Tag: H Blocks

#OTD in 2008 – Death of Brendan ‘The Dark’ Hughes, aged 59.

.Reading time 3 minutes.

As leader of the Belfast brigade of the IRA, Hughes led one of the most effective campaigns seen during the Troubles. But he also endured the worst of the British prison regime at Long Kesh, spending 13 years in jail. Hughes spent 53 days on hunger strike in the famous H-Blocks in 1980, was Officer […]

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#OTD in 1983 – Long Kesh Prison Escape: Thirty-eight members of the IRA escaped from the maximum security Long Kesh prison near Lisburn.

.Reading time 4 minutes.

Two years after the epic 1981 H-Block Hunger Strike in which ten young republicans died, there was another epic event at Long Kesh that dealt a huge blow to the Thatcher regime in Ireland. This was the escape of thirty-eight IRA prisoners from H-Block 7 on Sunday 25 September 1983. At 2:15pm that day, three […]

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#OTD in 1981 – Twenty-seven-year-old Michael “Mickey” Devine, from the Creggan in Derry dies on the 60th day of his hunger strike.

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Fuar siad bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann. Mickey Devine was the third INLA Volunteer to join the H-Block hunger strikers and he was the last of the group to give their lives in order to retain their status as political prisoners. Twenty-seven-year-old Mickey Devine, from the Creggan in Derry city, was the third INLA […]

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

.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 […]

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#OTD in 1981 – After 71 days on hunger strike, Kevin Lynch dies at Long Kesh prison.

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Fuair siad bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann. The eighth republican to join the hunger-strike for political status, on 23rd May, following the death of Patsy O’Hara, was twenty-five-year-old fellow INLA Volunteer Kevin Lynch from the small, North Derry town of Dungiven who had been imprisoned since his arrest in 1976. Image | Mural to Kevin […]

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#OTD in 1981 – Martin Hurson, Irish political prisoner, dies on hunger strike.

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Fuair siad bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann. On 29 May 1981, Martin Hurson joined the hunger-strike, replacing South Derryman Brendan McLoughlin who was forced to drop out because of a burst stomach ulcer. Having seriously deteriorated after forty days on hunger-strike, he was unable to hold down water and died a horrifically agonising death […]

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