Voices from the Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland (34 page)

I would have weekly meetings with Reid either on the visits or
after Mass and we took a great deal of encouragement from … the
O Fiaich–Thatcher meetings, until the day Danny Morrison arrived
on a visit and I was sent for. I went down and met Danny and he
gave me a big King Edward cigar and then told me that Thatcher
had slammed the door on O Fiaich; the talks were over and there
was nothing. It was a great shock to me and I remember having to
walk back from the prison visits, back to the cell. But before that
Danny Morrison said, ‘What are you going to do now?’ and I said,
‘We’ve no choice but to go on hunger strike.’ And I asked him to
start preparing outside
…

…
there was always a possibility of a hunger strike, because of
the upsurge in brutality after we came back from H6. I knew we had
to do something drastic because I didn’t believe that the men could
take much more of that without [having] some light at the end of
the tunnel. People were so demoralised and getting much more so
because of the upsurge in brutality and because the actions that
the IRA were taking on the outside, assassinating screws, was not
having the effect which we believed it could have … The tactic of
shooting screws did not work, and did not lessen the brutality.
Because of this and the breakdown of the O Fiaich talks, that left us
with no alternative. People’s hopes had been built up because of the
O Fiaich talks. The day Danny Morrison said that Thatcher had
practically thrown O Fiaich out of the place, I knew then that the
only option left was a hunger strike. People were waiting with great
expectations of me coming back with good news. I mean, the common
phrase at that time was: ‘When are the brown bags with our clothes
coming in?’ It was the loneliest walk back from the visits that I ever
had. I knew I was going to have to inform the men that the whole
thing had collapsed. But at the same time the decision to have a
hunger strike was at least giving some hope that the prison protest
would end eventually, because this was the last step we could take.
I remember that lonely walk up the prison yard with people looking
out [of] windows and waiting for me to bring them the word that it
was all over, that the brown bags were coming up behind me. And
I didn’t have that news to give them. I sat and talked. Bobby was
obviously in the next cell to me as usual, and he was straight down
at the pipe, talking through the small hole at the heating pipe. And
I told him what had happened. He was the first one I told, that
there was nothing – and he knew right away that we had no option
but to call a hunger strike. And that night I got up to the door and
informed the men that the O Fiaich talks had collapsed and we
would be preparing for a hunger strike. I remember the total silence
in the wing
.

…
so the decision was taken that day for a hunger strike and
communications were sent around the blocks informing the men
that a date would be set … and names of volunteers were to be
sent to myself. I can’t actually remember how many names we got.
I believe it was over ninety … out of three hundred. It was a high
figure … It was now a matter of sorting out how many men [had
volunteered] and who would be picked … We went through the list,
myself and Bobby, and eliminated anyone with health problems,
anyone we believed would be too weak. And then we had to decide
how many of us would go. There was some argument between
myself and John Nixon who was the O/C of the INLA in the prison.
He wanted to have two INLA prisoners on the hunger strike and
I was insisting on only one; the rest would be Provisional IRA
Volunteers. This argument went on for some time, through comms
and through the cell door, in Gaelic. Nixon was in the same wing as
me and … I remember the argument out the door with him. It got
pretty heated at times, but I insisted there would be no more than
one. So John Nixon volunteered to be that one. Sean McKenna’s
name came in as well and I initially ruled out Sean because I
believed him to be … physically weak. After I eliminated Sean,
he tortured me, sending me comms, insisting that he should [be
allowed to] go on the hunger strike. I eventually conceded … and
put his name down … We decided we would take one from each
county, if possible, to maximise the support in the six counties.
People thought we chose seven because of the 1916 Proclamation
but the reason for seven men … was the six counties plus one
INLA Volunteer. The intention was to maximise support in all of
the six counties
.

I remember the first day of the hunger strike … I was in the cell
with Muffles Trainor … They left the food at the door of the cell,
and I told them, ‘I am on hunger strike, as from now.’ I remember …
looking round the cell and saying to myself, ‘ … this is the first of
the last days of my life’ … and feeling pretty isolated and lonely.
As time went on they moved us from the cells and put us into a wing
that was clean and empty. It became the hospital wing. Every morning
they would … take our blood pressure, weigh us. We would then
pass that information over to Bobby. I had great faith in Bobby at
that time. That information would be sent to the outside, you know:
‘Tom McFeely lost three pounds today; Brendan Hughes lost six
pounds’, and so forth … I can’t remember how many days we were
in this hospital wing, when they moved us up to the proper prison
hospital. We had separate cells, which they called rooms … Again
we were taken out every morning, up to the medical room, weighed,
blood pressure taken and so forth. And again these details had to be
sent out. By and large it was the priests who did that, particularly
Father Toner. I would be allowed to visit each of the hunger strikers
…
Later, I needed help and the person who did that was usually
Toner or Father Murphy, the two prison chaplains. Sean [McKenna]
was the biggest problem. He was the weakest mentally and physically
and I paid great attention to him. One day he informed me that he
didn’t think he could die on hunger strike. It came as a shock to me
…
Obviously he was going through a bad period of doubt
.

