Artistic reactions to the 1981 Irish hunger strike

Between 1 March 1976 and 3 October 1981, Irish republican prisoners in HM Prison Maze carried out a variety of protests against the withdrawal of Special Category Status for prisoners convicted of proscribed "terrorism" offences. These protests culminated in the 1981 Irish hunger strike in which ten prisoners died.

This article lists the various artistic responses to these protests, made at the time and subsequently by artists supportive or opposing the protestors, and by artists who were uninvolved in the conflict.

Street Art

Mural depicting Bobby Sands, on the Sinn Féin offices[1]

Following the hunger strike, nationalist murals depicting those considered martyrs of the hungerstrike, such as Bobby Sands began to appear,[1] relying on images and iconography developed by prisoners who hand crafted works of art and decorated their cells with murals and painting.[2] Over one hundred murals were painted in 1981 by Catholic youth, with the lark in barbed wire as the most common secular symbolic image, due largely to Sands's use of the lark in his writings and as a pseudonym.[3] Other popular images included the H representing H-block, crosses and flags, with secular images predominating, many with mottos and poems, and many murals were copies of photographs, such as the firing squad at Bobby Sands funeral service.[3]

Poetry

Fiction

Theatre

Bobby Sands, M.P. is a play written by Judy GeBauer.[25]

Films

Songs

A number of songs were written in response to the hunger strike by artists and groups such as Christy Moore[29] and the Wolfe Tones,[30] including some songs based on the poetry Sands wrote,[29] Some of the songs are memorials to specific participants in the strike, such as The Boy from Tamlaghduff, written by Christy Moore in 1983 in memory of Francis Hughes.[31] A few songs were written by Sands such as McIlhatton, a song about a moonshiner, and Back Home in Derry, a ballad about deportees.[32] The British government has at times banned some of these song, such as The Time has Come[33] and Joe McDonnell.[34] In 2006, a proposed bill which would outlaw promotion or glorification of terrorist or violent acts raised concerns that performance of Irish songs such as The H-Block Song, which had become an anthem of the Irish Republicans following the hunger strike,[35][36] could lead to imprisonment.[37]

Many Irish rebel songs focus on a person or persons viewed as a martyr, with themes of endurance, daring, loyalty, and the artistic, moral and intellectual qualities of the subjects. The notion of endurance has been associated with the belief that sufferers, rather than those at whose hand they suffer, will ultimately triumph in seen in the songs about the ten hunger strikers.[38] In Bobby Sands, MP, Sands is portrayed as an artist and poet.[38] The theme of sacrifice also plays a role, such as the hunger striker asking his family to let him go in The Time has Come,[38] written by Christy Moore and Donal Lunny about the final meeting between Patsy O'Hara and his mother.[33]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1981 Irish hunger strike murals.
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