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Home Page > News > State papers claim Bobby Sands offered to suspend hunger strike a week before his death

State papers claim Bobby Sands offered to suspend hunger strike a week before his death

Margaret Thatcher turned down offer made to Papal secretary John Magee

CATHAL DERVAN,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Friday, December 30, 2011, 7:30 AM

Updated Friday, December 30, 2011, 10:39 AM

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The leader of the 1981 hunger strike,Bobby Sands died on 5 May 1981

Photo by Irish World

Secret Irish government files just released into the public domain claim that Bobby Sands offered to suspend his hunger strike just a week before his death.

The sensational claims will feature in an RTE television documentary on Friday night, 30 years after 10 men died in the H-Block protests.

IRA sources have denied that Sands ever made such a gesture but the files, released on Friday morning, clearly state that the offer was conveyed to the British government by then Papal secretary, John Magee.

The documents, part of many relating to the hunger strikes released under the 30-year rule, report on a meeting between Sands and Magee, later to become the Bishop of Cloyne.

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Two priests and three other prisoners are reported to have witnessed the meeting between Sands and Magee, just seven days before the IRA prisoner lost his life.

At a subsequent meeting, Father Magee told Northern Secretary Humphrey Atkins that Sands had said he would suspend his strike in return for discussions with a British government official.

The British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her government rejected the offer out of hand, claiming it was an attempt to open negotiations.

Following the publication of the claims on Friday, senior Republicans involved in the hunger strike have told RTÉ News that they had ‘never heard of such an offer’.

They also said it ‘went against’ everything Bobby Sands did and said during the hunger strikes.

Nster.com

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67 Comments

15 - 67 | See all comments

DanOLoingsigh | Jan 11, 2012, 02:20 AM EST

Oooops, you missed the target...again...width? height? = TWO DIMENSIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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seanomelbourne | Jan 10, 2012, 06:07 PM EST

Impressions ! just like a french painting, one dimensional.

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DanOLoingsigh | Jan 09, 2012, 06:59 PM EST

seano - so you claim to know how those people felt and what was in their minds? Well I based my observations on the evidence before me... they had their weekend, drank alot. laughed a lot. sang a lot. no different to other similar weekends, apart from this hourly demonstration as I described. I can certainly say no-one appeared to be distraught over events up north...more they were fearful that any of that would impact on their life...that was my impression...which I am happy to share with you.

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seanomelbourne | Jan 08, 2012, 06:11 PM EST

You make it up as you go dan.I'm sure you did not ask those thousands having a good time what their sentiments were on the strike.Sands had the sympathy of people from all political persuasions. It would appear he did'nt have yours. So to sum up your critique "If you're having a good time therefore you're ambivilant" hmmm!!

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FallsRNat | Jan 07, 2012, 09:45 PM EST

ancavker - well since the english exchequer subsidises the scottish to the tune of £12b a year, the £7b to NI is a drop in the ocean, they could hand it back to the South, but i'll be very suprised if the Germans would want to fund another reunification as they control the purse strings of the south, the shinners have gone very quiet up here in the north as even they now recognise that the only way there could be an independent UI would be for the SI to leave the EU & refloat their own currency, this is never gonna happen as all 3 of the main parties are so gung ho pro-europeans, the irony hasn't been lost on most of NI nationalists that we are better off under UK rule, the scenes of SI making preparations for shopping trips here in the North because of imposed tax increases by the EU with more to come makes the issue of a UI a distant dream even for the most diehard republican, until SI can offer the NI catholics more economically & guarantee it will stay that way, then a UI will not happen anytime soon. Scotland could go their own way, but i doubt, the level of support for a IS is just not there, as for Ulster well, the DUP play the Scottish national anthem at the conference each year, i'm sure there'll welcome an independent 85% protestant scottish state on their doorstep, they could leave the UK as well and join the scots, i wonder why most RCs in Scotland are pro union.

