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Nicole's
Travelogues and Budget Travel Tips..
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BELFAST (CONT.), IRELAND
We drove passed Mater Hospital where Máire Drumm was murdered. On October 28, 1976, Máire Drumm, then Vice-President of Sinn Féin (SF), was awaiting (or recovering from) an eye operation in her bed. Loyalist gunmen, dressed like docters, walked into her room and shot her in her bed.
Then went to the front of the building to see the Sinn Féin Headquarters at 229 Falls Road and Sevastapol Street (opened 2/26/2000).
Anyway, I bought a murals book, a book on Bobby Sands, a murals poster, and a few pins. Oh and I bought a tshirt with photos of Nelson Mandela and Bobby Sands and the ANC and Sinn Fein logos. Mom and I joked with Lisa saying that she should buy a shirt for her husband (who is English). Ha ha ha. Um yea. |
Ten prisoners died in the 1981 Hunger Strike. Their names, their paramiltary affiliation, hometown, dates of death, and length of hunger strike are below: Bobby Sands, IRA, Belfast (Twinbrook), 5 May, 66 days Francis Hughes, IRA, Bellaghy, 12 May, 59 days Patsy O’Hara, INLA, Derry, 21 May, 61 days Raymond McCreesh, IRA, Camlough, 21 May, 61 days Joe McDonnell, IRA, Belfast (Lenadoon), 8 July, 61 days Martin Hurson, IRA, Cappagh, 13 July, 46 days Kevin Lynch, INLA, Dungiven, 1 Aug, 71 days Kieran Doherty, IRA, Belfast (Andersonstown), 2 Aug, 73 days Thomas McElwee, IRA, Bellaghy, 8 Aug, 62 days Michael Devine, INLA, Derry, 20 Aug, 60 days
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Then we passed another memorial to the H-Block Hunger Strikers. In 1981, Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland for the British government to grant them political status. The process which led up to Hunger Strikes began in 1976. The British government ended its previous policy of giving Special Category Status to paramilitary prisoners in Northern Ireland prisons. Special Category, or political, status meant prisoners were treated very like prisoners of war (they did not have to wear prison uniforms or do prison work). On March 1, 1981, Bobby Sands was the first to refuse food. Sands was nominated as an Anti H-Block candidate, and was elected to the House of Commons on April 9, 1981. On October 3, 1981, the IRA and INLA called off the hunger strike. 
On Falls Road, is the famous mural of hunger striker Bobby Sands. After 66 days on hunger strike Bobby Sands (26), then a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and a Member of Parliament, died in the Maze Prison on May 5, 1981. On May 7, 1981, An estimated 100,000 people attended the funeral of Bobby Sands in Belfast. I really was looking forward to seeing the mural in person, after seeing so many pictures of it and reading Bobby Sands' journal he kept during the hunger strike. We hopped out and spent some time taking photos in front of the mural. 
The name 
Pat didn't tell us that their was a store a few doors down selling Republican books, posters, and pins. So we missed the store and had to return the next day, delaying our trip to Scotland (and paying a ridiculous change in airfare fee!). 