A Blanketman Still Fighting To Be Heard

From The Blanket:

Anthony McIntyre • 4 March 2005

This time last week, the name Richard O'Rawe meant little to most people in Ireland. He has no reputation as a political scoundrel, nor has he acquired the notoriety that comes with taking the life of a fellow human being. Although a republican from childhood, there are no photographs of him with a tongue sticking through each cheek, or his nose a foot long. He is not a prominent writer … yet. So there was no particular reason for his name to have generated widespread recognition.

Less than a week after hitting the headlines via one of the main Sunday newspapers, he probably feels the gravity in his world has gone down the plughole. Throughout republican heartlands the central contention in his book Blanketmen is being discussed and debated, frequently in heated manner. It is talked about in bars, living rooms and taxis. Interest in the broadcast and print media has not waned. Opponents have reviled him and friends have worried for his safety.

O'Rawe, for a time, was the PRO for the hundreds of republican prisoners who waged the five year blanket protest in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh a quarter of a century ago. His role placed him at the heart of the prison republican command structure at one of the most significant historical moments in the evolution of Provisional republicanism. In the choppy, turbulent seas of the H-Block hunger strike, the author of Blanketmen was able to view events as they happened from a crow's nest.

If O'Rawe imagined that his book would be received in a spirit of calm reflection, it was barely off the printing press before he received the rudest of awakenings on BBC Radio Ulster's popular Talkback programme last Monday. His character and perspective was harangued from the outset by Sinn Fein's undercover publicity director, Danny Morrison. The leader of republican prisoners during the 1981 hunger strike, Brendan 'Bik' McFarlane, vigorously disputed O'Rawe's conclusions. Few punches were pulled, either by O'Rawe or his detractors, as charge and counter-charge electrified the exchange.


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