Remember the H-Block Hunger Strikers on May 5

Remember the H-Block Hunger Strikers on May 5
28/04/11
éirígí in Dublin has announced the details of a vigil to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1981 H-Block Hunger Strike in Dublin.
Next Thursday [May 5], the party is calling on republicans from across the capital to gather at O'Connell Bridge at 6pm on the day 30 years ago when IRA volunteer Bobby Sands died after 66 days on hunger strike.
The vigil will remember Bobby Sands and his comrades Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh, Patsy O'Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Thomas McElwee and Mickey Devine.
Cathaoirleach éirígí Brian Leeson said: "Thirty years ago, the Thatcher government tried to defeat the republican struggle by attempting to criminalise republican prisoners in the H-Blocks and Armagh prison.
"During that tumultuous year, thousands of ordinary Dubliners took to the streets in support of the prisoners' five demands. No matter how hard the establishment in both Britain and the Twenty-Six Counties attempted to demonise the struggle for Irish freedom, ordinary people saw through their propaganda and stood by the prisoners.
"The 1981 Hunger Strike represented a significant setback for the British policy of criminalisation but the defiance of both the prisoners and the people on the streets came at a great cost for the republican community in the Six Counties. Ten lives were lost in the prisons, while, on the streets, British crown forces fired almost 30,000 plastic bullets killing seven people, three of them children."
Leeson added: "Thirty years on, the British government is once again attempting to deny political status. Republican prisoners in Maghaberry prison have endured regular beatings and forced strip searches. It is important that this is remembered as so long as any republican prisoner is denied political status the goals for which the H-Block hunger strikes died remains unfulfilled.
"The names of the ten H-Block hunger strikers are remembered with pride by freedom loving people across the world. We hope that many people as possible can attend this event in Dublin to honour the lives and sacrifices of the 10 brave young men who gave their all in the H-Blocks in 1981 and to recommit to the pursuit of the goals for which they gave their lives."
In the words of Bobby Sands: "We must see our present fight right through to the end. Generations will continue to meet the same fate unless the perennial oppressor – Britain – is removed for she will unashamedly and mercilessly continue to maintain her occupation and economic exploitation of Eire until judgement day if she is not halted and ejected."
@ Charles McLaughlin

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