Bobby Sands offered to end hunger strike

lcrcboy

Story below from RTE:

Newly-released State Papers from 1981 claim that Bobby Sands offered to suspend his hunger strike just a week before his death.
According to the documents released this morning under the 30-year rule, the offer was conveyed to the British Government by the Pope's Secretary, John Magee.
30 years on, and Government archives in Dublin, Belfast and London are opened today, giving new insights into the events of 1981.
The year was dominated by the H-Block hunger strikes in Northern Ireland, in which ten men died, starting with Bobby Sands.
The papers contain the claim that just a week before his death, Sands offered to suspend his strike for five days, when he met John Magee, then Secretary to the Pope, who later became Bishop of Cloyne.
Father Magee told Northern Secretary Humphrey Atkins that Sands said he would suspend his strike in return for discussions with a British government official, in the presence of two priests and three other prisoners as witnesses.
The British rejected the offer out of hand, claiming it was an attempt to open negotiations.
Senior Republicans involved in the hunger strike have told RTÉ News they had never heard of such an offer, which they say went against everything Bobby Sands did and said during the hunger strike.

Link to story: http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1230/sandsb.html

So thoughts??

bleg

Looks like Thatcher wasn't the bitch that the provos say she was.

hondasam

what are your thoughts on the subject op?

Nodin

bleg wrote: »

Looks like Thatcher wasn't the bitch that the provos say she was.

????

im invisible

Bit late now...

Logical Fallacy

bleg wrote: »

Looks like Thatcher wasn't the bitch that the provos say she was.

Not really, more papers released recently showed how after the Liverpool riots her government basically wrote off the city and spent millions on new whomping equipment for the cops which later came in very useful during the Miner's Strike.

She was a bitch with vision.

later12

bleg wrote: »

Looks like Thatcher wasn't the bitch that the provos say she was.

I didn't disagree with Thatcher and the Conservative policy toward the hunger strikers before this new information was released. Not everybody was vehemently opposed to Thatcher because of the north; many had (and have) legitimate political disagreements with her social and economic policies.

I wish we could get beyond the notion that anyone who hates Thatcherism is a provo.

seamus

Bobby Sands in "becoming desperate on his deathbed" shocker. He was a human being who was suffering. Of course he would be open to negotiations at that stage, who wouldn't? I don't see why so many republicans have become offended at the notion that Sands was an ordinary human being who didn't actually want to die.

Disappointing though that the UK officials didn't accept his offer. Perhaps they thought he was on the verge of giving up and he'd break if they ignored his offer.

admiralofthefleet

bleg wrote: »

Looks like Thatcher wasn't the bitch that the provos say she was.

i still hope she dies from cancer of the gee

mike65

Interesting angle here is how everyone else thinks no such offer was made.

seamus

mike65 wrote: »

Interesting angle here is how everyone else thinks no such offer was made.

Of course, John Magee is still alive so they could just ask him. Though perhaps the request was made in confidence, in which case he won't say anything.

Logical Fallacy

mike65 wrote: »

Interesting angle here is how everyone else thinks no such offer was made.

More than likely a case of just refusing to believe it as it damages the image of Bobby Sands that they hold so dear.

TeddyTedson

bleg wrote: »

Looks like Thatcher wasn't the bitch that the provos say she was.

Thatcher was a bitch. Not a nice person at all.

Halloran springs

Couldn't care less.

SeanW

Does any of this matter?

hondasam

TeddyTedson wrote: »

Thatcher was a bitch. Not a nice person at all.

She had a job to do and she did it, very well most of the time.

Mr Benevolent

Man he must've been hungry. What was the strike about anyway? Price of carbombs going up?

later12

SeanW wrote: »

Does any of this matter?

To the provos, yes it should matter. It's an important clarification (or verification, indeed) of an offer that was made by the Tory Government.

To the rest of us, only to the extent of our interest in the history of the troubles.

stovelid

bleg wrote: »

Looks like Thatcher wasn't the bitch that the provos say she was.

Er she was.

You don't have to like the provos to think that.

Mike 1972

bleg wrote: »

Looks like Thatcher wasn't the bitch that the provos say she was.

She was(/is) a bitch but not for the reasons the provos said she was

Nodin

later10 wrote: »

To the provos, yes it should matter. It's an important clarification (or verification, indeed) of an offer that was made by the Tory Government.

...what offer?

biko

Politics forum please.