Mad Morrigan
Apparel™ army green t-shirt with
designs on front chest of a Harp circled in
barbed wire with the harp strings resembling
prison bars.
Around Harp and barbed wire graphic is the
Irish Gaelic Phrase;
"Riamh nár dhruid ó spairn
lann."
Translation; "Those who do not flee
from the clash of spears"
Back design with the poem;
But I will wear no convict's
uniform,
Nor meekly serve my time,
That britain may call Ireland's fight,
Eight hundred years of crime.
Numbered in Irish the details of the 10
Extremely Brave Hunger Strikers name, date
and age at death, and length of fast
duration.
In 1981, ten men
sacrificed their lives for the freedoms
of many; in a hunger strike at the
H-Blocks of Long Kesh Prison, Occupied
North of Ireland. One by one, ten young
men embarked on the agonizing protest of
hunger strike until death to secure the
basic human rights and dignity of
Political Status for all Irish
Republican Political Prisoners.
Earlier efforts at obtaining Political Status
had met with unfulfilled promises from the
British government. A Blanket Protest and
No-Wash Protest, followed by the unimaginably
difficult Dirty Protest, had galvanized the
male and female Republican prisoners for five
long years but had resulted in no real gains
toward Political Status. A decision was made
by the prisoners to Hunger Strike.
Their Five Demands were:
• The right not to wear a
prisoner uniform
• The right to free association with
Republican political prisoners
• The right as political prisoners not to do
prison work
• The right to organize their own educational
and recreational facilities
• The right to one weekly visit, letter and
parcel
On March 1, 1981, Bobby Sands refused food;
five years to the day of the revoking of
Special Category Status, which had ended
Political Status for Irish Republican
prisoners in 1976. On March 15 Francis Hughes
began refusing food, followed by Raymond
McCreesh and Patsy O'Hara on March 22nd. On
April 9, a dying Bobby Sands was elected to
Parliament for the district of Fermanagh. Joe
McDonnell began refusing food on May 8; three
days after Bobby Sands' death. He was
followed by Kieran Doherty on May 22nd and
Martin Hurson on May 28th. Kevin Lynch,
Kieran Doherty, Thomas McElwee, and Michael
Devine joined the Hunger Strikes in stages
shortly thereafter.
And one by one they died; with no reaction
whatsoever from the British government.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
would only say "Murder is Murder"; a
hypocrisy in itself from a woman who
authorized a Shoot-to-Kill policy against
innocent Irish civilians and would let ten
young men, including an elected member of her
own Parliament, die of starvation in her own
jails.
Nationalist population of Ireland became
clear when Bobby Sands was elected a Member
of Parliament (MP) during a by-election for
the Fermanagh / South Tyrone seat and two
other hunger strikers were elected as Teachta
Dáil (TDs) in a general election in the
Republic of Ireland.
Outrage over the deaths swept the globe. One
hundred thousand mourners attended Bobby
Sands funeral in Belfast, and riots were
sparked across Ireland. In Dublin, protesters
nearly succeeded in burning the British
Embassy to the ground. Massive marches in
support of the prisoners were held in Mexico,
Spain, Britain and the United States. In the
U.S. protests were staged in front of British
embassies lasting the duration of the hunger
strikes.
Facing mounting pressure and the condemnation
of the world, the British government finally
agreed to a series of the prisoners' demands,
and on October 3rd, 1981, the Hunger Strikes
were finally called off. At that time six
more prisoners still remained on Hunger
Strike, prepared to die if necessary. The
five-years-long Blanket protests were ended a
few days later.
Won with the blood of ten Irish men,
Political Status was finally restored to
Irish Republican political
prisoners.
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