British ‘had no intention of resolving the hunger strike’
Thursday, 4 June 2009
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The IRA jail leader during the 1981 hunger strike today said the British Government never had any intention of resolving the notorious prison dispute in which 10 men starved to death.
Brendan ‘Bic’ McFarlane accused the then Thatcher Government of trying to resolve the prison protest “on their terms” while attempting to “wreck” the IRA in the process.
McFarlane, speaking in an exclusive interview for the Belfast Telegraph, again dismissed claims that he accepted an offer secretly communicated by the British that summer, but was overruled by the Army Council on the outside.
The suggestion first emerged in the controversial book Blanketmen — written by former prisoner Richard O’Rawe, who was part of the IRA jail leadership in 1981.
A British offer on the prisoners’ demands was communicated in the summer of that year through a secret contact channel which was codenamed Mountain Climber.
And, on Sunday, July 5, the senior republican Danny Morrison was allowed into the Maze to separately brief McFarlane and the hunger strikers.
“Something was going down,” McFarlane said.
“And I said to Richard (O’Rawe) this is amazing, this is a huge opportunity and I feel there’s a potential here (in the Mountain Climber process) to end this.”
But he said he also made clear that more was needed — that the British had to “expand the offer, and they need to go into the prison hospital”.
McFarlane said this was key — that the Government detail its offer directly to the hunger strikers.
“They (the hunger strikers) were at pains to say the Brits need to come forward,” he said.
“They need to expand on it (the offer),” he continued, “and stand over it?and it needed to be underwritten in whatever shape, form or fashion the British chose to do that. It needed to be confirmed,” he said.
McFarlane said at the time this had also been made clear to the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace.
“They (the Commission) went directly to the British and urged them to send someone in,” McFarlane continued.
“The British indicated clearly that they were sending someone in?and it didn’t happen.
Looking back at the events of 1981, McFarlane said: “It seems very clear that they didn’t have an intention to resolve it to an acceptable degree — that we felt was acceptable.
“They were going to resolve it on their terms and wreck us in the process,” he said.
McFarlane: Key Dates
1951 – born Belfast.
1968 – left Belfast to train as a priest.
1970 – left seminary in Wales and later joined IRA.
1976 – life sentence for gun and bomb attack on Bayardo Bar in Belfast (August 1975, five killed).
1981 – IRA jail leader during hunger strike. Ten men died (7 IRA, 3 INLA).
1983 – he escaped from the Maze in IRA breakout.
1986 – re-arrested in Amsterdam, extradited and returned to Maze Prison.
1998 – release papers signed January 5.
Now – Sinn Fein party activist based in north Belfast
My crucial discussion with the Maze strikers
When Brendan McFarlane met Danny Morrison in the jail that Sunday afternoon in July 1981, four hunger strikers were dead and another Joe McDonnell “was in an appalling state”.
The jail leader knew that Morrison’s presence meant something was happening.
For months — since the first hunger strike of 1980 — he had been banned from the jail, and, now, on a Sunday when there were no visits the prison gates had opened for him.
The man from the outside was allowed in to explain the Mountain Climber contacts and the offer the British had communicated.
And the fact that the British were in contact — albeit through a conduit now known to be the Derry businessman Brendan Duddy — was progress.
After meeting Morrison, McFarlane met the hunger strikers.
“We went through it step by step,” he said. “The hunger strikers themselves said: OK the Brits are prepared to do business — possibly, but what is detailed, or what has been outlined here isn’t enough to conclude the hunger strike.
“And they said to me, what do I think?
“And I said I concur with your analysis — fair enough — but you need to make your minds up,” he continued.
The hunger strikers, according to both McFarlane and Morrison wanted the British to send someone into the prison.
McFarlane continued: “Something had to be written down. Something had to be produced to the hunger strikers, even to the extent that the Brits were saying, there it is, nothing more, take it or leave it, and that’s the way the lads wanted clarity on this.
