N. Ireland Hunger strikes

INTRODUCTION

The late 1970's saw political stalemate in the search for peace with both sides not prepared to compromise. However, the 2 Governments of the UK and Republic of Ireland were not prepared to give up and continued on a road towards their own mutual Anglo Irish agreement in 1985. They hoped this would build a path to peace (which indeed it did in the long term)

Security wise the situation in Northern Ireland calmed moderately in the late 70's as new security measures were put in effect. There was still a high level of continuing violence however with some spectacularly violent incidents such as the La Mon House fire bombing, the bombing of a bus carrying Parachute regiment soldiers and the assassination of Lord Mountbatten.

Part of the Security measures led to a set of Hunger strikes in the early 1980's in which 10 Republican hunger strikers died. The violent response to this made the search for peace even more imperative.

We are going to investigate each of these stages in this section

The mid 1970's saw the IRA try a new tactic by taking the Troubles to the British mainland. They felt that the British could ignore 'Troubles in Northern Ireland' unless they felt it themselves. A bombing campaign attacked several British pubs in Birmingham and Guildford killing scores.

These actions backfired however with the British government more resolved to control the situation.
The British Government would begin a TWO STAGE approach to Security which would bring a level of control on the violence in the short term but would lead to more trouble later

Aftermath of the pub bombing - the worst terrorist attack on mainland Britain until the 7/7 bombings

The British Secretary of State Roy Mason began to see the British Army as becoming part of the problem rather than the solution in Northern Ireland

They were regarded by many nationalists as a tool for Unionism and events like Bloody Sunday and the Falls Road Curfew gave them the reputation as an 'occupying army'
They were also increasingly targets for the PIRA.

As a result Mason encouraged the 'ULSTERISATION' of the Troubles. This was like passing the issues back over to Northern Ireland to localise the Troubles (and keep it away from England)

WHAT WAS INVOLVED IN ULSTERISATION?

Decreasing levels of the British Army in Northern Ireland
Increasing levels of the local RUC (Police) and UDR (Ulster Defence Regiment) part time local soldiers.

Ulsterisation Wiki link

The SECOND part of the British Security policy was to begin a process of portraying Paramilitary prisoners as Criminals.

Prior to 1973 paramilitary prisoners could claim SPECIAL CATEGORY STATUS: This meant they could be regarded as being Prisoners of War and be treated as such, if they were arrested for a 'politically motivated crime.'

WHAT DID THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT WANT?
The British Government believed these privileges allowed Republicans to continue their violence and indeed organise it further in prison through being allowed to meet other prisoners freely.

They wanted:

To remove the SPECIAL CATEGORY STATUS for political prisoners therefore reducing them to 'common criminals'
To house these prisoners in a newly constrcuted prison - This was called THE MAZE where they would be housed in specially constructed 'H BLOCKS'

They hoped this would:

Increase normalisation of life in Northern Ireland
Decrease the category of terrorist to criminal and therefore reduce the Troubles to a criminal rather than political act

http://www.clipartkid.com/man-in-prison-behind-bars-jail-it-wasn-t-me-it-was-the-one-armed-man-ezx8Qr-clipart/

http://www.irishhungerstrike.com/images/hblocks.jpg

Despite a reduction in violence from the levels of the early 1970's, the late 1970's still witnessed some horrific acts of violence as the Troubles continued.

LA MON HOTEL FIRE BOMBING: This IRA attack happened not far from Lagan College. An incendiary device was attached to a window of the hotel and exploded at a meeting of the Irish Collie Club. The devastation was terrible with 12 people burnt to death and many left with horrific burns.
MOUNTBATTEN ASSASSINATION : Lord Louis Mountbatten was a very well known member of the British Royal family and uncle of Prince Charles. He had lived in Sligo in the Irish Republic for many years. In 1979 an INLA unit blew up his fishing boat - killing him instantly
WARRENPOINT BOMBING: In Warrenpoint, Co Down, a bus was blown up killing 18 members of the PARACHUTE REGIMENT (The IRA claimed this as revenge for Bloody Sunday)

La Mon hotel - IRA fire bomb kills 12 people

Lord Mountbatten with a young Prince Charles

Warrenpoint bomb - 19 soldiers killed

THE PEACE PEOPLE

The appalling violence of the 1970's drew one bright light. The Peace people was founded by Betty Williams and Mairead Maguire,. They were drawn together by a terrible event in 1976. Betty Williams while driving her car in Belfast, witnessed the death of three children, when they were hit by a car whose driver, an IRA fugitive named Danny Lennon, was fatally shot by British soldiers. Williams was driving in her car with one of her children when she heard gunfire. She turned the corner to her street, saw the three Maguire children and rushed to help. Their mother, Anne Maguire, who was with them, eventually committed suicide in 1980 after a failed attempt to start a new life in New Zealand.

Within two days of the tragic event, Williams had obtained 6,000 signatures on a petition for peace and gained media attention. Together with Anne Maguire's sister, Mairead Corrigan, she co-founded the Women for Peace which later became the Peace People.

