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Date Posted: 11:07:00 08/12/10 Thu
Author: celtgirl
Subject: Inside>>>
In reply to: celtgirl 's message, "Lisa and anyone else who cares to read this wee bit, this is a prologue of sorts that I wrote to open a long piece of writing that will maybe find its way into the last book- anyway it might explain a wee bit about the hunger strikes. I'll put it inside the first reply." on 11:04:37 08/12/10 Thu

copyright 2010 Cindy Brandner

On the first day of March in the year 1981 an ordinary young man by the name of Robert Sands, a prisoner in the infamous ‘H’ blocks of Long Kesh prison, began a hunger strike to protest the criminalization of Irish political prisoners. He would be followed by nine of his fellow inmates. Their demands were simple and numbered only five.

None of these men were convicted after trial in due process of law. They were tried by single judge courts without any juries. As they were not tried under the ordinary processes of the law, these men were asking for special category status. Historically Britain had acknowledged the special status of Irish Republican prisoners convicted of political crimes. In 1975, despite the continued presence of British soldiers on Irish soil, the British government decided to revoke this special status for Republican prisoners.

When these men began their fast they were invoking an ancient Irish weapon called Cealachan- achieving justice by starvation- which had its roots in the Senchus Mor, the civil code of medieval Ireland.

On March 1st, 1981 the world began a death-watch, both horrified and fascinated by the spectacle of ten men willing their own deaths in the face of an indifferent government and seemingly implacable odds.

Ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances.

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