#OTD in 1981 – Thomas McElwee began his hunger strike in the H Blocks of Long Kesh prison.

08/06/2019.Reading time 1 minute.

Fuair siad bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann. 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, following a premature explosion in which he lost an eye. He was a first cousin of Francis Hughes, who died after […]

#OTD in 1956 – Birth of Kevin Lynch, an Irish Republican hunger striker and member of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) from Park near Dungiven, Co Derry.

25/05/2019.Reading time 1 minute.

Fuair siad bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann. Kevin Lynch was a republican hunger striker and member of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) from Park near Dungiven, Co Derry. The Dungiven Hurling team was renamed Kevin Lynch’s Hurling Club in his honour after his death. Lynch’s older brother, Frank, was an amateur boxer and he also […]

#OTD in Irish History – 22 May:

22/05/2019.Reading time 9 minutes.

1748 – Birth of landscape painter, Thomas Roberts in Co Waterford. 1805 – Michael Doheny, poet and Young Irelander, is born near Fethard, Co Tipperary. 1849 – Novelist, Maria Edgeworth, dies in Mostrim, Co Longford. She is laid to rest in a vault at Edgeworthstown Church. Even though in her late seventies, she worked strenuously […]

#OTD in 1981 – At 2:11 am, Raymond McCreesh dies on hunger strike in the H Blocks of Long Kesh Prison. Later, the same day at 11:29 pm, he is joined in death by his friend and fellow hunger-striker, Patsy O’Hara.

21/05/2019.Reading time 1 minute.

The third of the resolutely determined IRA Volunteers to join the H-Block hunger strike for political status was twenty-four-year-old Raymond McCreesh, from Camlough in South Armagh: a quiet, shy and good-humoured republican, who although captured at the early age of nineteen, along with two other Volunteers in a British army ambush, had already almost three […]

#OTD in 1981 – Francis Hughes, Irish political prisoner, dies on hunger strike in Long Kesh Prison.

12/05/2019.Reading time 1 minute.

Fuair siad bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann! The death of Francis Hughes at the age of 25 after a 59 day hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh. Hughes was such an effective guerrilla fighter that British authorities at one stage named him as the most wanted man in the north of Ireland. […]

#OTD in 1981 – Joe McDonnell begins his hunger strike at the H Blocks in Long Kesh prison.

08/05/2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

Fuair siad bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann. McDonnell was born on Slate Street in the Falls Road of west Belfast on 14 Sept 1951, and was the fifth of 10 children and went to a nearby Roman Catholic school. McDonnell was arrested in Operation Demetrius and interned on the prison ship HMS Maidstone. He […]

#OTD in 1981 – Bobby Sands dies at Long Kesh prison on the 66th day of his hunger strike.

05/05/2019.Reading time 4 minutes.

Fuair siad bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann. Bobby Sands dies in prison following a 66 day hunger strike. Sands would be the first of ten men to die in an effort to gain political status in a very public battle with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. In the House of Commons Thatcher commented on […]

#OTD in Irish History – 5 May:

05/05/2019.Reading time 15 minutes.

1586 – Death of Lord Deputy of Ireland, Henry Sidney. Sidney was brought up at court as the companion of Prince Edward, afterwards King Edward VI, and he continued to enjoy the favour of the Crown, serving under Mary I of England and then particularly throughout the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He was instrumental in […]

#OTD in 2000 – Kieran Nugent, the first IRA ‘blanket man’ in the H-Blocks, was found dead in his home.

04/05/2019.Reading time 3 minutes.

When sentenced to three years, Nugent refused to wear a prison uniform and said the prison guards would have to “…nail it to my back”. Nugent’s adolescence came at a time when Northern Ireland was exploding into turmoil. On 20 March 1973, aged 15, he was standing with a friend on the corner of Merrion […]

#OTD in 1981 – Day 17: Final Entry | Bobby Sands recorded his diary for the first seventeen days of his hunger strike in which he detailed his thoughts and feelings on the momentous task that lay ahead of him.

17/03/2019.Reading time 6 minutes.

Lá Pádraig inniú ‘s mar is gnách níor thárla aon rud suntasach, bhí mé ar aifreann agus mo chuid gruaige gearrtha agam níos gaire, agus é i bhfad níos fearr freisin. Sagart nach raibh ar mo aithne abhí ag rá ran aifreann. Bhí na giollaí ag tabhairt an bhia amach do chách abhí ag teacht […]

Stair na hÉireann/History of Ireland

Tag: H Blocks

#OTD in 1981 – Thomas McElwee began his hunger strike in the H Blocks of Long Kesh prison.

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#OTD in 1956 – Birth of Kevin Lynch, an Irish Republican hunger striker and member of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) from Park near Dungiven, Co Derry.

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#OTD in Irish History – 22 May:

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#OTD in 1981 – At 2:11 am, Raymond McCreesh dies on hunger strike in the H Blocks of Long Kesh Prison. Later, the same day at 11:29 pm, he is joined in death by his friend and fellow hunger-striker, Patsy O’Hara.

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#OTD in 1981 – Francis Hughes, Irish political prisoner, dies on hunger strike in Long Kesh Prison.

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#OTD in 1981 – Joe McDonnell begins his hunger strike at the H Blocks in Long Kesh prison.

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#OTD in 1981 – Bobby Sands dies at Long Kesh prison on the 66th day of his hunger strike.

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#OTD in Irish History – 5 May:

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#OTD in 2000 – Kieran Nugent, the first IRA ‘blanket man’ in the H-Blocks, was found dead in his home.

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#OTD in 1981 – Day 17: Final Entry | Bobby Sands recorded his diary for the first seventeen days of his hunger strike in which he detailed his thoughts and feelings on the momentous task that lay ahead of him.

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