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~ROTESTS AND SECOND - WEEKLY BULLETIN NO 28 0900 HOURS THURSDAY 3 SEPTEl"ll3ER - 0900 HOURS THURSDAY 10 SEPTEMBER

The Bulletin is produced by Liaison Staff ( B), Political Aff~irs Division (B ) and Prisons Administration Djvision (1 ) (B ). PRISONDEVELOPMENTS

1 .1 Maze Hunger Strike None of the 6 hunger strikers is giving any cause for concern and none of them is displaying any specific symptoms~ The ear trouble which McCloskez had recently , has for the present, cleared up . Pickerinli has recently had treatment for an ear infe ction which he has had since birth and as with McCloskey this has now cleared up. Mention of this in the local press i s thought to emanate from relatives as a possible pretext for abandoning the hunger strike. Ex-hunger strikers Quinn and, I1c Geown were moved from Ward 18, Musgrave Park Ho spit a l back to the Prison hospita l on T1.lesd 8,y ( 8/9) ; they are eating a normal diet 8J.'"ld are not expected to rejoin the strike. The prisoners ' weights are:- Weight Day Weight Overall on Weight loss Weight of first today during Strike examin- week lOGS ation

Liarn McCloskey 39 10st 9 Ibs 8st 8 Ibs 5~lbs 2st 1 1'0 Patrick Sheehan 32 9st 6'~lbs 7st 10 Ibs 4 Ibs 1st 10~- 1 'os John McMul lan 25 10st 3 Ibs 8st 8 I bs 4-~ lbs 1st 9 Ibs Bernard Fox 18 10st 6 Ibs 9st 3~-lbs 5~lbs 1st 2ilbs Gerard Carville 11 10st 3~lbs 9st 7 1bs 8 Ibs 10ilbs John Pickering It 11st 12 Ibs 11st 711bs 4ilbs 4--~ lbs

1 .2 Retirement of Devlin (Day 53) At approximately 14. 10 on Friday (If/9) Devlin's consci6usness became clouded and his f am ily were summoned. His mother and brother duly arrived at 16.05. After seeing De vlin and the doctors, they then gave the necessary vlri tten approval to effect medical treatment . Thj s was instituted immediately and he left the prison hospital at 16 .45 on transfer t o the Intensive Care Unit of the Royal Victoria Ho spital . The fol10vJing day he was moved t o War d 18, Husgrave Park Hospital ~ and i s now eating normally. It i s expected that he will make a full r ecovery. 1 .3 Retirement of McKeown ( Day 70) I n the event McKeown ' s condition \vorsene(1- c OlJ~s-id'e rably tm,w.r ·ds the end of the week and his family accepted prj son f acilities on Saturday to enable them to stay in the prison hospital overnight. Vlhen the doctor examined }1cKeovm at approximately 1""1. 35 on Sunrlay ( 6/9 )~ he had l argely lost mental and physical control and his mother signed the neces sary document to save his life . He wa s transferred to the Intensive Care UD:Lt of the Itoyal Victoria Ho spita l at 12 .35 and the next da~1 subsequentl y to Ward 18 , Musgrave Park Ho spital . He is now eating normally and :i s expected to make a complete r ecovery. In the eVRnt f'1rs McKeown r emained true to her cons cience, despite the efforts mads to prevent her from intervening .

1.1~ If e_~_ H\l...!?p; e r St~ . il~ ~E John lienry I)ickering refu ~) e cl breakLlst on nond ay

( ?/9). Hc) is a 25-yeur--old sing1e man and a native of West BelfaBt c A'c..' a change of practice :PIHA have not stated who he i s replacing althoug;h he Ha s e." r "-) A I' ... ~ ol ·j ~1 ~ '. ~if r.'~~ .... >

