Other Resources about the Hunger Strikes

Multimedia/Internet

Bobby Sands Trust
http://www.bobbysandstrust.org

Camloch 1981 Hunger Strike Committee
http://www.raymondmccreesh.8k.com/index.html

Celebration of Resistance Committee 1981-2001
http://www.hungerstrike.net

Conflict Archive on the Internet: The Northern Ireland Conflict (1968 to the Present)
This site documents “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland from 1968 to the present. It contains both primary and secondary source material on society and politics in the region, including the hunger strike of 1981.
http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/hstrike/hstrike.htm

Also included on this site are examples of Hunger Strike and Prisoners Campaign Posters.
http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/images/posters/hstrike/

Hunger Strike 20th Anniversary 1981-2001
This site is organized by the 1981 Hunger Strike Commemoration Project. It contains biographies of the strikers, a history of both street and prison protests, memories of the strikers by those in the movement, and an archive of photographs, posters, murals, and the Armagh H-Block Bulletin. The site also contains a calendar containing notices of international events commemorating the strikes.
http://www.hungerstrike81.com

Hunger Strike Commemoration Committee 1981-2001
http://www.hungerstrike.org

The Irish Hunger Strikes: A Commemorative Project
This commemorative site contains short biographies of the ten strikers who died, as well as a number of Republican documents from the “Troubles.”
http://www.larkspirit.com/hungerstrikes/

Irish Republican H-Block Martyrs
This site is a brief overview of the history of the 1980 and 1981 hunger strikes. It contains biographies of the ten strikers, songs written by and about them, and has a suggested reading list.
http://hometown.aol.com/drochsceal/hblockmartyrs.html

"The Legacy of Bobby Sands"
(by Jan Schuurman and Perro de Jong for Radio Netherlands, 2001) http://www.rnw.nl/hotspots/html/sands010727.html

"A State Apart"
CD-ROM created by BBC Northern Ireland regarding the “Troubles.” It contains a complete timeline history, video and audio clips, photographs, newspaper text, and other sources to explore the conflict. It also contains historical keyword essays to better search for information. The BBC Shop Arthur Street Belfast, Northern Ireland
http://www.state-apart.co.uk ShopB91@main.bbc.co.uk

Books

Beresford, David. Ten Men Dead: The Story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike. (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press) 1987.

Campbell, McKeown and O’Hagan, ed. Nor Meekly Serve My Time: The H Block Struggle 1976-1981. (Boston: Beacon Press) 1994.

Collins, Tom. The Irish Hunger Strike. (Dublin: White Island Book Co.) 1986.

Coogan, Tim Pat. On the Blanket. The H-Block Story. (Dublin : Ward River Press) 1980.
---------On the Blanket : The Inside Story of the IRA Prisoners’ “Dirty” Protest. (Boulder, CO: Roberts Rinehart) 1997.

Faul, Denis and Raymond Murray. Hunger Strikes: The Search for Solutions. (Armagh: The Authors) 1981.

McKeown, Laurence. Out of Time: Irish Republican Prisoners Long Kesh 1972-2000. (Beyond the Pale Publications, 2001). McKeown spent 70 days on hunger strike in 1981.

Rutherford, Graham. The New York Times and the Northern Ireland Hunger Strikes of 1980-1981. (Belfast: The author) 1985.

O’Hanlon, Ray. The New Irish Americans. (Boulder, CO: Roberts Rinehart) 1998.

O'Malley, Padraig. Biting at the Grave: The Irish Hunger Strikes and the Politics of Despair. (Belfast: Blackstaff Press) 1990.

Wilson, Andrew J. Irish America and the Ulster Conflict, 1968-1995. (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press) 1995.

Articles

“Children of War: Out of the Horror, Amazing Strength,” Time Magazine Special Report (January 11, 1982), 33-37.

Hickey, Neil. “The Battle for Northern Ireland: How TV Tips the Balance,” TV Guide (Sept. 26-Oct. 2, 1981), 8-27.

Katz, Aviva. "The 1981 Irish Hunger Strike Struggle For Legitimacy or Pathology Of Terrorism?" (M.A. thesis, Department of Political Science, University Of Haifa) includes a section called "Reporting the Hunger Strike."
http://www.ict.org.il/articles/1981_ira_hungerstrike.htm

Mulcahy, A. “Claims-making and the Construction of Legitimacy: Press Coverage of the 1981 Northern Irish Hunger Strike,” Social Problems 42.4 (November 1995), 449-467.

Murray, Frank, “H-Block Hunger Strikes: A Paradox of Nonviolence,” Workshop in Nonviolence 17.14 (August 1, 1981), 4-10.

"Northern Ireland, A Turning Point? Hunger Strike Deaths, The Underlying Issues, Four Different Views," St. Anthony Messenger (November 1981), 20-31.

Paletz, David L., Peter Fozzard & John Z. Ayanian, "The I.R.A., the Red Brigades, and the F.A.L.N. in The New York Times," Journal of Communication 1982 32:2, pp. 162-171.

Documentaries

"The Last Hunger Striker" (60 min., Ireland, 1982) about Mickey Devine of the Irish National Liberation Army, the last man to die in the 1981 Hunger Strikes.

"The Will To Resist: The H-Block Hunger Strike" (70 min., Ireland, 1991), a look back at the events of 1981 after ten years.

Feature Film

"Some Mother's Son" (112 min., Ireland, 1996).
Terry George, dir.; Terry George and Jim Sheridan, writers; starring Helen Mirren and Fionnula Flanagan as mothers whose sons Aiden Gillen and David O'Hara are on hunger strike in Northern Ireland in 1981.