Large crowd hears hunger strikers
The inhumane conditions in the H Blocks of Long Kesh 20 years ago
were recalled at a public meeting in Clonakilty last week by two
republican ex-prisoners who were on the 1981 Hunger Strike.
Around 70 people attended the meeting, organised by the local
1981 Hunger Strike Commemoration Committee.
Belfast men Jackie McMullan and John Pickering, who fasted for 48
and 27 days, respectively, before the strike was called off were
enthusiastically received by the crowd.
Coiste chair Séamus de Búrca announced the local commemoration
committee's plans to remember the Hunger Strikers and their
legacy, including bringing local people by a bus to a major
national rally in Belfast on 6 May, organising their own
commemoration for 17 June, and bringing a play on the topic to
Clonakilty.
The two special guests spoke about their experiences as political
prisoners in the H Blocks. Jackie McMullan told how he was
arrested in May 1976, aged just 20, two months after the
withdrawal of political status and sentenced to life that
December by a one-judge, non jury court in a case that lasted
little more than 30 minutes. Like all republicans at the time, he
joined the blanket protest, and later the no-wash protest until
it ended in March 1981 when the second hunger strike started.
Jackie described in detail the atrocious conditions prisoners
endured as they were locked up for 24 hours a day for nearly four
years, dressed in nothing but a blanket. He joined the hunger
strike in August 1981 and was on it for 48 days until 3 October
when it was called off. He was released in 1992 after 16 years.
John Pickering described being one of 14 children in his family.
Like many Catholics in the Six Counties, he grew up in poverty.
He joined the IRA in 1972, was on the run when 16 and at 17 was
interned from 1972-'75. On release he reinvolved himself but was
rearrested in September 1976 along with Kieran Doherty, who was
later elected a TD and died on the 1981 Hunger Strike.
Sentenced to life in 1978, he immediately joined the hundreds of
other Republican prisoners in Long Kesh on the blanket protest
and subsequently the no-wash protest. He joined the first hunger
strike in 1980 before it ended and was on the second one for 27
days when it ended.
Darragh Solan detailed the trip to Belfast, which will involve an
overnight stay (the Monday is a Bank Holiday), with accommodation
and transport provided. He emphasised that the 50 places would be
allocated as deposits were paid.
Local Sinn Féin councillor Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin, PRO of the
committee, reminded people that at the time of the hunger strikes
and the years leading up to them, southern governments and
parties of all persuasions turned their backs on the nationalist
people of the Six Counties. ``Let's not forget that Garrett
Fitzgerald let the first five men die while he was Taoiseach, and
Charles Haughey as Taoiseach allowed Thatcher to leave the second
five men die,'' he concluded.
yone wishing to get involved in the committee should contact
Seamus de Búrca on (086) 400 9649
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