Four Hunger Strikers die – Owen Carron elected as MP

AUGUST

Owen Carron

JUST BEFORE the start of August, on 28th July 1981, the writ for the by-election in the Fermanagh/South Tyrone constituency, caused by the death of IRA Volunteer Bobby Sands MP, was moved by Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru MP Dafydd Thomas. The Anti H-Block/Armagh candidate was named as Owen Carron, Bobby Sands’s election agent. At the same time, in the H-Blocks, three republicans neared death.
One of those Hunger Strikers, Paddy Quinn, was taken off the protest by his family after he lost consciousness on 31st July. Paddy had gone 47 days without food and was experiencing very serious effects from the hunger strike, including severe epileptic fits.
On 1st August, INLA Volunteer Kevin Lynch died after 71 days on the Hunger Strike. He was 25 years old. The next day, IRA Volunteer Kieran Doherty TD, also 25, died after 73 days on the Hunger Strike. Less than a month earlier, Doherty had been elected to Leinster House as a TD by the people of Cavan/Monaghan.
In response to the deaths, large protests took place across Ireland and in one incident a man was seriously wounded in north Belfast after an RUC officer shot him in the spine with a plastic bullet at point-blank range. Meanwhile, in the New Lodge, a 16-year-old girl, Pauline Quigley, was subjected to an assault by a British soldier which left her with a fractured skull.
The Blanketman who replaced Kevin Lynch on the Hunger Strike was 25-year-old Liam McCloskey from Dungiven in County Derry. McCloskey had been one of the thousands of people who took part in the Civil Rights march in January 1972 when 14 unarmed protesters were gunned down by British paratroopers in Derry — Bloody Sunday. Originally a member of the Officials, McCloskey went on to join the INLA in late 1974. In December 1976 he was arrested along with Kevin Lynch for possession of weapons and conspiracy to take weapons from British forces. He was sentenced to ten years in prison and immediately went ‘on the blanket’. In September 1978 he was badly beaten by prison warders who broke his nose and perforated his eardrum.
Several days later, Pat Sheehan (23), from Belfast, replaced Kieran Doherty. A keen hurler and football player, Pat’s family were forced out of their home in the Springfield Road area of Belfast in the early 1970s following a loyalist murder bid. Pat was arrested in January 1978 and jailed for allegedly taking part in the bombing of a warehouse on the Grosvenor Road in Belfast. (Pat is currently the Sinn Féin MLA for west Belfast.)
Earlier that week, before the deaths of Lynch and Doherty, and in an attempt to turn public opinion against the Republican Movement, Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald falsely claimed that the IRA leadership could simply order an end to the Hunger Strike. In an authoritative statement, the IRA leadership slammed the Southern premier, describing his claims as a “dishonest and opportunist attack” on the Republican Movement.
The IRA stated:
“When the Hunger Strike announcement was made in February . . . we urged all prisoners not to go on hunger strike, that Britain would allow them to die . . . The Blanketmen, while fraternally listening to our advice and respecting our opposition, flatly refused to abandon the Hunger Strike.
“We repeat: the British Government are responsible for the Hunger Strike, just as they are responsible for the Blanket Protest, and the H-Blocks, and the criminalisation policy. Garret FitzGerald has the power to put pressure on the British Government and help resolve the crisis. The question must be asked: why doesn’t he use it?”
Six days after Kevin Lynch’s death, Bellaghy IRA Volunteer Thomas McElwee died after 62 days on the Hunger Strike. He was 23 years old. Only two days earlier, Garret FitzGerald had ordered gardaí to evict Tom’s relatives from Government Buildings in Dublin after a meeting with Government representatives had broken down.
That August saw large demonstrations across the island and further afield. The Troops Out Movement held rallies and protests outside British Army barracks across the Six Counties. Those taking part included a large contingent from ‘Ex-Soldiers Against the War in Ireland’. Actions in support of the Hunger Strikers continued to take place across the globe.
People’s anger manifested itself in rioting across the North. In one incident a 41-year-old father of five, Peter Magennis, was killed by a plastic bullet. Mr Magennis, who was not involved in any rioting, was standing outside near his home on Shore Street when he was shot at point-plank range by an RUC patrol. He was the seventh person to be killed by plastic bullets in 1981.
Thomas McElwee was replaced on the Hunger Strike by 25-year-old Belfast republican Jackie McMullan on 17th August. McMullan was the third eldest of a family of four boys and three girls. His brother, Michael, was also a prisoner in Long Kesh. Jackie joined the Republican Movement in early 1971. In May 1976, he was arrested and charged with attempting to kill members of an RUC patrol during a gun attack on the Lisburn Road. In December 1976, he was sentenced by a non-jury Diplock Court to life imprisonment. He immediately went ‘on the blanket’.
On 20th August 1981, INLA Volunteer Michael Devine died after 60 days on the Hunger Strike.
On the same day, Owen Carron topped the poll in the Fermanagh/South Tyrone by-election (see Remembering the Past, page 26).
Devine was replaced on the Hunger Strike by Belfast republican Bernard Fox, aged 30, on 24th August. Bernard was the youngest in a family of four boys and served as an apprentice coachbuilder alongside Bobby Sands. He joined the Republican Movement in 1969 and went ‘on the run’ following the introduction of internment in August 1971, although he was eventually arrested and interned on two separate occasions. In 1977, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for involvement in a bombing.
Michael Devine would be the last Hunger Striker to die although the Hunger Strike itself would continue until October 1981.