a co-defendant of Kieran Doherty who died on l~ Au gust. Wi t h Doherty and as a member of the same 5~man PIRA bombing t eare , he was captured in South on 25 August 1976 after vehicles in vJhich the t eam "'Jere travelling had been intercepted by police . Pickering and 2 accomp lices escaped and sought refuge in a house in the vicinity wh ere they held the elderly occupant hostage . Following the intervention of a priest how ever the hos tages wer e released and the 3 terrorists surrendered . Pickering was convicted on 24 J anuary 1978 of possessing explos ives and firearms ,and sentenced to 18 years ' imprisonment; an 8-year sentence for false imprisonment was also imposed to run consecutively. On 13 March 1978 Pickering was convicted of 4 further offences and sentenced t o life i mprisonment on a murder charge and 16 years for robbery , firearms and explosives charges . His appeal was dismissed on 11 June 1980 . These con­ victions related to the robbery and bomb ing of a garage in South Belfast. The owner, a 77-year-old man was shot by Pickering and died from his wounds a short time l ater. Pickering has been protesting continuously since 27 J anuary 1978 and although he has not come to notice as a leader among the prisoners, he did participate in the mass hunger strike of December 1980. 2. Visits to Hunger Strikers Sheehan, who was visited by his parents on !10nday ('719) was the only hunger s triker to re~ei ve ' a visit during the period. McFarlane was visited on the same day by Jim Gibney, PSF. 3.1 Fut ure Hun er Strikers -I NLA statement It was announced at the National H-Block Armagh conference in Dundalk on Sunday (6/9) that INLA would n ot be replacing Michael Devine who died on 20 August. The statement, which ",rported to come from the INLA "officer comm anding" at Maze Prison, said that '· .he British Government was being ' ~ar mo re intransigent" than had first been expected and added that if the I NLA continued to mainta in i t s ratio of one hunger s triker for every 3 PIRA members "all our prisoners will be dead within 6 months" . They added "any future volunteers will be placed on hunger strike in a 10vler ratio to the IRA."

3.2 Speaking at the same conference , , Vice~·President of PSF, said that the hunger strike would continue despite the intervention of 4 of the prisoners ' families. He had not been surprised by their action and current hunger strikers had been warned that their families "were the we akest link in the chain" he said .

4.1 Ma~e Pro~est" The number of protesters has f allen by one fro!ll last we ek due to the abandonment of the protest by a prisoner in B. L~ who was "fed up \"~ ith the protest." ~rhere are currently 396 prisoners on protest and 7 pris oners i D the conf8rming blocks who ar e refusing to work. Numbers are now the lowe st Slnce last ctober. 4.2 Ar l!~g b Protest Unchanp; ed at 27 .

5. 1 S m12.gs ,1.s:.~l e tt e.:E.§. An important letter from l'k Fa.rlane t o a future hunger striker wa .s found in t he pr i s on on 2 Septe'mber ; it i s dated 29 Au gu s t 1981. It shows that J 1'1 Devine has volunteer ed f or the strike and the commun icat i on is intended to prepare bim for it . Devine i s s er ving 10 y e ars for explos i ves offences and comes from Strabane . He was not one of the 30 hunger s t r ikers . In the let t ~~ r I'1cFarlane states , "Plea E3e give very serious thougbt to your deci s ion. What lies ahead i s a very grue l ling and a gonis i ng struggl e . The stakes are very high and t he price of victor y. equa lly high . After I hear f r om you I \>J ill I e t you knovJ your position on n/s list . You s hould now i nform your fi3Jnj, ly that within a few "l eeks you may b e on H/S. Please ensure that they understand ~your decis ion and pos ition 10Cf;b . 'l'his is e s s entia l ." 5 . ? A s econd l. etter wa s found \yri tten by the former IlU-,A bunger s t r iker Ni xon. Althoug11 i t wa s :::; ome 2 ~- - 3 \'-I e eks I old it i s s i p;nif i cant in its r ef erence to the fac t that "t hings ar E~ not too good at all d O'/m l'lcre . \t.Je

