Irish Hunger Strikes Chapter 29

Francis Hughes' Tortured
& Glorious Funeral

Frank Hughes died on the 57th day of his hunger strike on 13 May 1981. He was an Irish legend, and a soldier, and was to be buried as such. But the RUC had something else in mind.

RUC attack Undertakers, Hughes Family; hijack hearse

The McCusker undertakers of Magherafelt, South Derry, had been contracted by the Hughes family to handle the details of the wake and funeral preparations.

At 5 PM Thomas and Danny McCusker received Frank's coffin from the mortuary in Belfast and brought it to the their hearse. Frank's parents drove behind the hearse in his sister Noreen's VW and other family and friends

followed. The agreement was that the funeral cortege was to travel behind RUC landrovers through West Belfast on the way to the M-2 highway to Toomebridge and then on to the Hughes' family home near Bellaghy. Along

the Falls Rd. in West Belfast, thousands of supporters had gathered through the day to honor one of the greatest Irish heroes of all time - a legend at only 25 years of age.

As they left the mortuary, the cortege had to pass the Protestant Belvoir estate where it was met with hostile loyalist crowds carrying anti-republican banners and shouting abuse at the family and Frank's remains. As the cortege was about to continue on the schedules route through sympathetic crowds, armed RUC attempted to hijack the procession. They unilaterally decided to take the body directly to Bellaghy. They stopped the hearse and ordered the McCusker brothers out; they were taking over from here. "Not Bloody likely," Thomas McCusker said. Danny was driving and refused to hand over the vehicle, saying that they were in charge. RUC thugs pulled Thomas out of the hearse by the legs and threw him onto the road, ripping his suit in the process. Other "police"

attacked members of the mourning family as they entered the fray from the following cars. Danny McCusker was beaten through the driver's window as he attempted to hide the keys in his mouth. He resisted by putting his

shoulder against the door, but the RUC got at him through the window and pulled at his hair and ears, ripping his clothing.

US film crew saves the day

They tried to remove the coffin from the back of the hearse. Frank's aging father, Joe, tried to prevent them but was punched and beaten away. The women were near hysteria as fists and batons flew. Jimmy Drumm and Owen Carron of Sinn Fein were injured in the battle over Frank's coffin.

At the critical moment, after 20 minutes of mayhem, a US film crew happened upon the scene and began filming. The RUC moved away but insisted that the family take the body directly onto the M-2. The family reluctantly agreed. The procession moved uneventfully to Toomebridge.

But it wasn't over. The RUC insisted again on taking over the hearse. They made the Hughes family drive directly to Bellaghy, while they took the hearse through heavily loyalist towns like Randalstown and Portglenone. The Hughes family were harassed by the RUC the entire way at every crossroad. Worse, they were concerned about what the RUC would do to Frank's body. They had threatened to throw Frank's remains into the River Bann.

Feared in death as in life

People thronged to the Hughes' home for the wake and for the funeral. Even those nationalists not supportive of Francis' IRA activities, came out in numbers because of the disgraceful behavior of the RUC in desecrating the dead. And of course Frank had a legion of supporters and friends throughout Ireland. The roads and countryside around the family home overflowed into the hills, fields and glens as they escorted the brave Francis Hughes to his final resting place. Except for this. Francis Hughes never went away. He told the boys in the H-Blocks, listen for the sound of his crutch on lonely days in lonely cells or whenever they needed him. He would be always be there to watch over them.

Ray McCreesh and Patsy O'Hara approach crisis

As Frank was being buried, both Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O'Hara were reaching crisis and were unable to walk. The McCreesh family, because of their religious beliefs, came under tremendous pressure from the British press and other establishment forces to take Raymond off the strike. Particularly his brother, Fr Brian, a Catholic priest, who was lied to and lied about by the prison authorities, NIO, and the pro-British media. They

even floated the story that Brian had talked Raymond off of his hunger strike. It also appears that Raymond himself was drugged while in the prison hospital to confuse him into coming off the strike.

Patsy O'Hara's mother Peggy comes under less obvious pressure, but nonetheless heart wrenching. She is torn between saving her son's life and the principles he lived by.

Next week: The McCreesh and O'Hara families are true to their sons