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1 October 2010

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INTERVIEW | PAT SHEEHAN, H-BLOCKS HUNGER STRIKER

‘Organise and honour the Hunger Strikers’

BY PEADAR WHELAN

Pat Sheehan at this year’s St James’s commemoration

PAT SHEEHAN was 23 years old when he became the seventeenth H-Block prisoner to join the Hunger Strike on August 10th 1981. When the fast ended in October that year, Pat had gone 55 days without food. He now works for the republican ex-prisoners organisation, Coiste na n-Iarchími.
Today, Pat Sheehan is calling on republicans across the island of Ireland and internationally to gear up for the 30th anniversaries of the 1980 and 1981 Hunger Strikes.
Speaking to An Phoblacht, Pat says the legacy of the prison protests in Long Kesh and Armagh are “so much a part of the republican psyche that we can’t forget the sacrifices of those who died”. And as one of those who went through that traumatic time, he knows what that phase of struggle was about and what it means today.
“Not only were the protests against criminalisation and the hunger strikes inside the prisons key events in the history of our struggle but the agitation and organisation carried out by republican communities throughout the country brought people into the struggle; it energised them
“And that is what we want to do in the coming year,” Pat says. “We want to bring out that spirit and action once again.”
The former prisoner says that the re-energised Hunger Strike Commemoration Committee wants republican communities throughout Ireland to reinvigorate the committees that were formed in the 1970s and 1980s to support the prisoners.
“The Relatives Action Committees and the people involved in them carried out sterling work in defence of the prisoners and promoting the five demands of the National H-Blocks Committee.
“There were thousands upon thousands of people up and down the country who did something in 1980 and 1981 - entire villages and towns, workers and trade unionists, families, students, even schoolkids. We want them back because their work on the streets was as important as what was going on in Armagh and Long Kesh and that needs to be recognised and respected.
“We would like to see as many of the ‘old faces’ back and working to mark this anniversary,” Pat says.
“We want to ensure that in the coming months people organise events to remember the first Hunger Strike of 1980. That fast, which began on October 25th 1980, and ended in December exposed the duplicity of the British Government.
“Had the British been concerned about a resolution to the impasse in the jails they would have acted positively in 1980; instead, they set the scene for the tragic events of 1981 and what was to follow.”
The former blanket protester says that a lot of work is already being done to expand the exhibition that toured the country during both the 20th and 25th anniversaries of the prison struggle.
Pat Sheehan paid tribute to Volunteer Seando Moore who died in June of this year “for the absolute commitment and determination” he showed in ensuring that the exhibition arrived in every corner of the country where it was requested.
“At this point I would like to appeal to people who may have memorabilia from the period (photos, posters, leaflets, pamphlets, badges, news cuttings, whatever) to lend it to the National Committee for the exhibition. We are appointing people to record, register and look after anything that we may be given on loan to ensure it goes back to owners because we are very aware of the value of these items to people.”
Pat Sheehan is at pains to point out that the thinking behind the commemoration is not simply about looking back but aimed at bringing a better understanding of the politics of struggle to a younger generation of people, both republican and non-republican.
He tells of when he spoke to a cross-border group of students, from Leitrim and Carrickfergus.
Afterwards, a young woman from Carrickfergus was so taken by what he’d said that she changed her mind about how she saw republicans. “Up until now I saw the IRA as a bunch of terrorists,” she said.
That shows the educational value of events about the Hunger Strikes, Pat Sheehan emphasises.
“It is important that we use the history of that period in a positive educational way, otherwise we lose a lot of the impact of what we are about.”
The National H-Blocks Commemoration Committee is planning four national events to mark the 1980 hunger strike. The venues are to be Belfast, Derry, Dublin and Cork. Look out for details in An Phoblacht and on the An Phoblacht and Sinn Féin websites.
In the meantime, An Phoblacht urges you and anyone you know who took in the events of 1980 and 1981 to show solidarity once again and answer Hunger Striker Pat Sheehan’s call: “Organise and honour the Hunger Strikers.”

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