Special edition marking the 40th Anniversary of the 1981 Hunger Strike, with a new introduction by one of the hunger-strikers themselves, Laurence McKeown.
This is the story of one of the most remarkable prison protests in history, told by the prisoners themselves. The protest began when a new regime was imposed on political prisoners in the North of Ireland in 1976. For five years hundreds of Irish Republicans in Long Kesh prison endured deprivation and brutality. Then in 1981, ten of them died a slow and painful death on hunger strike. This book tells the inside story of those prisoners who refused to be treated as criminals. Using the account of men who lived through and survived those years of protest and hunger strike, it give a moving insight into why ten men gave their lives in pursuit of a political goal.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Glossary
The H-Block Song
Foreword by Bernadette McAliskey
Editors’ Introduction
Tribute to Brian Campbell 1960–2005
Introduction to 40th Anniversary Edition by Laurence McKeown
1. From Crumlin Road to the H-Blocks
2. Consolidation of the Protest
3. The No-Wash Phase Begins
4. Wing Shifts, Mirror Searches and Forced Washes
5. Craic and Camaraderie
6. Brutality and Resistance
7. The First Hunger Strike
8. Confusion, Frustration, Determination
9. The Second Hunger Strike Begins
10. A Time of Dying
11. “We could cry no more, curse no louder, pray no harder”
12. The Hunger Strike Ends
Epilogue
Format: 234x156mm, 288 pages, 36 photographs