in Northern Ireland and rioting outside the British Embassy in Dublin.Coogan 2002b 229 Security forces fired 29,695 plastic bullets in 1981, causing seven deaths, compared to a total of around 16,000 bullets and four deaths in the eight years following the hunger strikes.O'Brien 1993 44 The government had effectively lost a propaganda war.Miller 1994 84 Professor Robert Savage noted "television images of emaciated Christ-like figures with long hair and beards confined to hospital beds contrasted with the stern countenance of the intransigent prime minister".Savage 2017 240 Historian Ian Miller argues that this kind of imagery was powerful on two levels. Firstly, in representing self-sacrifice, it enabled the narrative to shift from the prisoners' portrayals as terrorists to martyrs, and forced reconsideration of terms such as "terrorist". Secondly, by fermenting the street violence that the hunger strikes did, international attention was drawn to their treatment: "Meanings became attached to Sands's withered body; his corpse became politically encoded. Both his hunger strike and death provided a public spectacle."Miller 2016 2–3, 11–12 Irish politics was further polarised, and McKitterick and McVea have argued to great extent:McKittrick McVea 2002 123 The hunger strikes had lasting effects, most of which were bad for the authorities and for almost everyone apart from the republican movement... [they] seared deep into the psyches of large numbers of people, stirring many deep and troubling emotions. Community divisions had always been deep, but now they had a new rawness.McKittrick McVea 2002 123 Three years later, the IRA tried to take their revenge on Thatcher with the Brighton hotel bombing, an attack on the Conservative party conference that killed five people and in which Thatcher herself only narrowly escaped death.Carroll 2023 210 Yet in her memoirs, 30 years later, Thatcher wrote that she found it possible "to admire the courage of Sands and the other hunger strikers who died but not to sympathise with their murderous cause".Thatcher 2011 159 The hunger strike resulted in the republican movement taking public relations more seriously.Miller 1994 84 More importantly, in the long run, it prompted Sinn Féin to move towards electoral politics. Sands's election victory, combined with that of pro-hunger strike candidates in the Northern Ireland local elections and Dáil elections in the Republic of Ireland, gave birth to the Armalite and ballot box strategy.English 2003 200 The IRA and Sinn Féin achieved an ideological cohesion they had never before.Miller 1994 84 Adams remarked that Sands's victory "exposed the lie that the hunger strikers—and by extension the IRA and the whole republican movement—had no popular support".English 2003 200 The following year, Sinn Féin won five seats in the elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly, and in 1983 Adams won a seat in the UK general election.Weinberg 1992 112–113 As a result of the political base built during the hunger strike, Sinn Féin continued to grow in the following two decades.Taylor 1997 251–252 After the 2001 United Kingdom general election, it became the largest nationalist party in Northern Ireland. It has been argued that the hunger strikes are part of a deliberate Sinn Féin tactic of preserving the past in the party's favour: simplified to "a cause, political status, and the recognition of their struggle for a united Ireland", albeit by a "selective and reductive" process. As several groups could claim legitimate heritage from the men of 1981, this made it all the more imperative that Sinn Féin's version became the accepted paradigm.Maillot 2005 170–172 Internationally, the hunger strikes encouraged similar protests from imprisoned radicals, including members of the ANC on Robben Island, in Diyarbakır in Kurdistan, and Chiapas, Mexico. These were followed by outbreaks from Kurds in Turkish jails and Basques in Spain.O'Hearn 2017 161–162 Challenge to the Adams/Morrison paradigm Four years later, however, 2005 was a difficult year for the republican movement. What the author R. K. Walker has called a "blitzkrieg of propaganda" erupted just before Sinn Féin contested the 2005 UK general election. New allegations of IRA brutality emerged, including punishment beatings, protection and its role in the Northern Bank robbery of December 2004, and the killing of Robert McCartney in February 2005.Moloney 2007 557 These issues were, however, argues Walker, only short-term problems.Walker 2006 184 The same year, allegations were made against the republican leadership which "called into question [its] integrity".Walker 2006 184–185 