“We were never given a piece of paper,” he added.
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Comments
25 Comments
Maura Clarke says "The IRA Volunteers died to show the British that Irish Men were NO LONGER willing to live under the thumb of the "OPRESSOR" in their own land "IRELAND". " Actually Maura, Get your facts right. They were in NORTHERN IRELAND which is STILL BRITISH soil. Remember, the whole island of Ireland USED to be British, then the republic left, Northern Ireland remained as the same part of Britain it ALWAYS was and WILL be.
Posted by Ulster Scot | 06.06.09, 20:48 GMT
I discovered the BT about 3 months ago and responded to a Unionist banging on about being "forced" into a United Ireland. I know NOBODY in the Republic who thinks about NI now that Catholics have equality there.
Young Ireland is focused on the great emerging European family, confident in who and what we are.
I wish every success to those of you trying to heal NI, split almost into two halves.You have more than enough problems, as I've learned, so I'll not write again.
Slan
Thank you BT !
Posted by Patrick | 06.06.09, 02:10 GMT
Patrick,
if it was a war the republican side systematically broke ever code in the Geneva convention (repeatedly)
If it was a war then republicans are more than criminals, they are war criminals. which do you prefer ?
Posted by kookamunga | 05.06.09, 16:32 GMT
Patrick, do you think before posing such questions? The Allies won the WAR and did not consider or treat the Axis soldiers as terrorists. Had the opposite happened the Axis powers may well have thought the same, who knows. The treatment of SOLDIERS during WARTIME with the associated rules of engagement is not comparable to your apparent support of murderers. Are you also a supporter of Al-Qaeda or are you more discernable in your appreciation of killers?
Support those who use words not guns
Posted by Nate | 05.06.09, 16:19 GMT
Patrick,
Soldiers sailors and airmen of the western world are bound by democratic accountability. The airmen over Dresden were acting on the orders of a government that would ultimately be held to account by the people and were not acting on their own. Soldiers in action are still subject to the rule of law.
The IRA (UDA, inla uvf and all the other scum) have no such accountability. They are just gangs serving their own agenda.
Posted by SteveW | 05.06.09, 15:20 GMT
Patrick, the troubles in NI were not a war in the same sense as WW1 & 2.
Britain defended itself and other countries against a foreign government. Unlike the IRA the British never set out to target non-combatants. The IRA acted as terrorists, deliberately targetting innocents including children. Your defence of them sickens me to the core as does your attempt to compare their actions with those who fought against a regime which held human life in the same regard as the IRA cowards you admire.
Posted by Appalled | 05.06.09, 15:14 GMT
To be fair Patrick is on the nail, although the Dresden example cant be used if no one was decorated. The US, European nations, with their empire building in the past and their military power now, and many others have terrorised the world for financial gain and to the detrement of the weak. Its appalling what you keep finding out in life, like this week we/Britain/whatever put up concentration camps in Africa AFTER WW2! To use/threaten to use, violence or death IS terrorism. IRA werent soldiers.
Posted by soarer | 05.06.09, 14:47 GMT
Nate - Many bomber crews were decorated in WW2 as I'm sure you know very well. Had Hitler won the war would those opposing him be terrorists ? Answer please, but take off the blinkers first. Fact ordinary people in NI were driven to take up arms due to injustice - common globally.
Soarer - these men volunteered to hunger strike, and could have stopped at any time. Time to move on indeed, into the great European family. Care to discuss this in Irish French or German with me ? Bring it on.
Posted by Patrick | 05.06.09, 14:33 GMT
Patrick, really that is not a rational question, why ask it, why make yourself out a fool.
what did the hunger strikers do, one of their most infamous blew up a sofa shop, what was he fighting his war on sofa's, comfortable chairs made by the brits.
come on man, your childish arguing will not convince anyone, there is no room for romanticised immature views on terrorism.
