Uneasy Calm

The hunger strike loses force

Since an emaciated Bobby Sands died in Maze Prison near Belfast four months ago, nine other hunger strikers have starved themselves to death. Outside the prison, some 50 persons have been killed in violent and emotional incidents generated by the battle of wills in the H-block section of the prison. The Provisional Irish Republican Army, which organized the strike, gained a propaganda victory, attracted new recruits and got financial contributions from the U.S. But now that may be changing. Under increasing pressure from families of the prisoners and the Roman Catholic Church--combined with the refusal of Britain's government to grant the prisoners "political" status--the hunger strikers' campaign seems to be losing its momentum.

As Laurence McKeown, 24, neared death after 70 days of starvation, his family last week asked authorities to take measures to save him. Only two days before, the relatives of Matthew Devlin, 31, stopped his fast after 46 days, when he had difficulty breathing. In all, four hunger strikers have been saved by their families in the five weeks since the relatives of Patrick Quinn, 29, intervened when he was in a weakened state. So far, none of them has resumed his fast.

Although six prisoners continued to refuse food, the interventions by strikers' families have damaged I.R.A. credibility and hurt the morale of H-block prisoners. But the protest movement was dealt an even more severe blow last week when leaders of an I.R.A. offshoot organization, the paramilitary Irish National Liberation Army, refused "for the present" to allow more of its members to join the hunger strike. (Three of the 32 I.N.L.A. prisoners in H-block have died so far.) Said an I.N.L.A. statement: "All of our prisoners would be dead within six months. It is obvious now that the British government is being far more intransigent than we had expected."

Leading Catholic clergymen have been increasingly vocal in expressing their misgivings about the wisdom of the hunger strike. Father Denis Paul, a chaplain at Maze Prison, has called on the I.R.A. to end the fasts. The Most Rev. Cahal Daly, Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise in the Irish Republic, has condemned the "sick charade of guns and volleys fired over dead bodies at funerals." After two young Protestant police officers were killed last week by an I.R.A. land mine, Tomas Cardinal O'Fiaich, the Primate of All Ireland, declared: "This act must be called by its proper name of murder. I plead for an immediate end to this cruel and senseless carnage."

Last week the government of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher welcomed "the decision of some prisoners or their families to end this distressing protest," in the words of a British official. The hard-line position may have paid off for the moment, but the H-block crisis has further polarized Catholic and Protestant factions in Northern Ireland and revived anti-British feeling in the Irish Republic. Says Bishop Edward Daly of Derry: "Whether the hunger strike crumbles or not, a lot has been lost."

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