These were more serious. Walker continues that, although no one suggests that the author, Richard O'Rawe, chose that particular moment to publish his book, "the timing struck many republicans as unfortunate".Walker 2006 186 O'Rawe questioned the role Adams played in the strike, and whether he manipulated it for political ends. O'Rawe, himself a prisoner and a blanketman, had been the public relations officer inside the prison during the strike. O'Rawe states in his book Blanketmen that Adams prolonged the strike as it was of great political benefit to Sinn Féin and allowed Owen Carron to win Sands's seat:Sanders 2012 133O'Rawe 2005 253 The hunger strike, ostensibly the climax of the campaign for the restoration of political status, had been cynically manipulated by the republican leadership who allowed prisoners to die in order to promote their political agendaSanders 2012 133 O'Rawe's argument is effectively that the same offer as was eventually accepted after ten men had died was the same—"or better"—than the prison leadership had supposedly turned down in June, after McDonnell's death, which allegedly offered four out of the five demands.Moloney 2010 254 n. Father Denis Faul had suspected something similar at the time,Moloney 2007 254 although this was denied by several hunger strikers and Brendan McFarlane, who was OC inside the prison during the hunger strike.Sanders 2012 231 O'Rawe's account has been described by the historian Richard English as "explosive"Moloney 2007 568–572 and by F. S. Ross as "highly contested".Ross 2011 152 n.74 O'Rawe claims that he and McFarlane discussed it in Irish and believed it was acceptable on behalf of the prisoners.Hennessey 2014 314O'Rawe 2005 181 However, this was rejected in a message from the outside leadership stating that it was insufficient for four men to have already died for.Moloney 2007 568–572The message was signed "Brownie"; this was Adams's codename for internal communications.Moloney 2007 568–572Reinisch 2020 65–67 note Those that remained on hunger strike, being unaware of the alleged offer and "weighed down by the deaths of their comrades and the fear that ending the protest in such circumstances would amount to betrayal, they decided to carry on".Moloney 2007 568–572 Richard English also believes that a "substantial British offer was indeed available" before McDonnell's death; the question, he argues is not so much whether the evidence exists but whether it bears the weight of the claim that it was good enough to accept in June 1981.O'Rawe 2005 i–ii Ed Moloney has also stated that he "believed [O'Rawe's] account from the moment I heard it... It made complete sense to me".O'Rawe 2010 vii–ix Moloney had been sceptical of the leadership's line at the time, when he was Northern Editor for The Irish Times, that the prisoners were in charge and that the external leadership operated under their didact. Moloney argues that not only did the continued deaths "keep the pot boiling on the streets", but it aligned with a growing body of thought within Sinn Féin that the party should become political and electorally attractive.O'Rawe 2010 vii–viii O'Rawe's suggestion, however, has been "sharply rejected" by Sinn Féin, says the political journalist Deaglán de Bréadún.Bréadún 2015 62 McFarlane states O'Rawe's version of events is confused and fragmentary, and states "we were desperate for a solution. Any deal that went some way to meeting the five demands would have been taken. If it was confirmed in writing, we'd have grabbed it... There was never a deal, there was never a "take it or leave it" option at all".Walker 2006 184–185 Likewise McKeown has suggested that "Richard has frozen a moment in time", and argues that while there were many hints at offers to come, nothing was in writing, and that at the time "unless it's in writing, it's not an offer".Walker 2006 186 Adams has personally stated that he was effectively impotent over the prisoners' tactics in 1981, later revealing that, when an unnamed hunger striker's father "begged him to do something to save his son, Adams replied 'I can't, but you can'".Maillot 2005 172 Although O'Rawe's thesis has not met with universal agreement, the author Andrew Sanders has argued that the existing narrative was "all changed" as a result.Sanders 2012 133 O'Rawe's arguments were subsequently backed by a hunger striker, Gerard Hodgins, who told Sanders:Sanders 2012 133–134 There is sufficient evidence to suggest there was something going on. The accounts coming from Danny Morrison and Bik [McFarlane] have shifted that much since Richard first wrote his book that they should put themselves up for scrutiny just to clear