Irish Hunger Strikes Chapter 16

Treachery and Deceit
As the First Hunger Strike Comes to an End

On December 18, 1980, Bobby Sands, Republican OC of the Long Kesh, left H-Block 3 just after dinner to go to the prison hospital. He signaled to the men a thumbs up and let on that it was only a matter of hours. From his demeanor, the men were optimistic that the hunger strike would be over and their demands met before any of the men who were approaching crisis would have to die. The reality was very different, as the next few hours would reveal.

McKenna Revived from Deadly Coma

In fact, Sean McKenna had actually technically died in a state of coma and was revived later when he was sent to a regular hospital after the hunger strike was over. Sean’s condition was crucial in the decision that the Republican leadership, including Bobby Sands and Brendan Hughes, The Dark, who was himself deep into the crisis phase of hunger strike, felt they were forced to make -- and make immediately before it would be too late for at least one of them. Perhaps the demands would be met and a settlement arranged after all.

The Brits had presented a 30 odd page document that contained wording that could lead to a settlement -- or could not. It all depended if the spirit of the document matched the desire of the British government to reach an agreement.

In any case, the men decided that they had enough on the table to be able to save Sean McKenna’s life and negotiate with the Brits for their demands. But, the Brits had really only agreed to negotiate. Once the pressure was off with the men off hunger strike, they were not likely to concede anything that they didn’t want to concede. Once the strike was over, the Brits were confident that they could renege on promises and play off of the ambiguities in their statements; starting up another hunger strike was almost an unthinkable prospect.

The Men Find Out

Hugh Rooney was OC in one of the protesting wings when Bobby returned from the hospital that night. The news wasn’t good. When he left to inform the other wings with the news, Hugh yelled to the men out the door in Irish, "Bad news." He told them that they had not won anything, but that all was not lost. Thomas Loughlin recalls explaining to his cellmate, who did not have Irish, was going down. The man asked, "Did we win?" Thomas said, "No, but ..." "Are any of the lads dead?" he interrupted. "No," Loughlin replied. "Then there’s nothing else to hear," he said and slunk to the floor inside his own thoughts.

Seanna Walsh was OC in another wing when Bobby arrived with the news. He told Bobby to make sure that he spoke to Frances Hughes, who was among those who newly joined the strike, because he might not be talked off of it even if everyone else ended theirs. Of course, Frances did follow the command, but ironically he would be the second man to die on hunger strike after Bobby less than a year later.

Seanna Walsh recounts [in Nor Meekly Serve My Time] how his cellmate, Paul Brennan, reacted when he told him the news. Brennan, who had joined the hunger strike in the later stage as well, and would be one of the men to escape from the Kesh in the famous break out in 1983, asked, "Well?" Seanna told him the lads had ended the hunger strike and that although there were negotiations going on, we hadn’t won the five demands. Walsh wrote, "He dropped to down on his hunkers on his mattress in the corner beside the pipes and with his head on his chest he began to sob." The word was quickly spreading around the wing. There was now a thick, unbroken silence. Paul Brennan, after a few hours, went to were the screws left his food and began to pick around for something remotely edible to end his fast.

Leo Green, in typical clarity, remembered, "The Brits, it became clear, had no genuine desire for a solution. Their sole concern had been to end the hunger strike and they had employed cynical brinkmanship to achieve it. Fifty three days of hunger strike and we were no further on. Whilst we were not immediately aware of it, the very minute the hunger strike had ended that same process which had rendered it inevitable had seized control. Almost immediately a second hunger strike loomed on the horizon."

Reality Sinks In: the Brits Won’t Deal

Tim Pat Coogan was close to people inside the Dublin government who were negotiating with Brits during the hunger strike and in the days after to try to ply some concessions out of them, if only to avoid unnecessary deaths. He revealed [in The I.R.A.] that the Brits felt that Sean McKenna’s condition gave them the upper hand, because Sands, Hughes and the leadership simply did not have time to ask for clarifications and details of the Brit position. The British government did nothing through Christmas of 1980 and into January of 1981. Padraic O’Hannrachain, Charles Haughey’s political secretary, said sarcastically, "Maybe it’s just a case that all these fellows in Whitehall have gone home for the Christmas and they’re watching television and everything will be all right when the holidays end..."

Thatcher: "Crime is crime is crime"

But there was another more evil element within the British facade of deception and cold-bloodedness. Coogan attributes the following snippet of truth to Michael Alison, the British Minister in charge of prisons, who said later, "There was a lady [sic] in the case." Margaret Thatcher! Margaret Thatcher whose friend, Airey Neave, was assassinated by the IRA, indeed they attempted to kill her as well and the entire Tory leadership along with her in a bomb attack on the English mainland at Brighton.

Her famous, snarling chant, "Crime is crime is crime" was repeated often enough for even a fool to know she was unbending. The combination of her inflexible nature and the loyalist regime in the prisons meant that nothing would come of negotiations in the aftermath of the 1980 Hunger Strike. To the Brits, it was as if it never happened.

The Prisoners Declare Their Intentions

As early as January 2nd, 1981, the IRA supplied a statement from the protesting prisoners in Long Kesh and Armagh jail. It would prove to be prophetic.

The last paragraphs sent a chilling message:

"Should they [the British government] remain intransigent we will be forced to fall back upon our own resources. In that event our only guarantors, the masses who supported us during the recent hunger strike, will once again be called upon by us to take to the streets.

"If the British government cling to the forlorn hope that they can yet break the men and women of the H blocks and Armagh, they have but to look at their failures during the last 4 1/2 years of our protests.

"We will not be found lacking in illustrating our ability and will to, if necessary, once again escalate our protest."

Silence and Desperate Resolve

The press release was, of course, greeted with silence from Thatcher’s government and the prison authorities. Those moralists and do-gooders who encouraged the men to come off their hunger strike to negotiate with the British were now silent as well. Bobby Sands and the men were growing more and more embittered. More and more desperate.

Understanding the British political psyche more and more, they now knew the next hunger strike wouldn’t be without deaths, that was an absolute certainty. Only the number was uncertain. Those setting out on that course would have to know that it was likely a death sentence. But was there another choice? In the early months of 1981, there was no other choice, save defeat. In other words, there was no other choice. So the men prepared.

Next: The Run Up To The 1981 Hunger Strike