Jump to content

Recommended Posts

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.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • Lloyd Weber and Cilla Black were supposed to leave when Blair got in, but didn't
    • You can't have zero tolerance unless you live in a fascist/police state.  Sadly it is something you have to accept in a democracy.  There has always been crime, even in North Korea, the Soviet bloc, Nazi Germany, Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge etc.   The discussion point is how big a police force we need and capabilities, punishment, and building communities.  And how much we are prepared to pay in extra taxation. Even in the good (economic) times there is crime.  And crime under both Labour and Tory governments. I do not accept that phone thefts and parcel thefts are just statistics.  Police have to prioritise what they do, we might not agree with it.  And most criminals are multi-tasking, moving to where the best return is considering the risk of being caught. And there has to be a market, someone somewhere needs to buy a stolen product (I never buy off Gumtree). A starting point would be to decriminalise all illegal drugs, but that is definitely for a separate Lounge conversation, interesting discussion paper here: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/105520/1/A. Stevens - In defence of the decriminalisation of drug possession in the uk - PPDF.pdf Did you watch any of the series of Peaky Blinders?  This was a very popular series that glorified gang crime and violence.  Funny (ironic) that may enjoy films and TV that does this.  Although only the first series had any historical accuracy in it,  Criminal gangs were around before and ever since.    
    • Ah the oldest cliche in the book   ”I would leave if…”   but you wouldn’t leave if farage was prime minister ?
    • It seems we have to accept a certain level of crime as normal now… phone thefts, car thefts, parcels stolen from doorsteps…. they are just recorded as statistics.  When it’s invasive ( numerous home invasions in my street recently), one reported on the forum recently, Evri delivery had his car stolen, the man attacked in PRP a couple of weeks ago, reports of violent and threatening youths also in PRP… it goes on and on.  And now this poor woman brutally assaulted in daylight on a busy street. NONE of this is acceptable. There should be ZERO tolerance for such criminal acts. There is no denying the police have too much to deal with and not enough resources. It’s disgusting. It’s a misappropriation of public funds. More should be invested on our police force.
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...