September 14 @ 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Location: CA110 (SAC Room), Cairnes Building, NUI Galway Galway Ireland
Speaker(s): Dr Niall Ó Dochartaigh
Affiliation: The Conflict, Humanitarianism and Security Research Cluster
Organised by: Whitaker Institute
This paper analyses the political dynamics of the 1980 hunger strike by Irish Republican prisoners – the precursor to the hunger strike of 1981 in which ten men died – focusing on temporal dimensions of negotiations aimed at ending the protests. It draws on extensive interviews with key figures, including intermediaries, British government officials and Republican leaders, as well as extensive documentation from both official and private papers.
Contrary to the existing literature on hunger strikes which strongly emphasises culture, tradition and emotion, this paper argues that the hunger strike is closely connected to the logics of modernity. The hunger strike is a particularly concentrated and intense deployment of time pressure in the pursuit of political goals. The central defining characteristic of the hunger strike is that it provides a way for weak actors to set a deadline when dealing with complex bureaucracies that derive much of their power from deferral and delay.
The paper analyses the temporal dimensions to the hunger strike tactic, focusing especially on the way in which bargaining power and bargaining moves are intensely concentrated in the final hours. It examines the intertwined temporalities of three crucial aspects of the negotiation process: information, communication and biological processes. The paper argues that this analytical approach can be deployed in the analysis of the relationship between time and power in many other forms of protest and suggests a number of avenues for further inquiry into the temporal dimensions of protest.
This seminar is one of a series of seminars in the Whitaker Ideas Forum seminar series. Dr Ó Dochartaigh will be representing the Conflict, Humanitarianism and Security Research Cluster.
On 23 October 1980, shortly before a hunger strike by Irish Republican prisoners was due to begin, the British government announced that prisoners in Northern Ireland would be allowed to wear ‘prison issue civilian clothing’ instead of prison uniform. Republican prisoners had distilled their campaign for political status into five demands that included the right to wear their own clothes. Intermediaries had been advising the British government that if prisoners were allowed their own clothes and got concessions on the issue of prison work a hunger strike could be averted. The British government seem to have come very close in October 1980 to conceding on the clothing issue but at the final stage the government balked. Fearful that prison officers would refuse to implement the changes, and facing strong direct pressure against compromise from unionist politicians, they came up with the idea of civilian-style clothing, a measure aimed at demonstrating flexibility.
The prisoners rejected this move, as expected. The British government emphasized that civilian-style clothing meant the end of the prison uniform but the images here, taken from a British government pamphlet* give a good sense of the limitations of this move. The first picture shows the prison uniform while the second shows the range of civilian-style clothing to be made available.More important than the substance of the clothing was the question of whether its acceptance would be seen as a defeat for the prisoners. The limited range of clothing and the extent of its uniformity maintained the basic principle that the prison authorities would decide what prisoners wore and made it more likely that it would be seen by prisoners as a defeat.
I was a panelist on RTE’s ‘The Week in Politics’ for the first time yesterday (7 May) discussing the results of the Northern Assembly elections along with Martin Mansergh and presenter Áine Lawlor. The two main parties had a great election with the DUP gaining the same number of seats as last time despite strong challenges on the right from the TUV and UKIP. Sinn Féin dropped just one seat in the face of the challenge on the left from People before Profit (PBP). With two PBP MLAs and two Greens (up from one) there are now four opposition MLAs in the new Assembly who are broadly on the left – out of 108. Available on RTE Player until 28 May. 