the whole thing up and let people know the truth.Sanders 2012 133–134 Commemorations thumb|300px|A hunger strike memorial near Crossmaglen, County Armagh A memorial to the men who died in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the Easter Rising, and the hunger strike stands in Waverley Cemetery, Sydney, Australia, which is also the burial place of Michael Dwyer of the Society of United Irishmen.Zappaterra 2022 212–222 In 1997 NORAID's Hartford Unit in the United States dedicated a monument to Sands and the other hunger strikers, "the only one of its kind in America", notes Wharton.Wharton 2015 174 In 2001, Sinn Féin's 20th-anniversary commemoration committee focussed on a diverse range of events.Maillot 2005 170 On 3 October 2001—the 20th anniversary of the end of the hunger strike—a memorial was unveiled by Adams, Patrick Sheehan and Ahmed Kathrada, on Robben Island, South Africa. The inscription reads, "To political prisoners who suffered and died as a result of hunger strikes in prison in Ireland and South Africa".Adams 2017 132Maillot 2005 132 In December that year, Adams attended the unveiling of a commemoration to the strikers in Havana, Cuba, which was attended by Fidel Castro, whom Adams thanked for Castro's public support of the hunger strike at the time.Maillot 2005 144 In 2011, Sinn Féin launched a thirty-year anniversary exhibition of the hunger strike at the Linen Hall, Belfast; mild criticism came from one DUP politician, Lord Browne, who emphasised its "highly sensitive" nature.Porter 2011 Similar exhibitions were held across the country, involving several different media, and ranging from sculptures by Irish artists to rebuilding a makeshift H-Block cell on the Falls Road but also including more symbolic events, such as tree planting ceremonies.Maillot 2005 197 n.20 Cultural depictions thumb|Irish Hunger Strikers Memorial, Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin Artistic reactions to the 1981 Irish hunger strike 110 Comparison between McCartney's Rossville Street mural and the London Evening News illustration of a woman in the famine: "McCartney looks off to an undefined point to the right of the frame, while the woman, whose face is not that of a specific Armagh prisoner, confronts the viewer with a steadfast gaze. She too is dressed in a blanket."Scarlata 2014 163 Woman begging at Clonakilty, Ireland 1847.jpg contemporary drawing of a Irish woman in 1849 A destitute and begging Irish woman during the Famine, as represented by the London Evening News in 1847 Derry - Rossville Street (B527) - Hunger Strike Mural - geograph.org.uk - 3989453.jpg Gable-end mural, vandalised with green paint,It was occasionally paintbombed by dissident republicans, unhappy with Sinn Féin's role in the Stormont government. It was later painted over with another mural of two dead hunger strikers from the city, with portraits of their mothers ("the often forgotten victims of the conflict").Chaplin 2021 174 note showing Raymond McCartney and a female hunger striker from 1980 The Bogside Artists' mural of Raymond McCartney as a blanket man accompanied by an unnamed woman in Armagh Gaol There have been many representations of Irish history and politics in culture, and the 1981 hunger strike is no different;Moore Quinn 2020 167 many songs and ballads were written during and immediately after the strike.O'Cadhla 2017 271 In 1920, during the War of Independence Daniel Corkery, the republican politician, argued that "Any great movement toward a spiritual end, such as Ireland's push for freedom... endows itself with creative power".Moore Quinn 2020 166 This is especially true of hunger striking, where the scholar George Sweeney noted, the "meshing of religious practice with aspirations of nationalism and militant republicanism"; in other words, quasi-religious self-sacrificeSweeney 1993b 12 and immortality in song.O'Cadhla 2017 272 Notable songs in the genre areMoore Quinn 2020 167 Francie Brolly’s 'The H-Block Song'—to which Sands's coffin was carried through West BelfastMillar 2020 143—'Bobby Sands MP', and 'The Time Has Come', which relates the story of O'Hara meeting his mother for the last time. Others include 'Joe McDonnell', on the fifth striker; 'Roll of Honour', on the collective; 'The People's Own MP', on Sands's election; 'Farewell to Bellaghy'Boyle 2002 187 and Christy Moore's 'The Boy from Tamlaghtduff', both on Hughes.Rolston 2011 414–415 Moore—a high profile supporter of the H-Block protestsO'Cadhla 2022 206—also put to music two of Sands's own compositions, 'I Wish I Was Back Home in Derry' and 'McIlhatton' and released them in his 1986 album, The Spirit of Freedom.Rolston 