Envoy dismayed as Sands mission fails

Press, 1 May 1981, Page 6

Envoy dismayed as Sands mission fails

NZPA-Reuter Belfast As preparations for the death of the Irish Republican Army hunger striker, Bobby Sands, were being made in Ulster yesterday, the papal envoy (the Rev. John Magee) was said to be dismayed that his mission to try to save Sands’s life was disintegrating. Father Magee, the Popes private secretary, left the Maze prison after a second unavailing appeal to Sands and later went into conference with the Primate of Ireland (Cardinal Tomas O’Fiaich). There was a suggestion that Father Magee would tiy again to see Sands, but this could not be confirmed last evening. The pro-Republican Hblock committee in Londonderry said that if Sands died it would express its “anger and sorrow” over a three-day mourning period “in a solemn and peaceful manner.”

It called for a strike

among workers, a huge turnout for the funeral and public meetings. . As the British Government stood firm on its refusal to concede any of the hunger strikers’ demands, Republicans and Loyalists prepared for a feared explosion of violence. After Loyalists performed a “mobilisation exercise” in west Belfast, Catholics in the area laid plans to evacuate children across the border, set up their own defence committees and planned routes for food and medical supplies. A leading member or the H-Block committee, Mr Jim Gibney, said that Father Magee had been surprised by the “heavy hand” of the Ulster Secretary (Mr Humphrey Atkins) in dealing with the prison dispute. Father Magee looked grim-faced as he was driven from the Maze prison after spending another 4%: hours there yesterday. He had seen the three other hunger strikers —

Frankie Hughey aged « now said by RepablfcS sources to be deterionfa* at an “alarming rate” aw 48 days on hunger strike, Raymond McCreesh m2 Patsy O’Hara; both aged H Later the Northern Office said there had beenno sign from any of the foot that they would call off thefe hunger strike and accept medical treatment There were outbreaks of trouble in Belfast during the night. In the Old Park Road, 10 high-velocity shots were fired at an Amy patrol Earlieir, a van was hijacked and set on fire. In the Short Strand area of east Belfast petrol bomba were thrown at an engineering works but caused little damage. Bottles were thrown at policemen apparently from a crowd of jubilant football supporters. In Armagh, 14 petrol bombs were found stacked in a crate beside a heap of stones on the -edge of a' housing estate. -■