Irish Hunger Strikes Chapter 9

The Run-up to the First Hunger Strike:
Brutality and Resistance

By the end of 1979, hundreds of men had spent months on the Blanket Protest; scores were "on the blanket" for over two years. The term being "on the blanket" now seemed like a luxury compared to what it was actually like, with the beatings, degrading body-cavity searches over a mirror, forced washes with scrub brushes designed more for cattle than for men and potent disinfectants, and the cells covered with the men's feces and urine. There is no grand term that can conjure up all of that. Certainly being "on the blanket" didn't do it. The men were enduring unspeakable conditions and barbarity.

Getting nowhere?

It often seemed that they were getting nowhere with regards to the purpose of the protest -- political status. Yet their resistance to the prison regime and the criminalization of their struggle was holding strong.

Outside the prison, the H-Block/Armagh Committees and Relatives Committees were publicizing conditions in the prisons while the men were smuggling out hundreds of "comms" [tinny messages on cigarette papers] to politicians, media, and community leaders. In January of 1980, the men issued "Five Demands" to make it clear exactly what they meant by political status. Support around these demands was building international notice. By March, Cardinal Tomas O Fiaich entered talks with the British Secretary of State, Humphrey Atkins. These talks lasted into the summer but with no conclusion.

The message was slowly getting out. Those that were ready to hear the truth did their part, while the vast rest of the world rolled on with typical ignorance or complacency.

The British propaganda machine, never complacent, was working at full capacity, lacking neither money nor experience with repression.

IRA kill 18 screws

The IRA, for their part, had selectively executed 18 prison screws and one deputy warden, all targeted because of their perverseness and brutality. The primary result was the screws took it out on the men in the Blocks. The Brits could always get more screws. For a certain segment of the population, being a screw was an industry.

Reality Sets In

The situation outside became more clear to the prisoners with the arrest, conviction and arrival in Long Kesh in 1978 of Brendan Hughes, "The Dark", who had been the OC of the IRA in Belfast. When he joined the protesting prisoners, he brought with him a more sober assessment of the effect that the protest was having on the Republican struggle and the public.

In return, he got to see what the men were going through and the depth of their commitment.

The winter of 1979 was bitterly cold, one of the worst in history. The men had to endure this in windowless cells, hugging the heating pipes for any warmth. The screws heaped in snow through the bars. At about this time, the prison authorities removed approximately 30 men to H6. These were regarded as the leadership of the protest. Among those moved were Bobby Sands and Brendan Hughes. H6 was at the far end of Long Kesh. Isolating them would leave the rest without a strong command structure and if these men could be broken, then the rest might follow.

This, of course, didn't happen. What did happen was an outlashing of increased violence and barbarity against the men in H-Blocks 3, 4, and 5. This took the form, primarily, of constant cell searches and mirror body searches accompanied by bloody beatings. In terms of leaving the men leaderless, the reverse took place. It strengthened the men's resolve and developed new leaders. Yet, the intensity of the violence was taking its toll. Several of the men even left the protest under the constant stress, which only encouraged the screws to hammer the rest harder.

Leo Green remembers

Leo Green, who was in H4, recalled the scene at mass after the worst week in memory for the men when the screws went absolutely mad: "... none of us were every sure just how much longer we could hang on. I remember the faces that day. I took some reassurance from seeing that others were as shaken as myself by what was happening. There were no smiles, no longer any cause for or pretense of optimistic rumors ... "

"April 1979 was the culmination of a politically chastening process which had been underway for the previous six months. The harassment and ill-treatment we had endured had shown us our own naivety. The light at the end of the tunnel we had heard about so often in messages of support seemed altogether extinguished. Our protest as it stood showed little sign of bringing about the conclusion we sought. We were in a corner and becoming increasingly aware of it."

The Prospect of Hunger Strike

The men, one by one and as a group, realized that they had begun to run out of options and time. Instead of light at the end of the tunnel, there was just more tunnel. For the first time, the thought of hunger strike to the death was becoming more than just a thought. The men were talking seriously about it, particularly the leadership in H6. As early as mid-1978 the option of hunger strike was brought to the Republican Movement by the men inside, but was rejected. The amount of energy and divergence of resources would be too great and the risk of loss of life -- many lives -- was too great.

Yet, if not hunger strike, what was to be done? The men on the blanket couldn't take it forever and defeat was not an option.

Next: The Men Prepare for Hunger Strike