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Marmora Man Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> It's worthy of note that, 30 year papers have

> revealed, that the UK gov't at the time of the

> hunger strikes was making overtures to address

> some of IRA demand in order to allow the IRA to

> call off the hunger strikes - these were rejected

> by the IRA. I assume as they preferred to have

> martyrs for a cause that a negotiated concession

> to their demands.


This is accurate to some extent.


In fact the pre 1969 rank and file were constantly expressing doubt about the effectiveness of the hunger strikes for such narrow objectives.

Thatcher was steadfast because the IRA broke her heart with Airey Neave. There was no meaningful negotiation with the hunger strikers (MM ? ). There was an offer which was patronising to the prisioners. They gave their lives for something better.


Living in London I respect Thatcher enormously for turning the country from backward to.forward. But in northern ireland she divided a people that were already divided. Other people stepped in afterwards and made a difference. Thatcher was too stubborn to solve Ireland.

According to Wikipedia, the demands by the hunger strikers were:


1) the right not to wear a prison uniform;

2) the right not to do prison work;

3) the right of free association with other prisoners, and to organise educational and recreational pursuits;

4) the right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week;

5) full restoration of remission lost through the protest.


Really? Surely there was more to it than just this?

These guys were involved in an armed campaign that involved the mass slaughter of innocent citizens in the name of crimes committed centuries earlier and persistent social injustices.


Whatever they may have claimed, I doubt that they were just having a moan over not being able to wear jeans.

I thought it was over political prisioner status similar to rights of POW as opposed to criminal status. This was something Thatcher would not bend on. They refused to wear prison clothes or slop out. They then died for what they believed. Thatcher did what she thought was right. Not surprisingly she made things worse in the long term. She soon signed the Anglo Irish agreement to solve things in the long term as she had had enough grief from the whole Ireland issue.

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