Blanketmen: An Untold Story of the H-block Hunger Strike

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This was to last for a full three years and arose essentially because the men were refused washing or toilet facilities or were beaten when they left their cells. They are locked in their cells for almost the whole of every day and some of them have been in this condition for more than a year and a half. Prisoners were entitled to four visits from friends or family each month, three were in exchange for good behaviour and the fourth was statutory. Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH). They have no covering except towel or blanket, no books, newspapers or reading material except the Bible (even religious magazines have been banned since my last visit), no pens or writing material, or TV, or radio, no hobbies or handcrafts, no exercise or recreation.

Even though I abandoned the book after the first 20 pages or so, I am aware that he endured horrific conditions for the Cause in prison and I know he was a brave and loyal brother of his IRA clan. At the center of O'Rawe's book lies the disclosure that six of the ten H-Block hunger strikers starved themselves to death in vain, as an offer from the British Government was on the table that could have ended the strike after four of them had died. But to read this story as an adult and having outlived some of these men it's a mixture of pride for what they did for their country but sadness that didn't leave to see peace and also what they could have achieved had they not died. They were refused from the beginning of their sentences all exercise facilities, reading or writing material, and access to radio or newspapers. At the centre of Blanketmen lies the declaration that six of the ten men on hunger strike in the H-Block unit of Long Kesh Prison starved themselves to death in vain, as an offer from the British Government was on the table that could have ended the strike after four of them had died.one small criticism is that it should of been read by someone from the North of Ireland who could pronounce the place names and a few other things properly. We the republican POWs in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh, and our comrades in Armagh Prison, are entitled to and hereby demand political status, and we reject today as we have consistently rejected every day since September 14th, 1976, when the blanket protest began, the British government’s attempted criminalisation of ourselves and our struggle. Both of us were former Blanketmen, protesting republican prisoners, and we knew that we would be touching on the 1981 IRA/INLA hunger strike, in which ten of our comrades died. However, the plight of the H-Block and Armagh prisoners again faded to some degree from the public view, until the establishment of the National H-Block/Armagh Committee in October 1979. One of the 'Blanketmen', he took part in the dirty protests that led to the hunger strikes of the early 1980s.

As a result of their refusal, they would receive three days "on the boards" where all furniture was removed from their cell, and they were served the "number one diet" consisting of tea without milk, watery soup and dry bread. The H-Blocks, designed to maximise the control of prisoners in four small wings of 25 single cells (instead of the traditional large huts), were born. The same thing was to happen later in Armagh in February 1980 when the prison administration attacked the women political prisoners, assaulting them and withdrawing toilet facilities. Between the years 1971 and 1975 thousands of additional prisoners, interned without trial, had a similar status in Armagh, Magilligan, Belfast Prison, the prison-ship Maidstone, and Long Kesh. On Wednesday, December 10th, when a senior member of the colonial Northern Ireland Office, a Mr Blellock, met the seven H-Block hunger strikers in the prison hospital and read out to them the prison reforms that were then available but refused to answer questions or negotiate with Brendan Hughes, former O/C of the blanket men.The author tells his story with wry humour starting with how he ended up inside after a bodged up bank robbery for the IRA. I would have also appreciated a little more context/explanation around some events just to better understand what was happening. Castlereagh torture centre came into its own, rules of evidence were changed, extra Diplock (non-jury) courts were brought in, judges were appointed and the H-Block conveyor-belt went into full gear. Still, on a Friday night, over a glass (or two) of burgundy, I enjoyed tinkering with it and throwing plot lines about in my head.

The Bobby Sands Trust was established to publish, promote and keep in print the extraordinary writings of Bobby Sands, who from prison isolation became an international figure in 1981, and who to this day continues to inspire Irish republicans in their pursuit of freedom from British rule. I was fortunate enough to have the help of his sister, Ann McKernan, and his many friends including Johnny Depp, who wrote a magnificent foreword about their antics while holidaying in Kerry and Cork. It became clear very quickly that these men had been backed into a corner and had no option but to see it through. The prison administration tried to force the men to unconditionally end their protest but at a further meeting between all the H-Block O/Cs on January 11th it was decided to attempt in a step-by-step process the de-escalation of the protests in a principled fashion. The majority of protesting prisoners, both men and women, were in their late teens or 20s and over 80% were imprisoned solely on the strength of forced confessions.On 4 February the prisoners issued a statement saying that the British government had failed to resolve the crisis and declared their intention of "hunger striking once more". The Sunday Times ***"Richard O'Rawe deserves praise for charging one of the most cynical leaderships anywhere in this island with manipulating the courage and determination of the hunger strikers. Two days later, the incoming Northern Ireland Secretary, James Prior, announced a number of changes in prison policy, including that from then on all paramilitary prisoners would be allowed to wear their own clothes at all times. The fist H-Block hunger strike that was to last 56 days saw the greatest nationalist mobilisation in Ireland since the early days of the civil rights/anti-internment campaign.