HUNGER STRIKES:THE BRITISH government gave active behind-the-scenes encouragement to efforts by then taoiseach Charles Haughey to involve the European Commission of Human Rights in resolving the 1981 hunger strike at the Maze Prison, Long Kesh.
Files in the National Archives reinforce Haughey’s contention at the time that the British government was looking for an opening to a settlement and the only route was through a complaint to the commission.
He persuaded Marcella Sands, a sister of the hunger striker, to make an application to the commission on April 23rd, 1981, complaining about the way Sands was being treated in prison.
The following day the British ambassador to Ireland, Leonard Figg, called into the department of the taoiseach with a typewritten message from his government.
The message stated, in part: “We would not oppose an intervention by the European Commission for Human Rights provided that the commission’s involvement is brought about in the only way in which it can be brought about with the willing participation of HMG , namely by accepting and responding to a complaint made from one of the hunger strikers.”
When it was pointed out to Figg that the complaint was being made by a sister of Bobby Sands, he replied that “this would not create any problems”.
The British message went on to say that London would facilitate a visit by the commission to the Maze Prison, given the “exceptional circumstances”.
The following day two commissioners tried to visit Sands in prison for a private meeting, but the hunger striker, through his lawyer, the late Pat Finucane, refused to see them unless his fellow prisoner Brendan “Bik” McFarlane, as well as Gerry Adams and Danny Morrison from Sinn Féin, were also in attendance.
This was not acceptable and on May 4th, the day before his death, the commission announced it had no power to proceed with the case.
A handwritten memo by a department of the taoiseach official dated April 27th, just eight days before Sands died, describes a further visit from the diplomat.
The ambassador referred in positive terms to the “joint studies” between the two governments agreed by Haughey and prime minister Margaret Thatcher at their summit meeting in Dublin the previous December.
Figg regarded the joint studies as an important counterweight to the anti-British feeling likely to arise if and when Sands died.
He also mentioned the application by Marcella Sands: “The only points he made were - 1) that in the event that Sands dies and there is public unrest, it will be more important than ever to pursue the joint studies; 2) that it was a great pity that the initiative with the Commission of Human Rights had not succeeded: he did not see how it could now be revived in the Sands case, but a similar initiative might have a better chance of working in the case of other hunger strikers.”
In his reply to the ambassador, the official indicated that the joint studies could be in jeopardy if Bobby Sands died.
“I said we were not looking beyond the Sands case at present and asked whether he saw any possibility of a solution.
“The ambassador was quite clear that there is no change in his government’s position and that there is no room for concessions which might solve the problem.”
