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Commemorations, ’81
Today, in Galbally, republicans gathered for a wreath-laying ceremony at the grave of 24-year-old Martin Hurson, an IRA Volunteer who died in the 1981 hunger strike after forty-six days without food. The event followed a similar ceremony last Sunday, also on the 35th...
The BBC & The Hunger Strikes
“Denounced by right-wing press and politicians as the ‘IRA’s best friend’, the BBC had to walk a fine line between reporting events and being seen as a vehicle for IRA propaganda” writes Prof Robert Savage, a lecturer in Irish, British and European history at Boston...
‘Rethinking 1981’
Former blanket man Eoghan Mac Cormaic attended a meeting in London last week, part of a series of reflections on the 1981 hunger striker organised by the Irish Times. Here, he reports on the conference. A few months back I noticed an advertisement for a symposium...
‘That Caught The World’s Imagination’
The US edition of Variety, the weekly entertainment trade magazine, carried a review of the film 66 Days about the hunger strike of Bobby Sands. Made by Fine Point Films, 66 Days premiered at the HotDocs Festival in Toronto and was received with wide acclaim. This...
Raymond McCreesh Remembered
Last Saturday night, after Mass at the Church of St Malachy in Camlough, a commemoration in memory of IRA Volunteer Raymond McCreesh, who died on hunger strike thirty-five years ago, was attended by a large number of relatives, comrades, friends and neighbours in the...
Patsy O’Hara
Twenty-three-year-old Patsy O’Hara from Derry city, was the former leader of the Irish National Liberation Army prisoners in the H-Blocks, and joined IRA Volunteer Raymond McCreesh on hunger strike on March 22nd, three weeks after Bobby Sands and one week after...
Raymond McCreesh Events
Here are some events taking place in the next two days to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the death on hunger strike of Raymond McCreesh who died at 2.11 a.m. on Thursday, May 21st, 1981, after 61 days on hunger strike. Friday, 20th May: There will be a talk in...
Francis Hughes Remembered
There was a large turn-out in Bellaghy, South Derry, to mark the 35th anniversary of the death of IRA Volunteer Francis Hughes. Supporters and relatives assembled at Gulladuff Road before parading behind bands through Bellaghy to the cemetery of St Mary’s on the...
Another Award for Italian Writer
Congratulations to Italian writer and journalist Silvia Calamati who last month was given an international award for her book Bobby Sands’ Companions. Women and War in Northern Ireland. The book is dedicated to Kathleen O’Hagan, a mother of five who when seven months...
Comrade Remembers Bobby
Pilib O Rúnaí is a former blanketman and was a friend and comrade of Bobby Sands. In this film commissioned by the Bobby Sands Trust, Pilib talks about the men with whom he was in prison, his last days with Bobby and what he feels is the legacy of the 1981 hunger...
