Dublin protest goes peacefully

Press, 27 July 1981, Page 8

Dublin protest goes peacefully

NZPA Dublin A protest march in support of Irish Republican hunger strikers in Northern Ireland passed quietly through Dublin yesterday watched by 3000 riot-helmeted police in driving rain. With a 650-man battalion of armed troops standing by, the estimated 7000 marchers made no effort to approach the British Embassy, scene of fierce clashes between demonstrators and the police a week earlier which left more than 200 injured.

Authorities had feared a repetition, but the police said there was no serious trouble. Three men from Dublin were arrested for possession of potential weapons. A nailed club, a slingshot with ball

bearings, and a pointed steel pole were confiscated.

At the Maze Prison near Belfast in the north, two hunger strikers were "lingering on the verge of- death." according to Sinn Fein, political wing of the Irish Republican Army. Kieran Doherty, 65 days without -food, and Kevin Lynch, on hunger strike for 64 days, were in critical condition in the Maze hospital wing. Both men are 25. Doherty was elected a member of’ the Irish Parliament on June 11.

Patrick Quinn, another hunger striker in the Maze, was reported to be displaying the same symptoms as Martin Hurson, who died on July 13 in the forty-fifth day of his hunger strike.