Earlier this evening I attended a vigil on the Bridge of Peace in Drogheda aimed at highlighting the plight of Brendan Lillis currently detained in Maghaberry Prison despite being seriously ill. In recent days, largely as a result of the persistence of his indefatigable partner Roisin, the case of Brendan Lillis has at last managed to break into the mainstream media. There are signs of awareness in media circles that republican prisoners hold a combination lock which, if the right numbers click, can unleash an emotive reservoir within nationalist communities across the North. As a British official wistfully commented during the 1981 hunger strikes, many nationalists were being pulled by their umbilical cords to the cause of the prisoners.