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honestly do ' not .leno'v''' whnt the outcome of this dilemma will be . I! 5.3 An important letter from Str iker Mcf1ullan to his father was found. It was written on Saturday (5/9) following Devlin ' s defection. ~n extract of significance reads as follows : - "As you kn01,-J Matt / s family requested medical intervention last night, I cannot emphasise to you stro"ngly enough the danger of such action, not only is it undermining the whole hunger strike but f or every t i me a family i ntervenes it will probably c os t the Iives of .2 , 3 or possibly more hunger strikers. Apart from this it only serves to pr olong the agony, as I personally would go back on t o the qunger ~trike if the family intervened. 1! This has been the first lndl catlon that a pris oner mi ght return to the strike . 5.4 A letter wa s found in H.6 smuggled in from a released protester outside . The most significant extract is "How is the morale in there, mine is shattered out here. I am getting some sickness out here. " 5.5 Letter to l'1cCloskey This l etter, which vw.s not smuggled was \'1ri tten by his uncl e. An extr acto·f interest is as f ollows: - "For V-le will stand by you on hunger strike tomorrow, or off hunger strike t omorrovJ . II 6.1 Prisons As sessment During the period under review the trends running against the strike noted previously gathered momentum. The first major break occurred when r elatives agreed to medical treat me nt for McKeown and Devlj.n. frhis brour;ht the number taken off by relatives to 4 and the total "retirements It to 5. \

6 . 2 No deaths have occurred since Devine ' s ( 20/8) and no ::tu~ are expected for another 3 weeks ; this wi l l be a gap as large os that betHeen the l ast of the first group to die (P O' Hara) and the first of the second (J McDonnell) . The absence of the pressure which an i mminent death c an engender is something wh:i.ch PIHA have tried to avoid, since it makes it that much harder to susta i n c ampaign. momentwnitbis was ·the evident reason for their r everting to a one-pris oner-on-a week policy after the ' replacement ' system r e sulted in gaps . This present hiatus in deaths will b e a further blow to t he campaign.

6.3 'rh8 secund major development \1aS the announc.ement by INLA that they we ~~'e reducing participation i n the strike. Although they have hedged the ir bets by merely t alking of a lower represent ation , the inference must clearly be tllat they see little future or hope i n the prison c ampaign. Wh e ther the ir evident declaration of intent to withdraw will make it caoier for PIRA to do likewise i s problematical ; it doe s at least provide a precedent. 6.4 Notwithstanding thp very clear difficulties now f acing the campaiVlers , the continued determinution of the prison h o.-rdliners sh.ould not be under­ esti mat ed ; outsjde s etba eks in the past hnvp not had n notable e ffect on t he virtua lly closed system operated by the protesters. FI' Faul recognised this too when he claimed thRt the strike could drag on for several months yet: . McMu.lJ cm ' s l etter gi vee.; evid(~ nce of such determination and t here i s every r eason to b e li l"~ ve thnt efforts mny be made t o "encourage " those who h nve retiJ'cd to r eturn to the strike . I'ickering and Fox are tllought to be of a similar mould to MCr1uU al)~ 1(' . ~~ .?~ ~\ ~ S'., ~ ll"\\ h"" , ~ l'~ 'l /. ~ © RONI CENTI1110162 I 1. l ' I \~hl! 11'''' . ~ . ). ... , . ~ . t: ),.,'. ~ ~~ ,& 't\"..1" f. ..~ ~ . r. b .,,,, ~;'1 ~ " ~ . )

THE CAl'1PAIGN 7 . 1 Father Fau! , a visiting chaplain to the Maze Prison and a well known Hepublican sympathiseI', made a nUlllb er of statements during the week concerning the hunger strike . He thought that it might drag on for another 2 or 3 months and end in "chaos , recriminations , abuse and containing the seeds of another hunger strike". He accused the British Government of inflexibility, but also urged the campaigners t o re-appraise the hunger strike strategy. He believed that the campaign was becoming a predominantly Belfast affair and that the remainder of the Province was showing less enthusiasm. On 8 September the National H-Blocks/Armagh Committee criticised the Church for pressurising the prisoners to abandon the hunger strike rather than urging the Government to concede the prisoners ' demands . Father Faul retorted that he was not responsible for families intervening to save hunger strikers' lives. Rather , he claimed , r elatives had put pressure on pri ests to persuade hunger s trikers t o give up the fast . 7. 2 11eanwhile relatives of the 6 hunger strikers issued a statement on 9 September supporting the hunger strike as a means of securing the p~isoners' demands . 1I\.]e cal l upon the British Government to ensure a permanent end to all t he prison protests by i mplementing t he conditions outlined by the prisoners . II However earlier in t he week liThe Iri sh Times" ( 5September) r evealed that some relatives had sought to end the hunger strike after had been e l ected in the Fermanagh/South Tyrone by-election. 7. 3 Danny Morrison (PSF ) announced on 7 September that the trend of . families taking people off hunger strike would "at some stage be reversed by a man going back on hunger strike . 1I

