Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59211 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 261 pages

Customer Reviews

An astonishing insight into the 1981 Hunger Strike
I urge you to suspend judgement & read this lucid and honest account of the events that took place inside the H-Blocks. The author tells his story with wry humour starting with how he ended up inside after a bodged up bank robbery for the IRA. He explains the events that led to the dirty protest - where prisoners smeared excrement over their cell walls - and on ultimately to the hunger strike.

He tells of the pressure he felt seeing his mates slowly starving themselves to death to uphold their principles and the fight for their right to political status. Fresh insights are given into the machinations of the republican leadership for which the author is refreshingly open and critical.

O'Rawes book shines with a masculine humanity and camaradarie, without a trace of self pity, that cannot be beaten even in the most desperate of circumstances.

By any standards this is a well written and important memoir.

Excellent - and quite disturbing
To get the chance to read the inside story of the hunger strikers in H-Block is definitely fascinating. Down to the last detail of their banter, their despair, the interaction between the prisoners, and the difficult situation of explaining their motives to even close relatives - it's all there in this fascinating account.
However, O'Rawe also raises the controversial subject of whether the hunger strike could possibly have been brought to an earlier end if the Army Council had been preapred to do so. This difficult issue has been extensively discussed, and many people, most notably Danny Morrison, have contradicted O'Rawe's assessment.
Of course, the "common reader" will not be able to decide where the truth ultimately lies. One thing is for sure, though, O'Rawe's account is honest, direct and - by raising that most difficult issue - deeply disturbing.

Blanketmen and Hunger Strikers: the naked truth.
I never cease to be amazed at the quality of text produced by those who have in the past been branded as 'mindless criminals' by the British State. Gerry Adams is a writer of exceptional quality, others include Danny Morrison and Lorny McKeown. Richard O'Rawe can now be added to that list. This is a book of exceptional clarity and readability - it is hardly any wonder that O'Rawe was chosen to be the PRO for H3 at the time of the 1981 hunger strike.

The book benefits from having short chapters (of which there are many) and this means that you can make your way through it without interrupting the flow if, like me, you tend to read in spurts rather than long sessions. The book is candid in its treatment of the role of the Army Council during the summer of 1981 and, in particular, that of Gerry Adams. Debate is what politics are all about and others may take a different tack than the one advocated by O'Rawe, but he is sincere about his concerns and this demands some measure of respect. He was, after all, in the front line. I don't personally agree with some of his views on the role of the leadership, particularly given the political gains that have occurred since the election of Bobby Sands, but others might.

If you are interested in the trials and tribulations of the blanketmen and the political machinations behind the 1980 and 1981 hunger strikes, then this is the book for you. I heartily recommend it.