The two organized a peace march to the graves of the children, which was attended by 10,000 Protestant and Catholic women — the peaceful march was disrupted by members of the IRA, who accused them of being "dupes of the British". The following week, Williams and Corrigan again led a march — this time with 35,000 participants. The level of public support they got to end the Troubles was extraordinary and won them the Nobel Peace Prize. Sadly the Troubles went on unabated.

PEACE PEOPLE WEBSITE

WIKI LINK

One of the biggest events in the Troubles was the Hunger Strikes. These were Republican protests over the issue of Special Category Prisoner status. Republican prisoners were wholly opposed to this, having seen themselves as political prisoners or Prisoners of war.

The mass Hunger strike of Republican prisoners in protest put a huge amount of pressure on Margaret Thatcher's newly elected British Government to solve this. However, 10 prisoners would go on to die as a result of the Hunger strikes creating a great deal of Nationalist anger.

We are going to now investigate the CAUSES of the Hunger Strike, WHAT happened and What were the LONG TERM RESULTS

The Hunger Strikes of 1981 were the final part of a long running campaign that took place throughout the 1970's and early 80's. This was linked into the key decision to introduce CRIMINALISATION in the early 1976. This removed SPECIAL CATEGORY STATUS from Republican prisoners. The rights and privileges they had been granted previously vanished. They were supposed to wear prison uniform, their prison visits and rights to meet together were curtailed. Republicans hated this branding as criminals and were determined to end it.

The Republicans began a campaign to highlight their issues to the world. They regarded themselves as not terrorists (as Unionists & the British Government would see it) They regarded themselves as Freedom fighters and combatants or prisoners of war and as such they felt they deserved their privileges. They set about protesting in a number of ways...

THE HUNGER STRIKE was a famous Republican tactic. It had been used in 1920 in the Irish War of Independence by the Mayor of Cork Terence McSwiney. His death was reported around the world. Many republicans in prison at this stage believed this tactic may be the way to bring Thatcher's government to its knees and grant them the concessions they demanded. The first Hunger strike of 1980 failed as it was carried out with massive numbers. The 1981 strike was created by the PIRA leader in the Maze, Bobby Sands and would be vastly different and a lot more effective.

http://www.bobbysandstrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/back-end-macswineys-funeral4.jpg

The Hunger strikes did not end with Bobby Sands death. TEN Hunger strikers would eventually die before the Hunger strikes were officially called off in October 1981. Margaret Thatcher maintained her opposition to concessions despite widespread international appeals.

Within a week of the Republican call for the strikes to end in October the British Government granted several key concessions in what was obviously a carefully choreographed process.

Republicans could now have :

A larger number of prison visits granted
They could wear their own clothes
They could associate together
They maintained their 50% remission to get out of prison earlier.

The process of achieving these goals had been long and costly. They also had a profound political impact

The Hunger strikes had 10 key results:

10 Republican prisoners died and became what would be regarded as martyrs in the Republican community.
Violence spiralled in the period around the hunger strikes with over 60 people killed. Tensions between the Unionist and Nationalist communities were at their lowest.
Margaret Thatcher herself would become a target o the PIRA in Brighton in 1984 when a bomb came very close to killing her
Many unionists regarded the prisoners as terrorists and criminals and did not want concessions granted. They were happy Thatcher had held out so long- although not that she had finally conceded.
Many nationalists felt further alienated from British rule and Thatcher's government. Over 100,000 attended Bobby Sands funeral. This is more than 1 in 5 of the catholic population of Northern Ireland.
Support for PIRA grew
Support for Sinn Fein increased significantly following the Hunger strikes. Sinn Fein won nearly 14% of the vote in Northern Ireland in the 1983 election. GERRY ADAMS won the West Belfast seat from the SDLP's Gerry Fitt.
Support for the more moderate nationalist SDLP began to reduce. The SDLP had always opposed violence and were committed to a peaceful solution. They are also the nationalists that the governments in Britain and Ireland much prefer to deal with.
The British and Irish Governments worried about the rise of Sinn Fein. They realised that they had to get political progress to boost the moderate parties and therefore get the best chance of peace. This process would lead to the ANGLO IRISH AGREEMENT in 1985
Sinn Fein very importantly saw the election of Bobby Sands as a huge step. They realised that they could get political progress through electoral means. They set about a new strategy revolving around the ballot box and the armalite (A combination of armed republicanism and electoral progress. This produced results when Gerry Adams from Sinn Fein took the West Belfast seat from Gerry Fitt of the SDLP. Sinn Fein,despite winning a Westminster seat would refuse to take their seat in the British Parliament. They still maintain this.

1 in 5 - The proportion of the Catholic population of Northern Ireland who were estimated to have attended Bobby Sands funeral

One last but incredibly important result of the Hunger strikes was that Republicans began to rethink their whole strategy towards their 'armed struggle'

Republicans were deeply surprised at the strength of Bobby Sands election win and felt that perhaps they had a real chance of gaining results through gaining political power.
Their new tactics were designed by Danny Morrison and described how they would aim to win their objectives with ' an armalite' (machine gun) in one hand and a ballot box (to win votes) in the other.Simply put, they would continue the IRA's violent campaign of bombings and shootings but combine this with a dual approach of fighting politically at elections.
This tactic was officially passed by Sinn Fein's Ard Fheis in 1981