[Shasown]

Originally Posted by setanta

I never said that they didn't fight for their cause, just mentioning the sacrifices they were willing to make, that's all. Is it called murder during a war? I mean, it was a war for them.... their hunger strike proves what they were willing to give for the cause.

Yeah, Hunger is a masterpiece.

But thats the whole point of the hunger strike, it wasn't a war it was an internal security situation in the eyes of the British Government, therefore the men in the Maze/Long Kesh werent political prisoners, they were convicted criminals.

If the British had conceded to all the points the hunger strikers requested, it would have validated all the claims of the IRA. It would have made them appear to the world to be freedom fighters and not just terrorists.

Plus there were some members of the loyalist and the nationalist factions who had commited crimes like bank and post office robberies to finance the conflict, these are civil crimes. so differentiation between the real volunteers and the criminals who had lined their own pockets and put some money to their organisations coffers would have been a nightmare.

Consequently even O'Rawe admits they were willing to concede some of the points, but not all of them. But according to him he was told all or nothing, say nothing about concessions.