Hunger strike 'truth' doesn't suit Sinn Fein
THERE is an instinctive cultural cringe in the unionist community when inquiries into recent history are mentioned. Many feel that their outcome is bound to be an exercise in republican propaganda, so the search for truth is best avoided.
The Maze stadium was opposed partly as a means of blocking parallel proposals to create a "conflict resolution centre" in the former prison. This was rejected as a "republican shrine" despite the opportunity to include the experiences of loyalist inmates and prison officers as well as the hunger strikers.
There were also civilians, like the Tiger's Bay milkman Eric Guiney, who were killed during the unrest. The easiest way to get a one sided-account is to leave remembrance of the hunger strike in the hands of Sinn Fein alone.
The value of seeking the truth was brought home last Saturday night when I joined the panel at an event called "What is the Truth Behind the Hunger Strike?", organised by the Republican Network for Unity, mainly made up of ex-prisoners. Other panellists included Richard O'Rawe, former PRO of the protesting prisoners in the Maze, and Brendan Duddy, the businessman who acted as go between for the IRA and the British Government for many years.
Duddy described receiving British messages, generally in phone calls from MI6, and handing them to "an IRA volunteer" who conveyed them to Gerry Adams. It was a vivid first hand testimony that is only possible now that the conflict is over.
The discussion focused on the days following July 4, 1981, when three hunger strikers had died and another, Joe McDonnell, had days to live. Bobby Sands had been elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone on a sympathy vote and Sinn Fein planned to field Owen Carron, a party member, in the by-election caused by Sands' death.
Since Sinn Fein's normal policy was not to contest elections, Carron would have to withdraw, and if he stood was unlikely to be elected, if the strike ended. The explosive question which O'Rawe raised was whether the protest was prolonged, with six more deaths in the jail and more on the streets, in order to get Carron elected.
The prisoners issued a statement on July 4 in which they dropped any mention of political status and instead asked for reforms in the prison regime which could apply to all inmates. Spotting a way out, Thatcher responded by activating her channel to the IRA through Duddy.
The authorised Sinn Fein account is that Thatcher would not commit herself and prevented a settlement. However, O'Rawe claims that on July 5 Brendan "Bik" McFarlane, the commander of the IRA prisoners, consulted him on a substantial offer in a conversation in Irish shouted from cell to cell.
O'Rawe says that he and McFarlane felt the offer was close enough to their proposals to end the strike and recommended acceptance but they were over ruled by an order from the IRA army council. McFarlane denied this account.
There the matter rested until I obtained documents under the Freedom of Information Act which showed that, far from being disinterested and implacable as Sinn Fein had claimed, Thatcher had attended midnight meetings on the issue and had agreed an offer which would be read out to the prisoners and made public if the IRA leadership accepted it.
At the meeting Duddy confirmed that he had passed on the message I produced and that it had been rejected by the IRA.
Later another former Blanketman, Gerard Clarke, spoke from the audience to say that, after a great deal of soul searching, he had decided to speak out. He had been in an adjoining cell and had overheard the conversation. He confirmed O’Rawe’s account and believed that most prisoners would have accepted the offer.
A hunger striker, Gerard Hodgins, said that he had never been informed of what was on offer and former leaders of the IRSP and INLA, three of whose prisoners had died, said that their members had not been informed. In speeches heavy with emotion and regret, they told how hunger strikers had died believing the situation was hopeless. They made it clear that they would have recommended acceptance of the offer if they had known of it.
Unionists can’t count on every examination of recent history playing against Sinn Fein. In some instances the republican account will be justified, but we will be healthier as a society if we can seek the facts as honestly as possible.
As Einstein put it “The search for truth is more precious than its possession”.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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