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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction: Everyone Has a Part to Play
- 1 Prison Protests and Broad Fronts (1972–1975)
- 2 Lean Days and Uphill Battles (1976–1977)
- 3 Steps in the Right Direction (1978–1979)
- 4 Building the Campaign (1980)
- 5 Hunger Strike (October–December 1980)
- 6 Bobby Sands MP (January–April 1981)
- 7 Ten Men Dead (May–October 1981)
- 8 A Quiet and Uneventful End (October 1981–October 1982)
- Conclusion: Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - A Quiet and Uneventful End (October 1981–October 1982)
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction: Everyone Has a Part to Play
- 1 Prison Protests and Broad Fronts (1972–1975)
- 2 Lean Days and Uphill Battles (1976–1977)
- 3 Steps in the Right Direction (1978–1979)
- 4 Building the Campaign (1980)
- 5 Hunger Strike (October–December 1980)
- 6 Bobby Sands MP (January–April 1981)
- 7 Ten Men Dead (May–October 1981)
- 8 A Quiet and Uneventful End (October 1981–October 1982)
- Conclusion: Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
After the hunger strike no real attempt was made to maintain the united activity of the anti-imperialist movement. The disunity and fragmentation that followed this marked a setback – time lost to the anti-imperialist movement and time gained from British imperialism.
People's Democracy (1982)The men of the H-Blocks formally ended their hunger strike protest on Saturday, 3 October 1981; it had lasted a gruelling 217 days. According to Richard O'Rawe, the remaining hunger strikers were ordered to end their fasts by the IRA's Army Council. The date and time this happened was deliberately chosen ‘because the Sunday papers would have already gone to press and there would be a two-day gap to temper the expected triumphalism of the British gutter press’. In a very narrow sense, it appeared as though the prisoners had lost – none of their demands had been met. Nevertheless, it proved to be a Pyrrhic victory for the British government.
Accompanying the end of the hunger strikes was a lengthy statement, penned by O'Rawe himself. As he put it: ‘After giving a chronology of the events that had occurred during the hunger strike, I keelhauled the Catholic Church, the SDLP and the Dublin government for letting down our fallen comrades.’ The anger and bitterness in his words accurately captured the mood in the prison. It also captured the mood among many of the anti-H-Block activists on the streets.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Smashing H-BlockThe Popular Campaign against Criminalization and the Irish Hunger Strikes 1976–1982, pp. 157 - 173Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2011