Blanketmen : An Untold Story of the H-Block Hunger Strike

'I was told in 1991 that I could be shot for opening my mouth. But I am convinced that the truth should be told and that I have a duty to the dead hunger strikers to explain fully the events that led to their deaths.' Richard O'Rawe was a senior IRA prisoner in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh Prison. One of the 'Blanketmen', he took part in the dirty protests that led to the hunger strikes of the early 1980s. In Blanketmen, O'Rawe gives his personal account of those turbulent times that saw British and Irish governments entering unprecedented negotiations with the IRA Army Council and the prisoners themselves. Passionate, disturbing and controversial, this remains a landmark book in the cruel history of Northern Ireland. After ten years, and the release of historical state and personal papers, Richard O'Rawe's assertions in Blanketmen have been vindicated. He has been married to Bernadette for forty years, has three grown-up children, and still lives in west Belfast. "One of the most important books to emerge from the Troubles, and definitely the most courageous."--The Sunday Times ***"Richard O'Rawe deserves praise for charging one of the most cynical leaderships anywhere in this island with manipulating the courage and determination of the hunger strikers."--The Guardian ***After the recent release of historical state and personal papers, Richard O'Rawe's courageous statements, ten years after Blanketmen's initial publication, stand vindicated. At the center of O'Rawe's book lies the disclosure that six of the ten H-Block hunger strikers starved themselves to death in vain, as an offer from the British Government was on the table that could have ended the strike after four of them had died. In this passionate and controversial book, O'Rawe reveals the rationale and motives behind the negotiations and strategy changes that eventually brought about the Peace Process. [Subject: Irish Studies, History, Politics] An inside account of the H-Blocks hunger strike of the early 1980s.