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DanOLoingsigh | Jan 07, 2012, 07:18 PM EST

Seano - Unlike you I don't state things are facts without checking - eg Your completely false claims re Rory McIlroy - I say what I saw, and what it appeared to suggest - as you weren't there, I hardly think you can give your impression of those events - and that's a fact!!

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seanomelbourne | Jan 06, 2012, 05:26 PM EST

People did not stop having a good time,therefore they were ambivalent to events in the north. It seems the truth in Dans eyes seems to be the presumptions he makes and lists them as fact.

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IrelandNorth | Jan 04, 2012, 08:04 AM EST

Every time I think of the famous biblical quote: "What shall it profitteth a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul. And what shall a man give in exchange for his sould?" I think of the British (English). They barterred their Anglo-Saxon souls for the British Empire.

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DanOLoingsigh | Jan 03, 2012, 07:01 PM EST

My main memory of 1981 was when at the annual ‘Fleadh Cheoil’, part music festival, part binge-drinking weekend, in Listowel, Co. Kerry. Every hour, on the hour, a ‘mock funeral’ was staged around the town square; complete with priests, coffins, mourners, beret-wearing escort, and all led by a ‘blanket man’ (for those too young, a middle-aged men wearing only an army style grey blanket), as supporters passed buckets around labelled ‘Prisoners Aid’. Within minutes, all the lads were back in the pubs, laughing, clapping, swilling the black stuff and playing or listening to tunes. This was August, well into the strike, but the crowd seemed determined not to let events in the north stop them having a good time…it seemed to sum up the ambivalent attitude of most southerners towards events ‘up there’.

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DanOLoingsigh | Jan 03, 2012, 06:57 PM EST

Seano - my difficulty is that if I leave your posts alone, some readers will think they are completely true...no spite is intended...

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seanomelbourne | Jan 03, 2012, 05:11 PM EST

Now Dan you're showing a little spite.To say Sands was not a republican candidate and by his actions an IRA supporter is silly.WE all know the IRA is/was not a political party. Let's just say my last post was rethorical and did not need correcting.That dam nitpicking again.

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ancavker | Jan 03, 2012, 04:16 PM EST

falls: I don; think most Irish-Americans are advocating that the Ulster Unionists be sent back to Scotland or England after 400 hundred years, that is just stupid. The argument has always been that because of their past and how they arrived in Ireland, they did not have the right to carve out a chunk for themselves, or if one believes that they did, it never should have been as large an area as it ended up being. That being said far more important to Ireland both parts is what happens in the event of Scotland leaving the U.K., or getting devo max. Where does that leave Ulster, the six counties, northern Ireland, or whatever one chooses to call it. To think that the U.K. would still survive were this to happen is naive on the part of those who may believe that it will. How long do you think the English will continue to subsidize the north, to the tune of billions a year? And more importantly what right do the people in the north have to continue to expect that subsidy??

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GeorgeDillon | Jan 03, 2012, 02:06 PM EST

OLoingsigh is right and Seanomelbourne is wrong. Sands most certainly did not contest the election seeking "a mandate for the IRA". In fact Sands' campaign tried to be as broad based as possible and in fact asked people to "lend" Sands a vote on this one specific issue. This issue was that Republican prisoners had been picked up by special police and military, had been tried under special laws, had been convicted in special courts, and were kept in special jails. Any honest person could see that these were therefore special prisoners, you didn't have to support the IRA to see it. That's what the campaign was about.

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DanOLoingsigh | Jan 03, 2012, 05:03 AM EST

Seano - what you call nitpicking is just getting the story right...not much of a mandate really, as he didn't stand on an IRA ticket...

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seanomelbourne | Jan 02, 2012, 07:53 PM EST

Nitpicking Dan is having a field day Bobby did receive a majority of the vote 51.2% and the unionist(West) 48.8% to be exact a beautiful result and a mandate for the IRA.

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