1981 Hunger Strike Commemoration

• Vol. Bobby Sands, Irish Republican Army
• Vol. Francis Hughes, Irish Republican Army
• Vol. Patsy O'Hara, Irish National Liberation Army
• Vol. Raymond McCreesh, Irish Republican Army
• Vol. Joe McDonnell, Irish Republican Army
• Vol. Martin Hurson, Irish Republican Army
• Vol. Kevin Lynch, Irish National Liberation Army
• Vol. Kieran Doherty, Irish Republican Army
• Vol. Thomas McElwee, Irish Republican Army
• Vol. Michael Devine, Irish National Liberation Army

Recommended

Hunger Strike Shop

This website is dedicated to the 10 Brave Irish martyrs who gave their lives for their comrades and their country in the Hunger Strike on 1981.

As political prisoners Irish republican volunteers were subjected to the humiliation of being classed as criminals by Margaret Thatcher and the British Government.

After exhausting every other option available Bobby Sands began a hunger strike within a British prison on Irish soil so as he and his comrades could continue to be classed as what they were, Political prisoners.

Sands and his comrades had 5 demands:

1. The Right not to wear a prison uniform;
2. The Right not to do prison work;
3. The Right of free association with other prisoners;
4. The Right to organize their own educational and recreational facilities;
5. The Right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week.

Despite overwhelming international support the British Government never relented and let Bobby Sands and nine other brave Irish martyrs fast themselves to a premature death.

Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Patsy O'Hara, Ray McCreesh, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kieran Doherty, Thomas McElwee and Michael Devine though live on till this day in the hearts of Irish republicans the world over and of couse in song.

Song is one of the greatest weapons we have against our occupying force.

It's for that reason I'm going to use this website to share songs dedicated to the ten.

Everyweek a new MP3 will be added to the site and I'll continuously update a lyrics section that should be online soon.

Tiocfaidh Ar La

Dermot

DOWNLOAD 'DEATH BEFORE REVENGE

O'Hara, Hughes, McCreesh and Sands.
Doherty and Lynch.
McDonnell, Hurson, McElwee, Devine...

Call me what you will and tell me what they say,
For tomorrow brings a new wind and the rain has gone away.
For within these walls I see the sun as it shines o’er the hill
Down into the valley and amongst the daffodils.

But when this war is over and I see your face again,
Then I’ll tell you of the warriors who put death before revenge.

Now here we starve in prison to support our fellow men,
We’ve only a woollen blanket and a crucifix in our hand.
Yet the screws harass and give them hell but their spirits they cannot break,
Hold your chins up lads keep marching on, we don’t think she’ll leave it too late.

Bobby was the first to go, with Francis close behind.
People streamed onto the streets to have faith was not a crime,
And faith is what those men had when they chose to join our fight,
Their actions were political can’t those British see we’re right?

The days rolled by and two more died O’Hara and McCreesh,
Yet Thatcher chose to bite her lip, the toll was not to cease.
Still the barricades went up by day and the bullets hummed by night,
How much longer will they keep this path there is still no end in sight.

It’s a dreadful thing that those men joined our ranks of martyred brave,
That’s ten too many coffin nails and ten too many graves.
But if they’d only realised then Thatcher’ll mark us well,
They are ten more determined reasons for to brake out of this hell.

O'Hara, Hughes, McCreesh and Sands.
Doherty and Lynch.
McDonnell, Hurson, McElwee, Devine...

Read my Dreambook guestbook! Sign my Dreambook!