7.4 The largest anti H-Block rally during the week was held in An de rso n sto w~ Be1fast~ on the evening of 3 September. About 600 people participat ed and the principal speaker was Bernadette McAliskey. According to press reports about 200 anti H-B l ock protesters marched through Castl ederg , , on 9 Sept ember. About 300 loyalists were involved in a riva l march orgcUlis ed by the DlJP. rrhere were no serious i ncident s. 8 . 1 Political O\ven Carron ' s request for a meeting with the'llaoiseach - 24 hours after he had met the leader of the opposition Mr - was rejected when the Irish Government ' s Pre ss Office issued a statement on "5 September \""hich s aid, li lt \rJaS not considered that such a me eting would s erve any useful purpos e " . Aid an Corrigan, Carron 's PRO, r etorted that su ch a refusal was ,ill affront to the entire Nationalist population \~ho gave OH en Car ron such a de cisive mandate in the rec ent by-election . At the s ame · time , he r epeat ed the £al1 by Kevin Agnew TD that the Taoiseach mov e the writ for t he Cavan-Monaghan by-election. 8. 2 In South Armagh, the r esi gnation of Independent H-Bl ocks candi date , Mr TO I~y Lynch, will r esult in a by-electi on at the end of Septembe r. In t his case ~ the SD:LP f s nomi ne e Ii I' J ack Md1ahon finds himse lf in dir ect oppos ition to a. nti-II-Block c andidat e rh ' Jimmy T'1cCr eesh , f at her of dead hunger s t riker Raymond McCreesh. Th e ou tcome of this par t icular by-el ect i on will b e awai ted wit h interes t . 8 . 3 \-'hi l e the Confer ence Has taking place , Dr Caha l Daly, Bisbop of Arc: ap)l and Cl onmacnois , W[1 S making a ma jor s ermon at Kn ock wh i ch r eceived exten~:;ive medi a cov6rac;e. In i t ~ he cl en 01Jnced violenc e in all f orms , declared more hunger str i ke deaths to be fut i l e , and in particular urged t he hu n~er strik ~rs to di rect their undis puted courage i nto lithe nob l e t ask or pr omot i ng 1ife ;:,u1d love , not to the planning of squalid s che Jl1.e s f or inflicting death".