As time went on we had an approach from the British and we
all met. By this stage Sean was in a wheelchair, and we met in the
prison hospital canteen. I can’t recall the civil servant’s name but the
Governor of the prison was there and the Chief Prison Officer was
there. They informed us that they were prepared to concede, not
political status, not the five demands, but something similar. And
we asked for some time to discuss their proposals. I can’t remember
specifically what the proposals were. But Tom McFeely who was …
probably one of the most strong-willed of the hunger strikers,
informed me that it was something similar to the conditions in
Portlaoise that they were offering us.
||||
So the deal they were offering
us became known as the ‘Portlaoise-type settlement’. But we decided
to hold on for as long as we could, to try and extract more and we
insisted that someone from the leadership of the movement on the
outside be brought in as a guarantor and Father Faul and someone
else as a guarantors. We wanted guarantors. And this was when the
brinkmanship started – we were holding out; they were holding
out. After this initial meeting, we went back to our cells, Sean was
very ill. I told him I would not let him die. And he took me at my
word
…

Q.
Firstly, is it true to say that this completely limited your negotiating
room for manoeuvre? And secondly, it also put a man’s life
directly in your hands, and you couldn’t really violate your word after
you’d given it because he [McKenna] was in a coma knowing that
his life depended on you honouring your word. And, I mean, in your
own mind there was no way that you could break your word to him?

A.
No, I don’t believe so
.

But Sean was not the only one – Sean was the weakest … So all
those weaknesses were there. After Sean asked me, I gave him a
guarantee that I would not let him die. A few days later – now, I
want to try and get the sequence correct here. Dr [David] Ross – he
was the main doctor looking after the hunger strikers – came and
informed me that Sean had only hours to live. It’s possible they were
playing brinkmanship with me at this stage. And it’s possible that
the cells were bugged and that they picked up what I had said to
Sean. And they knew that if Sean went into a deep coma, that I
would intervene. And that’s exactly what happened. Dr Ross came
to me and told me that Sean would die within hours and he wanted
permission … to take Sean to hospital. And this took place. There
was a sudden rush of activity; prison orderlies took Sean on a
stretcher up the wing. I was standing in the wing with Father Toner,
Father Reid and Dr Ross … and I shouted up after Dr Ross, ‘Feed
him.’ I had no guarantee at that point that anything was going to
come from the British, no guarantee whatsoever. We all knew that
they had offered us this deal but we had no guarantee that the deal
would go through. We only had their word for it. The hunger strike
was called off before the British document arrived. It was only later
that night, I think; it was very late at night that Father Meagher
***
and Bobby [Sands] arrived at my cell with the document
.

Q.
So is it fair to say that the hunger strike then did not end as a
result of the document but the hunger strike ended prior to the
document and it was in many respects the humanitarian decision
on your part – you were bound by your word?

A.
Yeah
.

Q.
In many senses, I mean, it ended not because you sensed political
victory but as a need to save Sean McKenna’s life?

A.
Yeah, that would be true, even though we had a promise, which
was eventually boiled down to nothing, of this Portlaoise-type
agree ment. That night, as I say, when Meagher and Bobby arrived
with this document, obviously this was taking place when we were
still on hunger strike. But I didn’t know that a meeting had been
arranged at the airport, that Father Meagher was to go to the airport
and a man would approach him wearing a red carnation in
his coat. That’s the only information Meagher had. He duly did
that, went to the airport, picked up the document, picked up Bobby
and came to my cell with it. Obviously I could not read it at the
time. Father Meagher was jubilant; Bobby was cautious. And I
asked Meagher and Bobby what did they think: was there a settlement
there? And they both agreed that there was, but it would need
further clarification and more work done on it. We were obviously
jubilant as well because we believed that we had secured a solution
to the hunger strike. I then went round and informed all the boys.

I made the decision to take Sean off the hunger strike, thus taking
everyone else off because I knew that the hunger strike was going to
collapse anyway … There were people on the hunger strike,
I
believed this at the time, I don’t know how much truth was in it,
who were waiting for Sean to die, knowing that then the hunger
strike would be called off … I had seen the weaknesses in certain
people. And I’m sure Bobby had sensed it as well
.

I remember meeting Sean [McKenna] some time later and Sean
didn’t come out of it unscarred … He was brain damaged, and his
eyesight was badly damaged. I remember him saying to me a few
years ago, when I met him in Dundalk, ‘Fuck you, Dark, you should
have let me die.’ I remember being really taken aback by that. It
was just an example of the type of stuff that the man is still going
through today. And I’ve since heard – I don’t know whether there’s
much truth in it – he is now suffering from throat cancer
.
†††