Ex-IRA hunger striker criticises 'celebrations'

Belfast Telegraph

Ex-IRA hunger striker criticises 'celebrations'

By Tom Peterkin

7 October 2006

While mainly Protestant victims of the Troubles were remembered at the Queen's final review of the Royal Irish Regiment, a warning against glamorising the IRA's campaign came from the opposite side of the religious divide.

Brendan Hughes, a former hunger striker and the leader of the IRA prisoners in the Maze [Long Kesh] in the early 1980s, revealed the physical and mental anguish caused by the prison protests in an interview with the Irish News.

He said hundreds of republicans were now wrestling with alcoholism, depression and other mental problems. Some had difficulty holding down jobs and relationships.

Hughes, 58, has recently undergone an eye operation to try to save his sight, which was damaged by his 52 days of starvation in the Maze [Long Kesh].

Hughes, who led and called off the first hunger strike, argued against the second hunger strike that led to the death of Bobby Sands. "Bobby knew he would die but he thought his own death would be enough to force the Brits into a settlement. We know now that was not to be the case and 10 men were to lose their lives," he said.

He went on to criticise this year's celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the hunger strikes, regarded as a seminal moment in Sinn Fein/IRA history. "There are men still suffering in silence today. The recent commemoration events to mark the 25th anniversary of the hunger strike did not even touch on that legacy," he said.

"Painting murals on walls to commemorate blanketmen after they have died a slow and lonely death from alcohol abuse is no use to anyone.

"I would hate for young people now to have this romanticised version of the events of that time and what went on in the prison. The truth is so very far removed from that and I suppose I'm living proof of that."