Remembering 1981 – ‘National Heroes’

» Editor

The unhesitant stepping forward by Thomas McElwee, Paddy Quinn, Michael Devine, Laurence McKeown, Pat McGeown and Matt Devlin to fill the places of their dead comrades reflects a level of commitment among the political prisoners surely unparalleled in any national struggle, anywhere, anytime

WITHOUT QUESTION, the H-Block Hunger Strike, albeit in the most tragic fashion, has produced the first Irish national heroes heroes since the 1920s. No other deaths of so many brave men and women over the last 12 years of struggle have had the same effect.

The unflinching, totally unselfish sacrifices of Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh, Patsy O’Hara, Joe McDonnell and Martin Hurson have inspired the rapid politicisation of ordinary people, all over Ireland, on a totally unprecedented scale.

The courageous calm of Kieran Doherty TD and Kevin Lynch rebutting, on their very death beds, the latest cunning of the British attempting to undermine them, portrays a peak of heroism of which one can only stand in awe.

The unhesitant stepping forward by Thomas McElwee, Paddy Quinn, Michael Devine, Laurence McKeown, Pat McGeown and Matt Devlin to fill the places of their dead comrades reflects a level of commitment among the political prisoners surely unparalleled in any national struggle, anywhere, anytime.

The example of the prisoners has been well taken up by the people outside in response. And it was well reflected in the spirit of those thousands of people from all over Ireland who marched, with militant voice and step, through Dublin last weekend – as undaunted and determined as ever to stand behind the prisoners, in spite of all the heartbreak and frustration.

That undaunted spirit – not the headline-catching riots spurred by gardaí at their most provocative – is the message to be read from last weekend’s demonstration. And that determination, disciplined and intelligent, is the rock on which victory will be built both inside and outside the jails.

How shameful, then, in contrast to all this, has been the conduct this week of Free State Premier Garret FitzGerald, the alleged leader of the people of the 26 Counties.

● Fine Gael Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald with Tory British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher

Last Tuesday’s attempt by FitzGerald to wash his hands of the responsibility of the Dublin Government of the Hunger Strike, was doubly compounded in its contemptible manoeuvring by the rejection of the request for a visit from the Free State Premier made by dying TD Kieran Doherty, an elected member of the very parliament which Fitzgerald claims to lead.

And all those Establishment figures who constantly plug the constitutional line and point to the Dublin Government as providing the most accessible solution can be told, in no uncertain terms, that now, more than ever, is the time to exert their considerable muscle in support of the Hunger Strikers about whom they profess so much concern.

Garret FitzGerald cannot shrug off the Hunger Strike as easy that.