In Dublin's Mountjoy jail, Ashe went treated as a prisoner-of-war. He died five A crowd of 30,000 people followed triumph.' Terence McSweeny was elected as Lord Mayor of Cork, standing on the platform of complete Irish freedom from Britain. He was arrested at a council meeting in August 1920, and tried in a military court on a charge of 'being in possession of documents the publication of which would be likely to cause disaffection to McSweeny refused to recognise the right of the court to even exist in Ireland When convicted he went on hunger strike. He was transported to Brixton prison in London where, after 74 days on, hunger strike, he died Terence McSweeny left these words:
'The contest on our side is not one of rivalry or vengeance, but of endurance. It is not those who can inflict the most but those who can suffer the most who will conquer.... It is conceivable that the army of occupation could stop our functioning for a time. Then it becomes simply a question of endurance. Those whose faith is strong will endure to the end in
LEWISCER
munster GEOFF BELL examines developments and outlines why the Blocks of Long Kesh are just a recent addition to a larger prison whose population has been guarded and brutalised for generations. The name of that larger prison is Ireland.
Terence McSweeney The partition of Ireland resulted in a northern Irish state in which the Catholic population was consciously discriminated against because of its political opposition to the existence of that state.
In 1968 a civil rights movement took to the streets, demanding an end to all discrimination. The Unionist regime in the north of Ireland attempted to repress it, and then buy it off with a few partial reforms.
All this failed. And when in 1969 the Catholic working class in Derry defeated the north of Ireland police after four days of rioting, the British army was sent in.
The demands for civil rights were answered in 1971 by the internment without trial of opponents of the Unionist regime, and in 1972 by the shooting dead of 14 anti-internment demonstrators. Such actions emphasised that, once more, Britain was at war in In May 1972 veteran Republican Billy north of Ireland should be treated as prisoners of war.
allowed to wear their own clothes, these tion.
by 70 Republican and 40 Loyalist prisoners. the tension'.
Over 3,000 have died in the north of Ireland in the latest eruption of the British/Irish conflict.
Ireland. Their leading adversary is the Provisional IRA, which a leaked top.
war to raise violence intermittently....
cient to maintain secure bases in the traditional Republican areas.
is the violence inflicted upon the Amnesty International. of Ireland's Catholic community, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, similar sentiments when he said: 'the better'.
munity.
McKee led a hunger strike in Belfast's Crumlin Road jail in support of the demand that all political prisoners in the This involved the prisoners being refrain from prison work, mix freely, and organise their own education and recreaAt its peak, the strike was supported In the Catholic working class areas of Belfast there were mass rallies and some rioting in support of the prisoners. After just over a month the Tory government gave in and granted all the prisoners' demands. The government explained that its change of attitude was to 'relieve On one side is the British government, backed up by self-styled 'Loyalists' who continue to defend the partition of secret British Army document admitted in 1979 'has the dedication and sinews of For the foreseeable future... the movement will retain popular support suffidemands.
One reason for such 'popular support' Catholic community by the British Army and other security forces. An aspect of that violence is the treatment handed out to Republicans while they are in police or prison custody. Such methods of 'interrogation' have been denounced by the European Commission of Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights and THEY MURDER THE INNOCENT IN VENCEANCE The main political party in the north now calls for British withdrawal. So, too, does the present Irish government. At a fringe meeting during the 1980 Labour Party conference Tony Benn expressed sooner we withdraw from Ireland, the The 'special category status', granted by the Tories in 1972, was abolished by the Labour government in 1976. The change was part of the British government's attempt to portray Irish Republicans as 'criminals', and was accompanied by increased repression of the Catholic comBut although the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Roy Mason, could boast in 1977 that 'the net is closing on the terrorists', the net did not close.
The British authorities became increasingly desperate, 'confessions' were beaten out of prisoners, who were then tried in juryless courts.
Sean McKenna on hunger strike now When convicted by such a warped system of justice many Republicans refused to accept the new 'criminal' status imposed on them. They declined to wear prison uniforms and instead were offered nothing but a blanket to wrap around them.
After four long years the prisoners took what they felt was the last step open to them in their campaign to be recognised as prisoners of war: they went on hunger strike. On the eve of that strike, 25,000 people demonstrated in Belfast in support of the prisoners' The 1980 hunger strikers declared: 'While the Irish nation remains unfree, partitioned, and at war with an alien government, torture in the prisons and oppression on the streets will always exist'.
Such words are not mere rhetoric. The hunger strikers mentioned here are just a few of many. The conflicts mentioned here are only a few examples of the consequences of the British occupation of Ireland.
There will be no peace in Ireland while that occupation exists. No guarantee can be given that as soon as Britain leaves there will be immediate peace, instant Irish unity, or the automatic coming-together of the Irish working class.
But what can be said is that none of these will occur until Britain leaves Ireland. Accordingly, building a mass movement around the demand for the immediate British withdrawal from Ireland is the best contribution that can be made to the cause of Irish peace, and working class unity.
Socialist Challenge 13 November 1980 Page 9
Socialist Challenge News
----- pull-quotes -----
The hunger strike, 1972
The hunger strike, 1980