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

Product Information

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. This inside account of the 1981 hunger strikes by one of the IRA prisoners’ leaders is without doubt the most significant; it will force a complete reassessment of this pivotal epsode in modern Irish History. Just before Christmas 2017, my daughter Berni and I were sitting in the Europa Hotel in Belfast city centre, discussing Greed, when she said: “Do you know why the London people didn’t take the book? That peaceful and disciplined campaign, organised by the National H-Block/Armagh Committee, attracted on a single issue scores of thousands of people and united people of different political persuasions.

The prisoners responded by smashing the furniture in their cells, and the prison authorities responded by removing the remaining furniture from the cells leaving the prisoners in cells with just blankets and mattresses. They refused to accept the new regime, refused to cooperate with the prison guards or to accept prison discipline. 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. One of the "Blanketmen," he took part in the dirty protests that led to the hunger strikes of the early 1980s. Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages.After a 53-day hunger strike with McKenna lapsing in and out of a coma and on the brink of death, the government appeared to concede the essence of the prisoners' five demands with a 30-page document detailing a proposed settlement. This resulted in the blanket protest escalating into the dirty protest, as the prisoners were unable to " slop out" (i. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. If a British government experienced such a long and persistent resistance to a domestic policy in England then that policy would almost certainly be changed. I was a member of the RUC during the hunger strikes, I performed duty at six of the funerals throughout Northern Ireland.

Thus, following a period in which the prisoners cooperated to their utmost with a stubborn regime, on January 27th 96 prisoners smashed up cell furniture in a fit of frustration. the story of the selfless sacrifice of the Irish Republican hungerstrikers needs to be known, as does their betrayal by the politicians who went on to capitalise from their suffering and deaths. He has been married to Bernadette for 40 years, has three grown-up children, and still lives in west Belfast. O'Rawe successfully conveys the emotional turmoil he felt alongside a dispassionate account of his and others strategic thinking during the strikes. Five years later we are still able to declare that that criminalisation policy, which we have resisted and suffered, has failed.Now instead of internment the British had a legal-looking process of arrest, charge, remand, trial and sentence. I was talking about British government offers and how the prison leadership had accepted an offer to end the hunger strike and of how our acceptance had been overruled by an outside IRA committee. In an attempt to create an atmosphere conductive to a settlement and to take pressure off the British administration, the IRA ceased its attacks on prison officials.

The prisoners responded by refusing to leave their cells, and as a result the prison officers were unable to clear them.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. All the document’s phrases about the situation not begin static; work not being interpreted narrowly and the prison regime being progressive, humane and flexible were soon shown not to be worth the paper they were written on. I would give more weight to this book rather than others seeing as Richard O'Rawe was actually in Ling Kesh at the time and was PRO for the POWs so would be more in the loop as others who have written on the subject.