-was in prison for 20 years for IRA activity
-was a hunger striker for 70 days and was "mates" with Bobby S.
-slipped into the coma that hunger strikers usually begin death with, and since at that point the power of attorney shifts to the family was hospitalized and thus, was the 11th hunger striker that should have died but didn't.
-speaks fluent Irish
Amazin' (said in a Belfast accent, put most of the emphasis on the second 'a'). He had some interesting insights for us all, and was also very honest and open about whatever we asked him. Honestly the way he described hunger striking made it sound downright easy. I wrote down this string of descriptions he shared:
"You have to be all-in psychologically before you start a hunger strike, otherwise you couldn't succeed. You're mentally prepared and just knowing that you will not eat keeps you from getting hungry. It's like when you're busy at work, you realize it's 3:00 and you've missed your lunch. You weren't hungry until you realized it, right? Hunger striking has a very anti-climactic start-the doctor visits you and tells you the harm you're doing to your body, and in a few days you might get a wee bit of a headache and are very cold. I think at one time I had 12 blankets on me trying to warm myself up. Your sense of smell gets extremely heightened within a few weeks, and around the 40th day your eyesight becomes very fuzzy and eventually doubles. It wasn't that we were trying to die-every hunger striker who died wanted to live. It was about staying alive as long as possible in order to get our requests granted."
Honestly, the man must be made of iron. "Wee bit of a headache" in the first week? I get crabby if I don't eat for 5 hours.
Hunger strikers graves at Milltown:
I'm working on my paper tonight, as well as trying to figure out what classes I need for summer session. Registration is tomorrow at 8:00 a.m., eep!
cheers,
Karen
No comments:
Post a Comment