1981 Hunger Strike 25th Anniversary: Series of events planned

Belfast launch of Hunger Strike events

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams will launch the National H-Block-Armagh programme of events organised by the National Hunger Strike Commemoration Committee at the Europa Hotel, Belfast on Monday 13 February at 11am.

This year sees the 25th anniversary of the 1981 Hunger Strike in which ten H-Block prisoners died.

Speaking to An Phoblacht Brendan 'Bik' McFarlane said the National Hunger Strike Commemoration Committee decided to start this year's calendar with two events marking the death on hunger strike of Frank Stagg in Wakefield Prison on 12 February 1976 and also remembering the anniversary of Michael Gaughan who died in Parkhurst Prison on 3 June 1974.

A mural honouring Stagg and Gaughan will be unveiled on the Falls Road in Belfast on Sunday 12 February.

"We decided on 13 February as the date for the official launch of this year's events because we wanted it to coincide with the Stagg commemoration and we saw it as a way of starting of the commemoration year with some momentum. We want to get all areas across Ireland focused on this year's event," said McFarlane.

He added that republican activists throughout the country should see the Hunger Strike anniversary as an opportunity to promote republicanism and to educate people, particularly young people, about the strikers themselves and the cause for which they died.