National Hunger Strike Commemoration 2012

Here is a board announcing, and a gallery of images from, the hunger strike commemoration in 2012, Dungiven. M08672 [M08658] [M08659] [M08660] [M08661] [M08673] [M08674] M08675 [M08676] M08677 M08678 [M08679] M08680 M08681 M08682 M08683 M08684 M08685 [M08686] [M08687] M08688 [M08689] M08690 [M08691] [M08692] [M08693] [M08694] M08695 M08696 [M08697] [M08698] [M08699] [M08700] [M08701] M08702 [M08703] [M08704] […]

National Hunger Strike Commemoration 2012

Take a look at this post… ‘THATCHER’S statue paint-bombed in the second attack – how long will it take before they realise its not wanted in GB or anywhere else. ‘.

http://seachranaidhe-irishandproud.blogspot.com/2022/06/thatchers-statue-paint-bombed-in-second.html

Edit Post ‹ seachranaidhe1 — WordPress.com

https://wordpress.com/post/22938908/82924

BBC Radio 4 – Drama, The Ballad of Bobby Sands

Follow this link to find out more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000lmsy

Murder is Murder is Murder not my words but Mrs Thatchers

Irish children murdered by British Crown Forces in the occupied six Counties of the North of Ireland

https://youtu.be/5dUQx-a8_qw

Photos of Bobby Sands Discovered! | Bobby Sands Trust

https://www.bobbysandstrust.com/photos-of-bobby-sands-discovered/

With many thanks to the: Bobby Sands Trust and Gérard Harley ref: Photographs for the original story 

Watch “Old Scores – Bobby Sands Documentary 1983” on YouTube

https://youtu.be/Tv82cJeB1qc

A powerful poem written by Oglach Martin Hurson just before he joined the 1981 Hunger Strike. He would have turned 62 yesterday. RIP

What compels young men to die?

What compels young men to die
A death so long and cruel
To suffer years of pain and shame
in solitary in jails?

I speak of men like Hughes and Sands, O’Hara and McCreesh
Laying in the blocks of hell where brutality is released.
Untold pain, heartaches, restless lonely nights
Where men find strength within their hearts, to stand for what is right.

Oppression equals slavery and resistance stems from both
And those who fight to end it are soldiers of the truth.

No matter if they recognise the truth in here or not
The products of these years of pain upon them they have brought
This Hunger Strike where young men die not for glory, not for gain
but for recognition of the wars raging through our land.

Lying in their beds this night just bones and clinging flesh
Pale and ashen, cold and worn in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh
They are dying for the people’s cause, not their own or foreign greed
They’ll die if you don’t help them, in this, their hour of need.

With many thanks to: Alex Maskey for the original posting.

THE VOLUNTEER (ÓGLACH).

Francis Hughes the second Irish Martyr to give his life for Irish prison reform in 1981.

The gunfire split the still night air,

and from my side the blood flowed red.
Informer’s work had been well done; an ambush had been laid.
My comrades turned back to my aid. I waved them on again.
Escape for me was hopeless. Why should they die in vain?
The soldiers soon around me stood. Their unit I could guess.
Their blackened faces could not disguise the hated SAS.
“Finish him off.” I heard one say as a gun moved toward my head.
“Tomorrow they’ll all sing about another fenian dead.”
“Just drop those guns down gently,” a voice came from the dark.
They wheeled and fired a volley, but it seemed they missed their mark.
The stranger stood before them now with eyes that seemed alight.
The cowards turned and quickly fled as he raised his armalite.
His face somewhere I’d seen before, but I couldn’t tell just where,
but I knew from his green battledress he was a volunteer.
He never said a word to me as we moved off through the night.
I was hoisted ‘cross his shoulders, a burden which seemed light.
“You’ll be safe here,” at last he said , as a cottage door drew near.
“They’re friends of mine, though we haven’t met for many a lonely year.
He laid me gently down beside a wall of slate and stone.
I turned to thank my comrade brave, but found I was alone.
When next I woke, I found myself with a family staunch and true.
I told them of my comrade strange, but it seemed they already knew.
I gazed upon that parlour wall and things came clear at last,
and I thought of songs and stories heard often in the past,
and I knew then that our struggle was a fight we could not lose
for beneath his picture there I read ” IN MEMORY OF FRANCIS HUGHES.”

With many thanks to: Seán Ó hAodha – Federal Socialist Republic.

36 years ago on March 14th 1981

Óglach Francis Hughes was preparing to join his comrade Bobby Sands on Hunger Strike. He started refusing food on 15th March.

“I have no prouder boast than to say I am Irish and have been privileged to fight for the Irish people and for Ireland. If I have a duty I will perform it to the full with the unshakeable belief that we are a noble race and that chains and bonds have no part in us.” – Francis Hughes

With many thanks to: Pearse Toman, The Irish brotherhood.