Posted by Mihe | 05.06.09, 14:18 GMT
Patrick, can you point out which individuals were decorated for Dresden-I can't find any? Perhaps you cannot differentiate between two countries declaring war upon each other and murderers cowardly killing innocents without discrimination? Perhaps you are also an ardent supporter of suicide? Fair enough, allow people to take that action, as long as nobody else is affected/murdered.
Thankfully people with your blinkered mindset are in the minority and getting fewer by the day.
Posted by Nate | 05.06.09, 13:51 GMT
If people were prepared to 'die for the cause' then surely they would have employed suicide bomber tactics to instill a higher degree of fear and uncertainty? It is not in our psyche to die for causes. No multitude of virgins for us when we go. They didn't want to die for any cause. They may have had beliefs, and fate and circumstance may have led them on their path to prison but ultimately they were forced into a corner by the IRA leadership- a corner they could not get out of. Time to move on.
Posted by soarer | 05.06.09, 13:36 GMT
Would someone explain to me why an Irishman or woman (or eg a Palestinian etc) ready to die for justice in his own country is a terrorist, but someone dropping bombs from 5,000metres (eg Dresden) in 1945 on old men women and children is a "hero" and is decorated for bravery ?
Rational answers please.
Slan go foill.
Posted by Patrick | 05.06.09, 08:25 GMT
I just wish more terrorists from both sides had went on hunger strike to the death. They were and still are a cancer in our society and i will never shed a tear for the death of any of them. they bombed shot and killed thousands on their so called quest for freedom.Freedom from what and from whom.Did they ever stop to think of what they deprived the victims of with their terrorist onslaught? I dont believe they ever did and i will always believe the only good terrorist is a dead one!
Posted by Jim Bennett | 04.06.09, 22:57 GMT
Unimpressed by this article;precious little analysis; just stenography-journalism. Derry public meeting on this issue massively refutes "spin" of G Adams and D Morrison against Richard O'Rawe and his book, Anthony McIntyre etc. Latest detailed postings/video on Slugger expose hypocrisy of Adams and SF "leadership". Obvious that a deal was there for the taking but Adams and Morrison wd rather keep blaming the Brits. Just not credible any more. The truth too uncomfortable for Adams/Morrison
Posted by Omar | 04.06.09, 21:56 GMT
when did the ira ever care about their people? OR anyone else? It is time for these people to be brought to book.
Posted by willeric | 04.06.09, 20:38 GMT
All the hunger strikers were fully grown adults who knew what starving themselves would lead to. How come its the government of the times fault that these men died?
Posted by Homer | 04.06.09, 20:17 GMT
The IRA Volunteers died to show the British that Irish Men were NO LONGER willing to live under the thumb of the "OPRESSOR" in their own land "IRELAND". God Bless them one and all! They fought and died, they feared not the "Terrorist" who butchered and murdered the Irish for hundreds of years. The British should have been saying to the Hunger-strikers and the IRA, (Tell us what we can do to show our heartfelt sympathy for the atrocities perpetrated on your people over the years)
Posted by Maura Clarke | 04.06.09, 20:04 GMT
It was their choice - fall guys, and therefore fools, of the IRA leadership!
Posted by robbo | 04.06.09, 18:33 GMT
Looks like a unaninmous lack of sympathy for the members of a murderous organistion who killed themselves . I would like to add myself to that list regardless of revisionist, inaccurate protrayals of events in the media.
Posted by Gary | 04.06.09, 17:23 GMT
To the posters below there - there would have been no IRA if the Unionist regime, for fifty years, had treated the Catholic community with respect. There was no discrimination in jobs and housing then? No Catholics had to emigrate to find a job then? This was a deliberate population control of the Nationalist population so that the Junta in Stormont could stay in control - and guess what? they are no longer in control, like the Communist regimes of old. Goodbye, enjoy your retirement!
Posted by Patrick | 04.06.09, 17:11 GMT
25 Comments