28 March 1981 – Fermanagh/South Tyrone by-election dramatic spotlight for H-Block campaign

THE dramatic spotlight thrown on the H-Block Hunger Strike by the moves from the nationalist side in the Fermanagh/South Tyrone by-election provides a dynamic opportunity for campaigners on behalf of the prisoners to keep the Hunger Strike at the centre of attention in the immediate future.

Whether Monday’s deadline for nominations passes with or without the candidature of Hunger Striker Bobby Sands, the dominant position of the Hunger Strike in the campaign of the nationalist side has been truly established and will be kept there.

Last weekend, the National H-Block/Armagh Committee rightly complained of a “deliberate policy of censorship in British Government circles to try to ensure that this Hunger Strike does not envelop the entire community as the last one did”.

The Committee statement continued:

“This self-imposed silence has . . . gripped virtually every layer of Irish society with it being most dramatically illustrated by the lack of press coverage of the Hunger Strike in this country.”

The events of this weekend, as the H-Block Hunger Strike enters its fifth week, give a golden opportunity to end this silence once and for all and to raise up a loud cry of anger from the Irish people which will echo not only through the corridors of Westminster and Leinster House but reverberate around the world.

That is the extent of the work necessary from H-Block/Armagh campaigners to save the lives of the Hunger Strikers, to gain the demands of the prisoners, and to complement the heroic personal sacrifices that the men and women in the H-Blocks and Armagh are making on our behalf.

The Fermanagh/South Tyrone by-election, taking place on Thursday 9 April, means that the maximum immediate action is necessary to keep the Hunger Strike as the issue beyond all else on the nationalist side. Only those campaigning on behalf of the prisoners will ensure that it is.

Other militant actions have been planned and announced by the National Committee, including the Census burning in the North on Sunday 5 April; a National Day of Action on Wednesday 15 April; Six-County-wide road-blocks on Friday 17 April; and an International Day of Action on the following day. Interspersed with these are nationwide local and provincial rallies with a national rally planned for Dublin on Saturday 18 April to display the strength of the Irish people on the streets.

The Fermanagh/South Tyrone by-election is an immediate focus of action. But there must be continuous and urgent work in all those areas which have been so often pinpointed as so vital to success – campaigning in the trade unions, action directed at establishment politicians, the stimulation of international support, tapping the strength and willingness of youth, getting on the streets, and so on.

The support is there, the work necessary to build it has been laid out. The time to do it is now.