THE 1980 H-BLOCKS HUNGER-STRIKE | SINN FÉIN MLA AND HUNGER STRIKER RAYMOND McCARTNEY LOOKS BACK

British response to 1980 Hunger Strike made the 1981 Hunger Strike a certainty

BY PEADAR WHELAN

RAYMOND McCARTNEY from Derry City was one of the seven republican prisoners to embark on hunger strike in 1980.
At that point, October 1980, the prison protest in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh had been in progress since 1976, which meant that some prisoners had been engaged in protest for as many as four years.
Those fours years were characterised by intense brutality and a commonplace inhumanity as the prison authorities tried to break the will of the protesters.
McCartney was arrested in his native Derry City in 1977 and spent two years on remand in Crumlin Road Prison before he was sentenced to life in January 1979 and transferred to H-Block 5.
The Derryman was at this point no stranger to prison as he had been arrested in 1972 but was acquitted of possessing weapons. In October 1973, he found himself interned in Long Kesh where he spent the next 18 months of his life.
When I caught up with him this week he was racing off on Assembly business. “No rest for the wicked,” he laughed.
Recounting his experiences when he first arrived in H5 in January 1979 he recalled the “welcoming strip-search and how the Screws tried to intimidate me” as a way of asserting their authority.
“I had a real sense of trepidation going into the Block but when I got on to the wing I immediately picked up on this sense of intense, vibrant comradeship.”
That night, when the Screws left the wing, McCartney spent hours at the door of his cell shouting out all the ‘sceal’ he had, recounting everything he read in papers or picked up in the news, from local stories, to world affairs and, of course, the world of sport.
Within days, McCartney was to experience his first wing move.
To keep on top of the ‘No Wash’ protest the prison authorities moved the Blanketmen every couple of days and sent in teams to steam clean the excrement-covered cells.
These moves were an opportunity for Screws to indulge their anti-republican bigotry.
“The mirror search was a big part of the move,” explains McCartney. “It entailed the Screws spread-eagling us over a mirror and kicking our legs out so we’d be crouched down and they would then examine our anuses.
“Nothing prepared you for that experience.”
As time went on, McCartney and his comrades would discuss the protest and ask what the next step would be.
And at that point it was apparent that that next step would be a hunger strike.
“Even during the protest we were very interested in education and learning more about Irish history so the prisoners in the Cages sent us down lectures. What struck us about the lectures about Irish history was that prison struggle was a constant and nearly every issue was resolved when the prisoners resorted to hunger strike.
“So unless the British had a major change of heart it was probably inevitable that the H-Blocks protest would end in a fast.”
1980 saw senior Catholic clergymen Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich and Bishop of Derry Edward Daly engage in a prolonged negotiation with the British Government in an attempt to resolve the protest.
When their efforts came to nothing the prisoners’ discussion turned to a hunger strike.
“The first part of the debate was to decide if it was the right political thing to do and how it would fit in strategically and tactically with our struggle.
“Would it enhance or detract from it?
“After we accepted that hunger strike was the only option left open to us, the next step was to find volunteers.
“When I volunteered I did so on the basis that I had the capabilities to see the hunger strike through. This was also after receiving a ‘comm’ [clandestine communication between prisoners and the republican leadership outside Long Kesh] that outlined the severe physical and psychological pressures I would meet in the course of the fast.
“I’ve always thought of how I made that decision and how my family were not part of the discussion.
“So at one level going on hunger strike for what you believe in and for your comrades is a very selfless act; at another level it can be very selfish as it excludes your family.”
After 38 days the seven Hunger Strikers were moved to the prison hospital where they were kept under close medical care as the men were clearly deteriorating.
As the men deteriorated, with the fast moving into its 50th day, efforts to resolve it intensified. Mediators were meeting the prisoners’ O/C, Brendan ‘The Dark’ Hughes more often.
For McCartney, the hope that an agreement would be reached was tempered by his distrust of the British.
“On December 18th, British Secretary of State Humphrey Atkins signalled he would make a major statement. We were also told that the British would issue a document that held the potential for a solution to the protest and an end to the Hunger Strike.
“When I was unlocked from my cell at 5.50pm, I was heading over to Leo Green, and ‘The Dark’ approached us and said: ‘The Hunger Strike is over.’”
The Dark said he was satisfied with the document. And with Seán McKenna on the point of death, McCartney believes The Dark made the right decision to call off the Hunger Strike.
“It was clear, almost immediately, that the prison administration and the NIO were determined to thwart the possibility of an agreement and were rowing back from the initial positive response to our decision to end the Hunger Strike.
“In the end, they refused to move and made the 1981 Hunger Strike a certainty - and are singularly responsible for the deaths of our ten friends and comrades.”