Nor Meekly Serve My Time: The H-Block Struggle 1976-1981

Special edition marking the 40th Anniversary of the 1981 Hunger Strike

ISBN 978-1-914318-01-6

288 pages 36 photographs 

Price:15.95

Special edition marking the 40th Anniversary of the 1981 Hunger Strike

This is the story of one of the most remarkable prison protests in history, told by the prisoners themselves. The protest began when a new regime was imposed on political prisoners in the North of Ireland in 1976. For five years hundreds of Irish Republicans in Long Kesh prison endured deprivation and brutality. Then in 1981, ten of them died a slow and painful death on hunger strike. This book tells the inside story of those prisoners who refused to be treated as criminals. Using the account of men who lived through and survived those years of protest and hunger strike, it give a moving insight into why ten men gave their lives in pursuit of a political goal.

Contents 

Acknowledgements

Glossary

The H-Block Song

Foreword by Bernadette McAliskey

Editors’ Introduction

Tribute to Brian Campbell 1960–2005

Introduction to 40th Anniversary Edition by Laurence McKeown 

1. From Crumlin Road to the H-Blocks

2. Consolidation of the Protest

3. The No-Wash Phase Begins

4. Wing Shifts, Mirror Searches and Forced Washes 

5. Craic and Camaraderie 

6. Brutality and Resistance 

7. The First Hunger Strike 

8. Confusion, Frustration, Determination

9. The Second Hunger Strike Begins 

10. A Time of Dying 

11. “We could cry no more, curse no louder, pray no harder” 

12. The Hunger Strike Ends 

Epilogue