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IRA rejected Thatcher's concessions to Maze prisoners
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| Contributor | Ralphie |
| Last Edited | Ralphie Apr 05, 2009 06:37pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Monday, April 6, 2009 12:35:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | MARGARET Thatcher's government was ready to concede to some of the demands of Maze Prison hunger strikers in 1981 but the IRA turned down the offer, it emerged yesterday.
Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act have shown that Baroness Thatcher was trying to negotiate but her attempts were blocked.
The documents, revealing messages between the government and the Northern Ireland Office, indicate that Mrs Thatcher was not as intransigent as she was portrayed at the time.
The hunger strike began in March 1981 when Bobby Sands began the protest over living conditions for IRA prisoners in the Belfast jail. By the time it ended in October, ten inmates, including Sands, had died.
In July, with four men already dead, Richard O'Rawe, the IRA spokesman in the Maze, and Brendan "Bik" McFarlane, its commanding officer in the jail, withdrew a demand that the British government treat IRA inmates as prisoners of war.
In a document sent on 5 July the government reportedly responded with its own concessions.
According to Mr O'Rawe, he and Mr McFarlane agreed at the time that the British government's concessions were enough to end the strike but were told that the IRA council had rejected them. Mr McFarlane has denied this. |
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