Thatcher’s secret attempt to end hunger strikes
Details of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s secret attempts to end the 1981 IRA hunger strikes have been revealed in official documents made public for the very first time.
After insisting she would not bow to the demands of republican prisoners held in the Maze Prison the files released by the National Archives in London, show how her government sent messages to the IRA leadership through a secret intermediary promising concessions if the strikes were called off.
The hunger strikes triggered one of the worst crises of the Troubles.
The government’s perceived intransigence drew widespread international condemnation and by the beginning of July, the pressure on the prime minister was intense.
Four hunger strikers had died, and before his death their leader, 27-year-old Bobby Sands, had secured a propaganda coup, winning an election as an MP after standing in the Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election.
So when the remaining hunger strikers issued a statement dropping their demand to be treated as “prisoners of war”, Mrs Thatcher authorised a message to be sent setting out the concessions the government would make if the strikes were ended.
The go-between who relayed the message to the leadership of the Provisional IRA is identified in the National Archives files only by the codename “Soon”.
He has, however, been named previously as Brendan Duddy, a Londonderry businessman who for more than 20 years acted as a secret intermediary between the Government and the IRA through his contacts with MI6 officer Michael Oatley.
The files include a log of a series of frantic telephone calls between Soon and his MI6 contact in the days leading up to the government’s offer. In one call Soon explained the IRA’s demands.
Concessions included allowing the prisoners to wear their own clothes, rather than prison uniform, and to receive normal visits.
However, negotiations were fraught and concessions rejected, and a fifth hunger striker, Joe McDonnell, died.
The files also contain claims hunger striker Raymond McCreesh, wanted his life to be saved but his family prevented medical intervention, allegations the family reject.
The document also reveals how the current First Minister – Peter Robinson believed a civil war could break out before Christmas 1981 following the murder of a Unionist politician and amid an increase in violence.