; (""~ n~ ~ Ir"- ~ ~ .~~ 1).\ ~ \i { (," ~ . 1,...' , '" , I . ) ~ I 1'-,1',. 4 ..... "'" \, ... , ~ ~ ~A ~ t fl.';'p ;..-. $ ~ .. t. '''', ' .... © PRiONI CENT/1/10/62 8.4 The . Iris h Times ( 8 September) c arri ed a r eport of an exclusive intervievJ given by in wh ich he sai d t hat t her e n eeded to b e a pol i t ica l initiative - "involving people vJho are c a l led terr orist s " - and the withdrawal of Britis h troops from NI . Britain , he said , should a im for the r eunif ication and independenc e of Ireland . Northern Ireland looks s et to fi gu~ e prominently at t he Labour Party Conf er ence . 8.5 I n the same i ssue , it was r eported t hat the ICJ P, following t alk s wit h i t s English opposite numbe r , had indicat ed that it "could not see how e ither commi ssion mi ght useful ly mediate now ". 8 . 6 Other devel opment s worth noti n g were Governor Hugh Carey of New York's criticism of Mrs Thatcher and Ill1G for f a iling to r esolve the hunger strike in \·Jhich he described the Britis h att itude as "i mplac able , obsti nate and stubbor n "; r epOJ.:- ts (without furthe:c e l aboration ) that Caroina l a Fiaich discu ssed t he hunger s tri ke wit h the Pope during a trip to Rome ; and a r eport ( no d etails ) that l"lr Dooge had r a ised the s am e subject with Lord Carrington duri ng a meeti ng of Forei gn Secret aries i n London. 9.1 J he Repy blic 'rhe National H-Block/Armagh Committee ( NHA C) held a r ec a11 conf er ence at t he Fairways Hote l, Dundalk , on 6 September. According t o pr e ss reports 900 anti H-Block c ampa i gners attended. Prior to the conference Bernadet te 11cAl i s key had announced that the aim was to "put mus cle" · on the sympat hy which the H-Block campa i gn h ad aroused.. The c onferenc e elected a new i';EAC and t he most promi nent c ampaigners were returned to s erve on it. ~ ::i. v id O' Conne ll and Gerr y Adams, both Provisional Si nn Fein ( PSIi' ) Joint Vice­ l -· r esi dents , t opped t he poll and Bernadette McAliskey (formerl y Public " Relations Off icer ) and Father 0 ' Duil l ( formerly Chai r man) vlere a l s o r e- e l ect ed . Hember s of t he Irish Republican Soci a list Part y . (IRSP ) and People ' s De mocracy (PD)., t rade union official s , a l eadi ng 'figure i n t he Gaelic At hletic Associ ation ( Joe Keohane ) as 1.-J ell as PSF members were elect ed on to t he n evI comIn i ttee . The NHA C hopes t o co-opt 10 more memb erE from amongst t he hunger strikers ' rel atives and t r ade un i ons . It also i nt ends t o choose a 15-member execut ive f rom within its r ank s to handle t he day to day affairs of t he c ampaign. Paddy Du f fy of the SDJ.l? a lso attended t be confer ence . 9. 2 At t he conf erence Sean Flynn (an I RSP r epresentative on the NHAC ) r ead a s tatement (see 3. 1 above ) outlining the I r i sh National Liberat i on Army ' s ( n 'ILA ) futur e attit ude towar ds t he hunger strike . Fl;ynn ' s sU Gg estion tbo.t 8- r atio of one IIlLA s triker t o 10 PI RA would be more equi t a·ble i s interesting in that there have never s o far b een more than 8 bun ger strikers at a t i me. 9 . ") Gerry Adams stressed t hat t he hunger strike h'ould c onti nue , t hough he c l a imed not to have been surprised t hat t he rel atives of Devlin and McKe own had j ntervenerl. l'kAl i skey d ecl ar ed ; "\-1 9 must b e prepar ed t o t 8ke t he i n sti t1.J.tions of pow er i n this country apart '! in order to win t he prisoner s ' f ive demands. She a lso i ndicated that more activity wi t hin t r ade un i ons \l as required . Owe n Carron ' s ( PSF ) dec i sion not t o t ake his s eat at We stmi n ster was deb8ted . McAlj skey and Michael McCloskey ( brot her of Liam McClo sk ey , the hunger striker now c losest to death ) s poke ac ainst Carron ' s decision . An I RSP representative c l a i me d t hat nb s t entionism had been "foisted upon the National H.-·131o ck. c amp aicn!!. HovH-;ver a motion calling on s uccessful anti H-Block c andidateS to t ake t lleir seats was r e j ected , and the conf erence deci ded t hat i n f uture cons tituency conventions would be he ld to choose c andidates and to decide whether or not to pursue an ab stcDt i on i st pol i cy . Owen Carr on himself di d not speak i n t he deb ate . A mot ion suc;gesting that a n on-p :L'i E~o}1e r candidate should contpst the Cavan-Monaghan by-el ect i on ( cau s ed by the deat h of Kierhn Doher t y TD on h un~ e r strike ) was defeated. Earlier in t he week a PD s pokesman l Bri8n HU t~ h es , had called on Pnddy Agnew ~ .lD , a protcstinfj p~:i.s ansI' , to r esi gn hi~~ s e at s o t llat 2 ant i H- IHock rpJ)f3 could cau.se uproar i n the DaiI. J.1he conf erence al s o decided that once the nr i s oner s ' five d Gl ll unds had been HOH , t he c ampa i c;n vJou l d b E:~ extended to prison(;Y's i n Engl and; presum ab J y me an inc!; l riE3 ]j ! :/::. ~ , · <~ t , , · T,' " ] ' ro )' ··.· ·1 ( ~, ~" I t' -: tt~~· r~ , ~ krl' d\ FI . ©RRON fCENt?11HlI62 S ] _H L,nf) L , 1 J C1 L s . ~ , ,,; >. " "': ! " 1 f L<~ :{ I L _ II II '.~ k ., t ...., " • h /, i ~ t- Oi~~ :~ ~ [:·:r.!M f1 /t\.l. 6 9.4 Also on 3 September the Provis ional IRA i ssued a st atement through the Irish Publicity Bureau in Dublin appeal ing agains t "unproductive and undis cipline(l s treet rioting ". On 8 Septemb er the Dublin Branch of the . Building \.J or ker s ' rrrade Union voted to support the five deman.d s. Ho wever J ame s Kemmy, an Independent 'I'D and a me mb er of the Uniol'l' s ' ex ecutive , wa s confident that the national 8:A ecutive of the Union Hould not endor&>c this decisi on by one of its branches. 10. Elsewhere Eamon O'Connor has continued his hunger str ike in Austra lia (see l ast week' s bulletin). A r epresent ative of Sydney H-Block Committ ee c l a im ed that 27 Federal politicians had signed a statement calling on the British Government to gr ant the five demrulds.

