"We got nothing" by Thomas 'Dixie' Elliott

I often look back to the time I spent on the blanket protest and feel privileged that I had the honour of spending some of those dark and more often than not, cold and brutal days sharing a cell in the company of Tom McElwee and Bobby Sands. These patriots, like the other brave hunger strikers, dreamt that they would live to bear witness to the unity of the Irish people within the political framework of a thirty-two county socialist republic, and it was for that reason alone that they had been imprisoned. Having spoken to Tom and Bobby and other hunger strikers, I know that they also looked forward to getting out of Long Kesh after completing their sentences and returning to their families. Tragically, it was not to be.

The darkest of those days were the periods of the two hunger strikes and I clearly remember the night of 18 December 1980, when the first hunger strike ended, after Brendan ‘The Dark’ Hughes called it off in order to save Seán McKenna’s life. I was in the leadership wing with Bobby, Bik McFarlane and Richard O’Rawe at that time. Bobby had been to the prison hospital and I looked out the window of my cell and saw him alight from the prison van with shoulders hunched and I knew immediately that something wasn’t right. This was confirmed when he walked down the wing and told us: ‘Ní fhuaireomar faic,’ [we got nothing]. In fact the only thing coming from the British, and it was handed to Gerry Adams by Father Meagher in Belfast, was a document that wasn’t worth the paper it was written on and which would never had ended the hunger strike even had The Dark chosen to let Seán die and continue with the fast.

In regards to clothing and work, the most important of our five demands, the document stated: ’As soon as possible all prisoners will be issued with civilian-type clothing for wear during the working day’. We Blanketmen realised instantly that civilian-type clothing was nothing more than a modernised prison uniform and that Bobby had been spot-on when he told us ‘Ní fhuaireomar faic,’ out of the 1980 hunger strike. That being the case, why do Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, and others persist with the claim that the Brits reneged on a deal during the first hunger strike when that is demonstrably untrue? Even more perplexing was the fact that former hunger striker, Bernard Fox, recently supported this claim in an interview with the Irish News.

While I have the greatest respect for Bernard as a former comrade and republican, he nonetheless said something in his interview with profound implications:


I wasn’t in the hospital at that time [when Danny Morrison met the hunger strikers on 5 July 1981] and I don’t know what the men were told or not told but I do know there was no deal.

He is right, of course; there was no deal between the prisoners and the Brits in early July; had there been a deal, Bernard would not have had to go on hunger strike. But what is astonishing is that he had been on hunger strike for thirty-two days, yet Bernard says that no one had informed him about the Mountain Climber offer which Danny Morrison allegedly relayed to the hunger strikers on 5 July 1981. It goes without saying then that Bernard never set eyes on the Secretary of State, Humphrey Atkins’s statement that incorporated the offer, and which was to be released upon the hunger strike ending. That begs the question: how can Bernard reconcile being deliberately kept in ignorance about the potentially life-saving Mountain Climber offer, and still lend his unqualified support for those who took a decision to keep that knowledge from him?

Bernard said he was deeply distressed by allegations that a deal which could have ended the hunger strike was vetoed in order to maximise electoral support for Sinn Féin. I too am deeply distressed, but the more I looked into these claims the more I see that there was a lot more being discussed at the time than a resolution to the hunger strike. In a comm to Gerry Adams, dated 26.7.’81, reproduced on page 334 of Ten Men Dead, Bik talks about ‘examining the possibility of contesting elections and actually making full use of seats gained i.e. participating in the Dáil’. He continues: ‘Such an idea presents problems within the Movement. How great would the opposition be and what would be the consequences of pursuing a course which did not enjoy a sizeable degree of support?'

Then on August 20th the same day that Micky Devine died, Owen Carron retained Bobby’s Fermanagh/South Tyrone seat. Just three days later on August 23rd, Sinn Féin announced that in future it would contest all Northern Ireland elections. The Hunger Strikes ended on October the 3rd and on October 6th Prior implemented exactly what was on offer from July 5th.

On October 31st at the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis Danny Morrison gave his famous ballot box/armalite speech in which he addressed the issue of the party taking part in future elections.

This time-line can be viewed at CAIN: Issues: Abstentionism: Sinn Fein Ard Fheis 1-2 November 1986 - Chronology of Main Events

It shockingly appears that while men were dying and even when the Hunger Strike was still on-going that they were discussing and even pushing through electoralism.

Ah so the great sell-out continues. Stormont limos, homes in Donegal, etc.

How much more of this tripe (a.k.a. agenda threads) are we going to be subject to?

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CIRA / RIRA - Not in My Name!
An Ghaeilge - Join the Cultural Resistance ANOIS!

Go ahead and point out where blanketman Dixie Elliot mentions "Stormont limos, homes in Donegal" in his piece, slabber.

How long will you and your 'comrades' persist in your efforts to cover up the truth?

Awk ok then KatayuselessMI5tout your right, Maggie Thatcher (your hero) was a good aul soul at heart, and the IRA leaders were all terrible people who murdered their own.comrades. Poor aul Maggie has sleepless nights even yet about the IRA letting the hungerstrikers die. If only she'd went public with her offer in 1981, all them young men would have been saved from themselves and their terrible evil leaders!
Of course the leaders were all touts anyway, that's why they almost blow her and her government up in Brighton in 1984!!

Surely, the problem was not whether or not one takes part in elections and institutions, but whether one maintains strategic political independence from them ?

man is netitled to his opinion.....and so are the million odd others on the island who voted for the GFA

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amhran nua- a new tune, a new politics, for a new Ireland.


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Vote Liberal Democrats

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Roll up ! Roll up! For the Geat Hunger Striker Witch Hunt!

Pick Your Scapegoat Here!

1. Sean McKenna
2. Brendan Hughes
3. Gerry Adams and the Kitchen Cabinet
4. Bik McFarlane
5. Owen Carron
6. Fr Denis Faul
7. The families who intervened

And before I forget
8. Margaret Hilda Thatcher

__________________
CIRA / RIRA - Not in My Name!
An Ghaeilge - Join the Cultural Resistance ANOIS!

Dear little dishonest Picador, you did say:

Mention of the message and the fact that prisoners had discussed it was omitted from Ten Men Dead to prevent contemporary and future enemies of the emerging Adams-McGuinness leadership from making precisely the sort of accusations and insinuations that are being thrown around now

Your ridiculous posturing ever since, the above list being a prime example, cannot change what you wrote or indeed what happened. There is no point trying to return to the cover up when you have already blabbed. Open stable doors and bolted horses spring to mind.

Ní fuaireomar faic / We got nothing

So following the paean to Brendan Hughes posted the other day the attack, heavily veiled of course, begins. The words of dead are used against the dead. The rest of us are invited to draw conclusions. And if we do say anything too pointed about the ending of the first hunger strike we'll be howled down hysterically for maligning the dead.

__________________
CIRA / RIRA - Not in My Name!
An Ghaeilge - Join the Cultural Resistance ANOIS!

Kat the tout, you'e so funny.
I just hope you keep this up, haven't laughed so much since Jim Carey's film Liar Liar.