Third I.R.A. hunger striker near death

Press, 19 May 1981, Page 8

Third I.R.A. hunger striker near death

NZPA-Reuter ' Belfast Another .Irish Republican Army hunger striker, Raymond McCreesh. was reported. to be nearing death yesterday on the fifty-eighth day of his fast in the Maze Prison. Amid a build-up of political pressure in London for a major reconsideration of Government policy on Northern Ireland to avert serious trouble, the I.R.A.’s political front, Sinn Fein, said McCreesh was blind, lapsing into unconsciousness and in “an advanced state of weakness.”

A spokesman said McCreesh, aged 24, had only two or three days to live.

The Northern Ireland Office said his condition “continues to deteriorate.”

Another hunger striker, Patrick O’Hara, also has gone without food for 58 days. But although Sinn Fein reported he was in a serious condition, he was not expected to die before McCreesh. The British Prime Minister (Mrs Margaret Thatcher) has repeatedly vowed she will not give in to the hunger strikers’ demands that they be treated as political prisoners rather than criminals because their crimes were politically motivated.' She said that would legitimise the Catholic I.R.A.’s campaign to oust the British from Northern Ireland and reunite it with the neighbouring Irish Republic, which is mostly Catholic. Northern Ireland's million-strong Protestant majority fiercely opposes reunification. But the hunger strike deaths and Mrs Thatcher’s determined stand has given the I.R.A.’s “Provisional”wing a powerful worldwide propaganda boost and heightened pressure from British politicians to make some concessions to end the deadlock. The traditional solidarity between Britain’s Conservative and Labour parties over the handling of the Northern

Ireland problem- is beginning to crack.

This bi-partisan approach, which has effectively stifled debate on Northern Ireland for more than a decade, has been jolted by opposition Labour Party members of Parliament who have in recent days openly criticised Mrs Thatcher’s tough no-deal policy.

Tony Benn, leader of Labour's increasingly powerful Left wing, last week called for a British military withdrawal from the turbulent province and branded partition “a crime against '.the Irish people.” He reflected growing disquiet in the Labour Party over events in Northern Ireland. Fifteen Labour members urged Mrs Thatcher to make concessions that could end the hunger strike after 70 guerrillas in the Maze volunteered to keep taking the places of men who die until they win their bitter showdown with “The Iron Lady.” In Belfast, yesterday Andy Tyrie, the self-styled supreme commander of the Protestant Ulster Defence Association, has suggested that the British Government initiate prison reform to “defuse current tension” in Northern Ireland. “We don’t believe the Provisionals are seriously interested in prison reform or political status. They are simply using it as an excuse for further violence,”he said. “So longas the Government refuses to give political status, they’re simply playing into the Provisionals’ hands.”

The U.D.A. biggest of Northern Ireland’s Protestant street armies, said that as more hunger strikers died, the province's communities would become more polarised and would eventually retreat into their traditional campus with the likely result of widescale violence.

Mr Tyrie noted that although granting political status to the I.R.A. and its allies would be widely seen as a British capitulation, the

consequences would not be likely to be very serious. ,

■ Leaders of the "Provisionals” are under mounting pressure from hard-liners to launch a new bombing campaign in Britain to avenge the death of Bobby Sands and Francis Hughes, wellplaced sources said yesterday.

"Bombing targets in London hit right at the heart of the British system,” one of the sources said.

“The Brits simply do not care about bombs in Northern Ireland. The only time they respond is when we take the war to their own doorstep.” The ■ “Provisionals” have periodically bombed London and other British cities since 1963, killing more than 60 people and wounding nearly 1000. Their last big bombing effort was in December, 1979, when they blasted an oil terminal at Canvey Island, near London, and a south London gas installation.

And with security being stepped up for the Queen after last week’s I.R.A. bomb attempt in the Shetland Islands, Princess Anne is now having her own personal security increased, the “Daily Express” columnist, William Hickey wrote yes terday. Especially worrying for security bosses was the “West Country nesting triangle” in Gloucestershire, of the houses of Princess Anne, Prince Michael of Kent, and Prince Charles. All three houses were "security nightmares,” and had now been given extra security with electronic devices, and more policemen. Princess Anne’s security already costs about $143,000 a year, half of it paid by local ratepayers. She has sought planning permission to turn the ancient stables at Gatcomb Park into flats, for "guests and staff.” According to Hickey, the extra space is needed to provide the room required for a bigger security force.