Danny Morrison is not a
happy man right now. Indeed, he took huge umbrage at Ed Moloney’s defence in the Irish Times of Boston College’s Belfast Project. In his subsequent
letter to the newspaper, Morrison complains that Moloney “repeats allegations about myself,
Gerry Adams and the 1981 hunger strikes made by former prisoner Richard O’Rawe”,
whom Morrison accuses of “rewriting history”.
The real problem for Danny Morrison is not only that his own account of the 1981 Hunger Strike is full of holes – as Richard O’Rawe’s devastating rebuttal shows – but also that his account keeps changing. Morrison now denies that he brought in a British offer to the hunger strikers in the H-Block prison hospital when he visited Long Kesh on 5 July 1981. This was not always his stated position though.
The real problem for Danny Morrison is not only that his own account of the 1981 Hunger Strike is full of holes – as Richard O’Rawe’s devastating rebuttal shows – but also that his account keeps changing. Morrison now denies that he brought in a British offer to the hunger strikers in the H-Block prison hospital when he visited Long Kesh on 5 July 1981. This was not always his stated position though.
In a debate with Richard
O'Rawe on the BBC Radio Ulster show Talk
Back on 28 February 2005, Danny Morrison claimed that the British had in
fact made an offer through Brendan Duddy (a.k.a. the Mountain Climber), which
he then brought into the prison on July 5. Morrison maintained that the subsequent stumbling block was the British refusal to have their offer "guaranteed" by an accredited British official who would enter
the prison and formally make the offer in person.
Richard O'Rawe wrote
about this debate in his book Afterlives:
Describing to the
Talk Back audience how he had gone into the prison hospital on 5 July 1981,
Morrison said that he “explained to them [the hunger strikers] what was on
offer”, adding, “by the way, the offer that we were being offered through the
Mountain Climber was a bigger and better offer than what the ICJP thought they
had”. He went on: “After I had seen the hunger strikers, we all agreed that
this [the Mountain Climber offer] could be a resolution, but we wanted it
guaranteed.” 1
Now Danny Morrison could
well argue that this entire broadcast is a figment of O’Rawe’s imagination. I'm
sure the BBC has an archive of its radio programmes though, so O'Rawe's claim
can easily be verified or refuted.
Incidentally, Morrison’s current position – well, at least at the time of writing anyway – is that because a final document had not been drafted for British cabinet ministers, no such offer existed on July 5. However, his argument was utterly debunked
The
British explained that it was "important before drafting any documents for
consideration by Ministers" that the British should "possess the Provisionals'
view". Their view, of course, could not be known until after Morrison returned
from delivering the offer to the prisoners and was debriefed. McGuinness told
Duddy their views would be relayed to the British "after discussion in light of
Morrison’s visit".
It wasn’t until 1am on the 6th of July that the Provisionals’ view was relayed. No "final position" could be obtained from the British because the Adams committee had attached the condition that they see the draft proposal before it went public.
It wasn’t until 1am on the 6th of July that the Provisionals’ view was relayed. No "final position" could be obtained from the British because the Adams committee had attached the condition that they see the draft proposal before it went public.
Again, all of this is
likely to be dismissed by both Danny Morrison and Sinn Féin as “discredited”
lies concocted by “enemies of the peace process”. For many years, that has been
their default response to any criticism which comes their way. The irony of such
attacks by Sinn Féin on its opponents is that the British government used the
very same tactics when denying the systematic beating of republican detainees by the RUC 2
– “These people are republicans/bleeding-heart Amnesty lefties, so everything
they say about us is a lie.” Plus ça
change…
1. Richard O'Rawe, Afterlives: The Hunger Strike and the Secret Offer That Changed Irish History (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 2010), p.34 ↩
2. For a detailed examination of the torture perpetrated by British forces during the Troubles, see Ian Cobain's Cruel Britannia: A Secret History of Torture ↩
Fine piece Alfie that nails what this man did to the hunger strikers
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering why the Brits would let Adams' equivalent of Squealer from Animal Farm into the jail if he wasn't carrying an offer to the Hunger Strikers?
ReplyDeleteIn fact why did they give Bik a bed in the hospital wing near the Hunger Strikers on that day as well?
Hugh Logue of the SDLP said of his meeting with Bik....
““On the last night,” says Logue, “they [the hunger strikers] were all saying that we had to square any settlement we had, even if it was acceptable to them, with Bik.” In short, what the prisoners appeared to be saying was that if the terms were acceptable to McFarlane, they were acceptable to them. McFarlane was down the corridor in his bed – he had been brought into the hospital wing that evening and provided with a bed there so he could stay over and be available for consultation with the commissioners if the need arose. O’Mahony and Logue went down to talk to him. “He listened to us for about two minutes,” says Logue, “and turned around and went back to sleep and Joe McDonnell was going to be dead within thirty-six hours and I never forgave him for that. He was not in the business of trying to get a solution.” Nevertheless, the commissioners left in a hopeful state. Before they left, Kieran Doherty spoke briefly in Gaelic to Oliver Crilly. Doherty, Crilly told Logue, had told him that if somebody came in and read the terms out to the hunger strikers, they would accept them.”