A Nation Once Again

Starting tomorrow, I will begin a ten stretch in which I will be eating no food.  The reason for this fast is to display support of ten brave men who gave their lives in the battle to live in a country that is not occupied by an enemy force.  In 1981 a portion of the country of Ireland was, and still is, occupied by hostile British military forces.   The men who gave their lives were political prisoners in Ireland’s fight for freedom from foreign rule. 

They had five demands, which they felt due to them as political prisoners.

1. The Right not to wear a prison uniform;
2. The Right not to do prison work;
3. The Right of free association with other prisoners;
4. The Right to organize their own educational and recreational facilities
5. The Right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week

It took ten men dying of hunger before the Crown gave in to the prisoner’s demands.  I chose not to eat for the next ten days in honor of the sacrifice that these men gave in the attempt to secure the rights of the many.  Over the next ten days, I’ll be posting a brief update on my personal sacrifice and giving a short biography on each of the men who so nobly gave their lives.

SAOIRSE

For more info on the struggle for Irish freedom please see:

http://sinnfein.org/

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/

http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/irishnorthernaidcommittee/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=101

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/ethnopolitics/index.html