[The hunger strike has ended - with ten…]

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The hunger strike has ended - with ten LOUTH men dead and no sign of political status This is an interview with Bernadette -a sixteen-year-old from the north of Ireland. She describes what life has been like since the war started over Youth ön the march in the North supporting the prisoners's demands Troos Out! eleven years ago.

• What are your experiences of living and growing up in the North of Ireland during the present war? • Well, in 1968 I was 4 years old when the civil rights started and then in 1971 when internment began Iwas 6. I saw cur home being raided by the British Army and my brother being dragged out of the house; he was 16 at the time.

After a couple of hours they let him go. It was a case of mistaken identity. They were looking for my older brother. He had to walk down the street at about 12 at night wearing only his pyjamas. He has since been arrested and is now on the blanket doing 25 years.

From the time of internment, my family has never been together. My father has been on the run from 1971. One of my brothers has been interned twice, he is now on the blanket doing 12 years.

Another brother has been in jail once. In 1974 my mother was in jail on a trumped up charge: the British Army planted magazines (ammunition clips) inour back yard and put my mother in jail.

How old were

when that happened?

• I was nine. There was just my sister, who was 19 at that time, and myself left at home. Out of a family of eight there was just the two of us still at home. the was had and And did you cope? •You'd just try and get by as best you could. Iwas used to the family being. divided and not being tog ether anyway. I just used to go and see my mother every week and try not to Divided You'd just try and get by as best you could. I was used to the family being divided and not being together anyway. 1 just used to go and see my mother every week and try not to think about it.

•Did your mother ever "speak of what it was like inside Armagh jail? •Yes, she talks about it and tells of her time in Armagh. She says the feeling of solidarity and togetherness among all Republican prisoners very strong as they alt the same principles ideals.

Has this experience affected the family as a whole?

• Ifeel very bitter and angry at the British - the British government and the British Army because of what they have done not only to my family, but to a lot of other families and to my country. All that people like myself want to do is live a normal life. I feel very deep bitterness, anger and resentment.

Protested

•So what has been reaction to this?

• I've tried peaceful protest to demonstrate my anger and bitterness, but the British government won't even accept this as can be seen in Derry, when in 1972 the British Army killed 14 people who were taking part in a ment.

There is nothing else that ordinary people can do except protest on the streets. When the IRA took up arms to do something about this, they were condemned from all directions, but too many people seem to forget that if it was not for the IRA, the nationalist population of the north might well have been slaughtered.

- You have two brothers on the blanker al the moment. Whar does it feel like when you go to visit them? • The first time I saw them "I was shocked. When I first saw my - brother who is doing 25 years, he had been on the blanket over a year. He refused to take: a visit even, because he did not want to put on the criminal uniform.

Terrible

* But atter: a year he thought he was cutting himself off too much from the family.

• The first time I saw him was really terrible. From a man who had been 22 vears old when he was arrested. he had turned into an old man of about 60. He had a long scragg! beard and his hair was matted down with grease. His skin was a waxy colour and his hands were freezing and he could not stop them shaking. There was nothing I could see in him that I recognised trom before, It was awful seeing him like that. You didn't want to look upset to annoy him and wou wouldn't break down/in front of the screws they would just love : to see that.

But despite his appearance, his morale was great, so high. Especially despite the unending petty harassment.

Late

For example, on a recent visit my mother was going to visit my two brothers. They had both been brought to the visiting area to separate cubicles at different ends of the room. Each had no idea that the other was there. My mother had to have her half hour visit with one, before speaking to my second brother who had no idea at all why he was being kept waiting or why my mother was late.

In over two years in the same prison my brothers have not seen each other once.

- Having two brothers on the blanket, how do you feel about the hunger strike?

• I feel very bitter.

There's ten men dead now and it's very hard to take. The British just seem to be letting them die like flies. But I still stand one hundred per cent behind the prisoners and the hunger strikers.

• How do you think the hunger strike has affected the way people have org anised behind the prisoners?

• Not only the present hunger strike but also the hunger strike which:

Anish har ended last Decemoer Has really mobilised support, especialyy from the Irish people in the North and the South.

The hunger strike has brought a reawakening because whenever nothing terrible is done to you for a couple of years, the anger and resentment which is always there, isn't brought to thesur.face.

But the anger has resurfaced, especially with the death of a hunger striker.

This has been shown in various elections. In Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Bobby Sands was elected. And on August 20th Owen Carron was also elected in the same constituency. Also in the Free State, Kieran Doherty and Paddy Agnew were elected. This shows that the hunger strikers and the prisoners have support.

Ordered

What would you suy to he people who suggest hat the prisoners have beer ordered onto hunger SURE UY "E crite hotho IRA?. Iwould say that that is 1:3293 a load of rubbish. They think that the IRA are gaining something out of this, but there are ten Irishmen dead now. The decision was made entirely by the blanketmen. They were not pressurised by anyone on the outside.

Inhuman After over 5 years of the most inhuman and degrading treatment, the blanketmen felt that a hunger strike was the only way left open to them.

I feel that people, especiallt English people, who are trying to put the onus on the IRA are only trying to rid themselves of the guilt they feel.

• In what way does the hunger strike committee try to involve youth in the issue in your area? • They try to bring not only the youth, but _all people in the area onto the streets in peacefu protest to demonstrate about the situation in the H Blocks and Armagh jail.

You are over here on vour holidays. Tell uS about your impreesions of the reactions to the hunger strike over here. • The people over here seem to be very ignorant of what is going on at home because of the propaganda which ahs been put across by the British media. They make out that the IRA and the hunger strikers are thugs and common criminals who are doing this for their own ends.

This is a complete lie because common criminals would not go on hunger strike and die for Principles thier principles. The truth is that the IRA are fighting for the people and freedom of their country and the hunger strike is just another part of that struggle. It has brought world wide attention. But the world wide attention does not seem to include the British press and media.

• Another attitude that is prevalent over here is that the war in the North of Ireland is simply a Interview by the M and Ireland Group.

ester 4. religious conflict betwe Catholics and Protestan • That is a complete 1 It is a religious war in ! sense that the politici who gain the most fron try to keep it going a: religious war. But nationalist people of six counties do not wan fight with their Protest neighbours.

Of course there h: killings - these have ar been a lot of done by organisatir such as the UVF, the U and the UFF (tHE Uls Volunteer Force, Ulster Defence Assor tion and the Uister Fr dom Fighters: all loya paramilitary groups. " UDA is still a le organisation, althor the UVF and UFF proscribed) who h killed people sim because they are Ci olics.

The IRA and INLA not kill people beca they are Protestants because they are in RUC, the British Ar and the UDR, beca they are part of oppressor who has put boot on the neck of Irish people all down centuries.

anchester Wom You can conta Corn Exchan!

Ditch, Manc

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Get vaporised, get tried by raciation, or get

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peaceful protest to demo- nstrate against intern-

then at Box 15, Buildings, Hanging