On this day in 1981 – Thomas McElwee, Irish political prisoner, dies on the sixty-second day of his hunger strike in Long Kesh Prison.

Fuair siad bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann.(
They died for Irish Independence)

The tenth republican to join the hunger strike was twenty-three-year-old IRA Volunteer Thomas McElwee, from Bellaghy in South Derry. He had been imprisoned since December 1976.

He was a first cousin of Francis Hughes, who died after fifty-nine days on hunger strike, on 12th May.

Thomas McElwee died at 11.30 a.m. on Saturday, 8th August. Indicative of the callousness of the British government towards prisoners and their families alike neither had the comfort of each other’s presence at that tragic moment. He died after 62 days of slow agonising hunger strike with no company other than prison gaurds.

The 1981 hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during The conflict by Irish republican prisoners in the North of Ireland. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976, when the British government withdrew Special Category Status for convicted paramilitary prisoners. In 1978, the dispute escalated into the dirty protest, where prisoners refused to leave their cells to wash and covered the walls of their cells with excrement. In 1980, seven prisoners participated in the first hunger strike, which ended after 53 days.

The hunger strike took place in 1981 and was a showdown between the prisoners and the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. One hunger striker, Bobby Sands, was elected as a member of parliament during the strike, prompting media interest from around the world. The strike was called off after ten prisoners had starved themselves to death—including Sands, whose funeral was attended by 100,000 people. The strike radicalised Irish nationalist politics, and was the driving force that enabled Sinn Féin to become a mainstream political party.

In the midst of the 1981 Hunger Strike, Margaret Thatcher lobbied the Catholic church to declare the prisoner's actions to be a form of suicide and so a 'mortal sin'. Pope John Paul ordered his emissary to Ireland to present the Hunger Strikers with golden crucifixes on his behalf, to comfort them during their ordeal.

A clear if subtle rebuff to Thatchers cynical attempts to destroy the morale of these brave men.

Thanks for sharing. Tiocfaidh ar la.

No worries, a sad day..