11.1 Gr eat Brit ain On 8 September a steward e s corted an anti H-Block protestor f r om the Trade Union Congre ss at Blackpool .

11.2 It was announced that OV! en Carron vJill1ead a delegation of 100 hunger str ikers ' r e l atives to London on 17 Septemb er. They intend to lobby political parties , trade unions and emb assi es, to stage vigil s at Hest minster Abbey and Cathedral and to hold a press conference.

IoJiEDIA

12. After Lawr ence McKe own and Matt Devli n ended their f asts l ast weekend , the ' Irish Press ' (7 September ) admitted t hat it had "greatly \1eakened the protest" and that "there noV! s eems no possi bility of the prisoners V!r i n gi ng any c onc essions from t he British Go vernment by means of t he hunger s tri ke a l one . " The 'Irish I ndependent ' went so f ar as to say "A Br iti sh Governm ent Hh ich wi ll 0.110w so many pr isoners to die will not yield now. The c ampaigi.1 should be c aLled off". OVERA LL ASSES SMENT

1 3 .1 As noted above the first major setbacks have occurred in the c ampai gn . Firs t l y t he i mpa ct of fur t her deaths i s dimini shed by the likeli ho od that relatives will a sk for r esuscitation. Secondly there i s now a ma jor gap in the chai n of deaths. Then t he weaken ing of t he I NLA CO IJl..lJl i tment nO h' pose s a threat to r epllbl ican unity on t he pr i s on s ide . Finally , the i nt ervention of Father Fau l as the cha mp i on of r e l atives ' rights has posed t he c ampaigners vJi t h a defini te problem since it is i mp ossible to brand h im as a ' tool of British i mperiali sm ' . Neverthel e ss , it i s clear from a numb er of i ndications, ment ioned ; above , that t he s t r i ke i s not pver s o f ar as PIRA are concerned . The weekend MIAC Conferenc e a l so envi sa~e d preparations for a l ong campa i gn wi th its selection of a new comm ittee , and pr olontSe d talk of future pol icy and by- e 1 eeti ons . ~lh e appea l s f or r epubli cans to r egi s t er f or vo tin(~ purposes - an ent ire ly n8\'.1 departure i n r e cent histor y - mu s t 1)(-: s een in the s ame l ight .

1 3. 2 Devel opments direct ly a ssoci at ed with the str ikes have t ended to over- shadoH d.:; her a spects of the c ampaign. Car r on ha s had a qui et we ek and has not commented on the recent PIfiA murder s in 'l';yrone . On the s t r eets t her e has been little . trouble c:u:d ~;errori s m ha ~ c o n t ~ nu ed a ~ t he l eve l noted recently . On the It-'e rrOr l SIl1 f rOllt: l t :L S \'Ior t-l' l no t ,l Ug th ],s l1lornlng ' Sop C.-'•T .i'/I. :) T_ ]'A.t S itt~a ,emen ' th- . a t recen"c II I,

j I . .",", . """ ~. .~ r~ ! ~ ! ' ~ ~ Lr '. '-s .. i I ,\ © PIRONI CENT/1/10/62 /'

killings dO , not r epresent a new departure but are merely II successes ll in PIRA l s terms . There is still no sign of any major and prolonged offensive , though the threat to the strike and the continu£

A K TEMPLETON PRB (1) Northern Ireland Office Dundonald House BELII'AST 10 Septemb er 1981

..... T .lu © PRONI CENT/1/10/62