2011 414–415 In the former, Sands draws direct comparison between the transported revolutionaries of the failed 1803 rebellion with the prison struggles of the present day.O'Cadhla 2022 205 n.19 When Sands died, the Derry punk group The Undertones were in London recording their song 'It's Going to Happen!' for Top of the Pops. The song was inspired by the hunger strike, and the guitarist wore a black armband.O'Neill Trelford 2003 230 In visual culture, wall murals—often painted on the gable ends of terraces—have been an important method of communities on both sides of the sectarian divide to transmit history and ideology to the viewer, and statements of resistance.Williams 2012 122 The hunger strikes were no different; indeed, it was from the H-Block and hunger strike that the first murals emerged.Rolston 1992 iv–v One of the first and most significant mural artists, Gerard "Mó Chara" Kelly, was imprisoned in the Maze while the struggles took place, and has acknowledged their influence on his subsequent work.Williams 2012 122–123 There are memorials and murals in memory of the hunger strikers in towns and cities across Ireland. In the cities, these include Belfast—where a smiling Sands fills an external wall of the Falls Road Sinn Fein office;Jarman 1998 89 Dublin, with Yann Goulet's 1983 granite sculpture in Glasnevin Cemetery;O'Donnell 2015 224 n.264 and Derry, which gained a new mural in 2000, from the Bogside Artists, depicting local 1980 hunger striker Raymond McCartney as a "Christ-like" figure alongside an anonymous female striker in Armagh, who looks similar to the Irish famine victims as illustrated by the London Evening News at the time.Kearns 2006 9Scarlata 2014 163The political scientist Gerr Kearns has highlighted the similarity, saying how "the gaunt image of the woman, in particular, recalls the famous illustrations of the famine victims in the London Illustrated News, such as the image of the woman begging in Clonakilty from February 1847".Kearns 2006 9 note The historian Agnés Maillot has argued that, while films such as H3 and the play Diary of a Hunger Strike were not actually commissioned by Sinn Féin, the party intended the hunger strikes—and the party's dominant role in them—to become "part not just of the Irish political identity, but of the cultural identity as well".Maillot 2005 197 n.20 Apart from documentaries (such as BBC NI's 25th anniversary The Hunger Strike, directed by Margo Harkin),BBC Archive 2006 the hunger strike has been the background to several major films. For example, Les Blair's H3—co-written by former IRA prisoners Brian Campbell and Laurence McKeown, the latter also a 1981 hunger striker—recounts the events leading up to as well as during the strike, and has been described as both a commemoration and the product of commemoration in the way it treats human memory as historical record.Carlsten 2007 241–243Gallagher 2023 134 2001's Silent Grace, from Maeve Murphy tells the story of the republican women on the first hunger strike in Armagh, and stars Orla Brady as the block OC.Gallagher 2023 134 In 2008 Steve McQueen directed Hunger, starring Michael Fassbender as Sands and Liam Cunningham as Father Dominic Moran. The film is almost completely silent, except for sound effects and occasional dialogue (the first instance of which is 30 minutes into the film).De Groot 2016 211–213 Some Mother's Son, directed by Terry George, starring Helen Mirren, Fionnula Flanagan as the two mothers and Aidan Gillen and David O'Hara as their imprisoned sons. Gerard McSorley plays the mediating and condemnatory Father Daly. The film explores how two mothers, divided by class and politics, respond to their sons' IRA involvement and their joining the hunger strike.McIlroy 2001 78–81McLaughlin 2009 37–38Gillespie 2008 186 Stephen Burke's half-hour 81, set in the final days of Sands's strike, displays the differing viewpoints through two families, one from each side of the political divide.McIlroy 2001 32–33 David Rovics has also written a song on Francis Hughes, a Provisional IRA combatant who died in the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike, in his song "Up The Provos".http://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/up-the-provos-2/ Up The Provos en-US March 31, 2020 Notes note References 20em Bibliography 30em yes Adams G. Hope and History: Making Peace in Ireland 2003 Hardie Grant 978-1-74066-224-6 Victoria Adams G. Never Give Up:: Selected Writings 2017 Mercier Press 978-1-78117-537-8 Blackrock Alonso R. The IRA and Armed Struggle 2007 Routledge 978-1-13422-159-2 London Aretxaga B. 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