Irish Hunger Strikes Chapter 17

Days Of Despair and Confusion:
The Seeds Are Sown For The 1981 Hunger Strike

The ambiguity and empty potential of the British document to end the first hunger strike at the end of 1980 turned to dust in the aftermath. The men were close to desperation.

Even so, they put on a good face not to let on to their families on visits, and particularly the screws, how low they were. No matter what, they needed to demonstrate that they would never give into being criminalized by the prison/judicial system. Yet the fact remained they were no further ahead in achieving their demands than they were when the 1980 hunger strike began.

Indeed, they had put everything into it, including their last, best weapon -- their own lives -- and it had failed to progress their position.

Brits Offer Nothing Serious

It failed, not due to lack of courage or will, but because the Brits could not be trusted to find a solution short of the defeat of the prisoners and the Republican Movement. But what was the alternative strategy? Even talk about using the system to destroy the system by conforming to prison rules for a while, was discouraged. Morale in the blocks just could not survive such a move; after all those years on the blanket and no-wash protest, to give in now, even tactically, was unthinkable.

Bobby Sands, as OC of the Blocks, knew before the rest that all was indeed lost, that nothing would come of the Brit document and subsequent negotiations except a few throw away concession going nowhere.

Bobby immediately sent out comms to the Movement outside demanding a restart of the hunger strike, with himself as leader. He was told to continue to negotiate with the administration even though they knew it was going to be fruitless. The Movement couldn’t deal with another hunger strike at that point, either politically or militarily. During the hunger strike of 1980, almost all resources went into it. People were tied up 24 hours a day and publicity costs money. The war was being affected. On the other hand, the war inside Long Kesh and Armagh was just as crucial. Time was needed to reassess and reorganize.

On 5 January 1981, the men were told by the prison administration that if they kept their cells clean after the next wing shift, when the cells were hosed down, they would be given furniture in 24 hours. But because there was no mention of their own clothes, the men rightly ignored the gesture.

At the same time some comms going out of the Kesh were intercepted by screws. They dealt frankly with plans for another hunger strike. The Brits now knew that the men were again serious.

Bobby already knew what he wanted to do, having learned from the mistakes of the last strike. In a sense, he was planning his own death. And probably the death of some of his comrades. How many he couldn’t possibly foretell. He could predict with certainly, however, that he would be dead before this one was over.

Morale Plummets, Yet Men Hold Resolve

Ciaran McGillicuddy reported in retrospect, in Nor Meekly Serve My Time, what it was like during those first weeks after the first hunger strike. It was a poignant memory. The people in the community thought there were good reasons to hope for victory, some were even certain of an imminent solution. At the same time the men were certain it was back to ground zero -- or lower.

Ciaran while taking a visit with his mother and father noticed that the screws didn’t know what to think and feared for their future, so they were not their aggressive selves. He noticed there where other Blanketmen in the visits and their visitors all seemed in great spirits: "But each Blanketman had an empty look in his eyes." Ciaran’s parents gave him a hug and waved to the other lads telling them how great the Blanketmen were. "I was shattered," he said. "Halfway through my visit I saw another Blanketman greeting his family. My mother and father waved to him and his visitor stuck a big cigar into his mouth. He looked at me and I could see he was almost crying. His eyes seemed to be calling out for someone to save him. I felt empty talking to my family. They wanted to know what clothes I’d need, whether I’d be out sooner. They were on cloud nine and I was at rock bottom."

More Window Dressing From Brits

Then the Brits tried again with another hollow reform. On 9 February, new "civilian type" uniforms were brought into the prison. The men decided they would wear them on visits, but then it was back to "the blanket" and the "no-wash" protest immediately after. Two days later, the prison governor, Hilditch, met Bobby and the other block COs with plans for ending the protest with a step-by-step process.

A wing of men form H5 would move into a clean and furnished wing on Thursday. The men would then be issued their own clothing sent in by their relatives and prison clothing. The men accepted this move to see what would come of it and the shift came off without the usual bangings and thumpings.

Hilditch again met with Bobby, but he had already stood down as Prison OC in favor of Bik McFarlane in anticipation of a return to hunger strike that he would initiate. Bik sent out a comm to Gerry Adams on the outside that night, because Bobby’s cell had no lighting whatsoever, establishing the proposal that Hilditch put foreword. In essence, the comm said: the Brits wanted more time before making another positive move and the men needed time as well.

Meanwhile, the men were wearying.

UDA In Murder Attempt On Bernadette McAliskey

Outside the Kesh, the prisoners’ struggle received another blow when Bernadette McAliskey, the most prominent spokesperson and personality for the H-Block/Armagh Committee, was the victim of a UDA assassination attempt. Brit intelligence knew of the plot well before the attack took place and, in fact, had an undercover patrol nearby the McAliskey home in an isolated location near Lough Neagh in Co. Tyrone. The Brit patrol kept up a 24 hour at day surveillance of the McAliskey home.

Nonetheless, a UDA murder squad of 3 gunmen arrived on Saturday night, January 11 and sledgehammered in the door. Bernadette’s husband, Michael, threw himself against the door to protect his family. He was shot four times and left for dead on the floor. They found Bernadette in a bedroom trying to hide her two-year-old son, Fintan.

The lead assassin threw the boy to one side and emptied his 9-mm Browning into Bernadette. Six shots entered and went directly through her body, the seventh struck the back of her skull and exited her left leg. A second gunman fired into her with a .38 pistol, hitting her two more times.

Miraculously, both Bernadette and Michael survived the attack. On the way out of the house, the murder squad was apprehended by the Brit army patrol without resistance. Obviously, the patrol was there all those days to capture the perpetrators on the way out, not going in. That had to be a tactical decision from above. It was the sixth H-Block activist to be shot by the UDA in the past six months.

The IRA Hit Back

The IRA hit back five days later. An IRA active service unit assassinated a former Speaker of the old Stormont parliament, Sir Norman Stronge, and his son, a former unionist MP at Stormont, James Stronge, and burnt down their 239 year old mansion on their 800 acre estate. However, back inside the prison, the situation for the men was largely unchanged.

Back in the Kesh

Back in the Kesh, the authorities were again stalling. On Friday, 23 January, with 96 prisoners cooperating on an experimental basis, the Brits refused to issue the men’s own clothing as had been agreed upon by Bobby and Hilditch. It was quickly approaching Showdown Time.

Next: The Second Hunger Strike Begins