On the 5th February 1981, republican prisoners in Long Kesh issued a statement to the British government that unless the prisoners were awarded special category status, there could be further hunger strikes. There had been several smaller strikes in the Maze and Armagh Women’s Prison previously following the tradition of Thomas Ashe, Terence MacSwiney, Frank Stagg and others.
There were Five demands that the prisoners were looking for. They started their campaign in 1976 but it did not gain traction until Catholic Archbishop Tomás O Fiaciah visited the prison and condemned the conditions there. The requests were:
1. The right not to wear a prison uniform;
2. The right not to do prison work;
3. The right of free association with other prisoners, and to organise educational and recreational pursuits;
4. The right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week;
5. Full restoration of remission lost through the protest.
The British authorities kept refusing their demands and so on the 1st March, Bobby Sands refused food and so began a new hunger strike.
On the 15th March, Francis Hughes joined the hunger Strike. Hughes was born in Bellaghy, Co. Derry on 28 February 1956 into a republican family, the youngest of four brothers in a family of ten siblings.
It was one of the most emotional and trying times of the conflict in the North, 22 other young men joined the hunger strike and 10 men died.
#gript
Photo Credit: Stair na hÉireann
Loading ...