Quarter-century
on, survivor looks back on N.Ireland turning point
By
Herve Amoric
AFP
BELFAST
Petroleumworld.com
02 28 06
Looking back 25 years, Laurence McKeown believes the hunger strike
that he staged in a British prison alongside Bobby Sands was the
moment that put Northern Ireland on the path to peace.
Now 49, with an athlete's build and a Buddhist calm, McKeown was
one of the 11 survivors of what became a 217-day protest in the
notorious Maze prison that took the life of Sands and nine other
Irish Republican Army (IRA) activists.
"In a way, the hunger strikes helped to initiate what became
known as the peace process," McKeown, a social worker with
a doctorate degree in sociology, told AFP in an interview.
"Prior to that, Sinn Fein (the political wing of the IRA)
did not take part in elections," he said.
"Bobby Sands showed the way, and before two years Sinn Fein
stood in elections. They saw the benefits of the electoral process."
"For many, it is the event which had the deepest impact on
the republican and nationalist psyche. It lasted a long time,
too."
McKeown himself went without food for 70 days; he survived thanks
to his parents who insisted on feeding him intravenously after
he fell unconscious during the hunger strike in which participants
joined at intervals.
Sands himself died of starvation after 66 days, at the age of
27, but not before winning a seat in the British parliament by
narrowly taking a by-election on an "Anti H-Block Armagh
Political Prisoner" ticket.
Sinn Fein -- which wants Northern Ireland to be part of Ireland
proper -- now is the biggest republican party in Northern Ireland,
with deputies in the British parliament (where it refuses to take
its seats), in the Dail in the Irish capital Dublin, and in the
European Parliament.
It is also the biggest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly,
which remains suspended as the rival Protestant, pro-British Democratic
Unionist Party refuses to share power with it.
As for the IRA, in July last year, seven years after the Good
Friday peace accords which largely ended three decades of sectarian
strife, it formally renounced armed struggle. Two months later
it gave up its arsenal.
"Ireland has changed a lot," McKeown said.
"It is far more confident, with a strong economy, a role
in Europe, a strong cultural heritage -- and there is the fact
that the armed struggle is over."
"Many people who were afraid to come and speak openly about
the whole issue of partition and the British presence in Ireland
do talk more openly about it."
He pointed out that the hunger strikes will be commemorated throughout
Ireland, and not just amongst IRA sympathisers, with a special
film festival in Belfast on March 28, and shows and debates at
the Galway arts festival.
"I work for a republican ex-prisoners organisation,"
he continued. "We are putting on an event where we are showing
a short film and we are having representatives of loyalist prisoners
speak alongside republicans."
"These were young people, 19 or 20 years of age who went
to prison and died," he added. "Their story still fascinates
a lot of people."
He cited another example: "Queen's University (in Belfast),
which was 20 years ago a bastion of white male unionists, is producing
a biography of Bobby Sands. So the heritage is being explored
and shared."
McKeown was 20 years old when he was sentenced to life in prison
for his role in several attacks and for the attempted murder of
a police officer. In all he spent 23 years behind bars, where
he began his university studies.
"Now Long Kesh (the Irish name for Maze prison) is closed
and it's going to be turned into a museum," said McKeown,
who remembers his incarceration as the time when he first learned
about Fidel Castro's Cuba.
"The hunger strike forced me to take a very philosophical
outlook on things," he added.
"I am a lot more patient that I would have been, more reflective
and determined, and I find it very curious when people get excited
about mundane things. It made republicans more confident."
AFP
02 28 06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
