In the U.S. the mainstream media does its best to trivialize that which is not favored. The events as they occurred in Occupied Ireland from the beginning of resistance in the last quarter of the 20th Century until the Good Friday Agreement is known as the "Troubles' ' and not the Armed Struggle.
Thus it became not a protest against injustice and a war against an occupying power, but merely a regional indigestion.
It worked, and why wouldn't it? Mass indoctrination of the populace via all forms of propaganda became pervasive in the last century and has only accelerated in this. Witness the full court press to tell us that Ukraine's war with Russia is a holy crusade of innocents. One should only be shocked that there is not a call to the Holy Father to open a case for the canonization of Volodymyr Zelensky. Even more shocking it would be if Francis did not comply.
The men and women who took up arms against the colonial government did so in a world that was against them. It was not blatant, but subtle in that the participants were not called untermenschen, but were characterized as misguided rebels.
In the U.S. The people who supported the Armed Struggle were few and were considered by the assimilationist Americans of Irish descent as somewhat outré.
That comprehension changed somewhat when ten men, in a continuation of the struggle, fought back in a way that was difficult for citizens of a country who feel the least inconvenience as suffering to comprehend.
The men were in the prison known as Long Kesh. They had been operating as volunteers in the Provisional Irish Republican Army and had been captured by the occupying forces.
They saw themselves as prisoners of war while the authorities, after a non-jury "trial", wished to characterize them as convicts.
What the men did was beyond comprehension of the public outside of the occupied counties. People in the Republic of Ireland had some knowledge, though the state had ambivalence as it came into being due to the actions of men who resisted the occupation state earlier in the century.
A hunger strike, in most cases in the modern world, is all too often a statement, or maybe theater. A bit of notice and it's back to the buffet table.
Not so for the men in Long Kesh for whom it was a part of the struggle and in deadly earnest.
Caolán P. McAleese, has written about one of the ten in the book, No Prouder Boast: A Francis Hughes Story.
McAleese is from Bellaghy as was Francis Hughes. The book is a biography, but more, as the subtitle has it , a "story." In that sense, it could be considered a labor of love.
Francis Hughes was born into a "Republican" family which did not automatically lead to his trajectory as an IRA volunteer and then hunger striker, but it is difficult to imagine it happening if he had a different background.
For a number of years, Hughes was able to fight against the crown forces until suffering incapacitating wounds in an operation, he was captured and imprisoned.
Francis would take his place among his fellow prisoners. He would join the protest for political status.
As the UK government would resist that, it seems hunger striking was inevitable.
Bobby Sands has his place in history as the first hunger striker, but Francis Hughes would take his place in the struggle and 59 days later, he would pass away on March 15, 1981.
Mr. McAleese's book is a Bellaghy story and is told kindly about a man from a neighboring family who served his country with far more self-awareness than some who enlisted in, say, Desert Storm or the Iraq invasion. The book, however, is not hagiography and deserves to be read for what it is, the story of a man who stood up.
There is an aspect of the book that was a bit disturbing. I am not a poet, and though there is verse I have enjoyed in my life, I could not be considered a fan. No Prouder Boast's author is. On Page 110 the late poet Seumas Heaney is quoted as saying, "Francis Hughes was a neighbour's child, yes, but he was also a hit man, and his Protestant neighbours would have considered him involved in a war of genocide against them rather than a war of liberation against occupyong forces of the crown. At this stage the IRA's self image as liberators didn't work much magic with me.
Heaney had an association with Bellaghy and remarks such as genocide are a disgrace.
A friend from Bellaghy had given me an autographed copy of Heaney's poetry after he had won the Nobel. I felt it an honor, but feel differently now. Heaney's comment was, as we say over here, a cheap shot.