Afterlives: The Hunger Strike and Secret Offer That Changed History

'This book is a real pleasure to read. It takes us from the H-Blocks of Long Kesh, and the prisoners who struggled and starved within them, to the corridors of power in Whitehall and Stormont and examines the thread that connects between them.' Liam Clarke, Sunday Times 'Richard O'Rawe's "Afterlives" is a searingly honest account of how his revelations about the 1981 hunger strike created a storm of controversy in the republican community. It is a brave, lucid, genuine account of someone prepared to speak truth to new powers in the land.' Henry McDonald, Guardian '...a compelling, powerful and virtually incontestable case that in the summer of 1981 Gerry Adams and those around him thwarted a proposed settlement of the IRA/INLA hunger strikes ... This is probably one of the most important stories to come out of the Troubles in Northern Ireland because it helps explain how and why they came to an end in a way that is revelatory, deeply disturbing, unprecedented and convincing.' Ed Moloney, author of A Secret History of the IRA and Voices From the Grave.

By July 1981 four republican hunger strikers had already died in Long Kesh Prison. A fifth, Joe McDonnell, was clinging to life. To outsiders, Margaret Thatcher appeared unbending; yet, far from the prying eyes of the press, her government was making a substantial offer to the prisoners. On 5 July this offer was given to Gerry Adams in Belfast, and relayed to the prison leadership. In this controversial sequel to the bestseller "Blanketmen", O'Rawe documents the four-year war of words that followed. He interviews former members of the IRA Army Council who claim that a five-man committee led by Adams had contol of the hunger strike, keeping the Army Council in the dark about the British governments's offer. He uses contemporary records to show that Thatcher had approved the offer but that Gerry Adams and the committee had replied it was 'not enough', telling the hunger srikers that 'nothing was on the table'. The prison leadership accepted the British offer, but six hunger strikers went on to die. O'Rawe asks: why? This hidden history, using contemporaneous photographs, pinpoints the key players in the drama and their responses, identifying Mountain Climber, a Derry businessman who brokered the deal, and describing the contributors to the crucial hunger strike conferences of 2008-09. O'Rawe combines a moving and courageous personal record.