A Letter From Ireland
a Chara,
I’m taking a break from packing to write this letter. Lately, it seems that I’m either packing or unpacking, coming or going. I suppose that is the nature of life; one thing ends and another begins.
While packing I was working out what was needed for the Hunger Strike Commemoration in Chicago, and Irish Unity Commissions meetings in Cleveland and Columbus. Remembering the events of 1981 and the potential for Irish Unity.
The words of one of my favorite Irish poems, “Ode” by Arthur O’Shaughnessy came to mind:
“For each age is an age that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth”
During the 1981 Hunger Strike, I turned 13. Living in Belfast I felt the urgency and anger of the time. Witnessing the funerals of Bobby Sands and Joe McDonnell. Collecting the badges and posters of each of the hunger strikers. Attending the protests and watching the riots.
In 1998 the year the Good Friday Agreement was signed I turned 30, had gotten married, and had our first child.
I remember at that time picking up the book, “Ten Men Dead” and realizing that I was older than the oldest Hunger Striker to die, Joe McDonnell.
It was then that the full scale of their sacrifice revealed itself. They had been frozen in time as posters and badges. I had been a boy and they had been grown-up men, heroes in a history book.
The hope of peace was alive, and they were dead. I was looking forward to a life that they had forfeited, marriage, and kids. Their black and white photos began to fill with color.
Where we are today is because of all that came before us. The 1981 Hunger Strike changed the course of Irish History in ways that were unimaginable at the time. It came at a terrible cost inside and outside the prison.
It would lead to the electoral rise of Sinn Féin, the development of the Peace Process, the Good Friday Agreement, and the release of all political prisoners.
While we commemorate the 1981 Hunger Strikers, we have to do more than remember. If we are to honor their lives it must be in the building of a new and united Ireland.
In preparation for this trip, I re-read some of the writings of Bobby Sands. Trapped in a prison cell in the worst possible conditions, he was resolute but not bitter. Famously he wrote that the only revenge he wanted was to hear “the laughter of all our children”.
Today, 43 years on from the Hunger Strike, the Good Friday Agreement provides the opportunity of Irish Unity through referendums North and South. The rise of Sinn Féin and the promotion of Irish unity has now created the potential to win those referendums.
Let us remember the past and build for the future. A new and united Ireland for all echoing with the laughter of our children.
Have a great weekend.
Is mise,
Ciarán
Ciarán Quinn is the Sinn Féin Representative to North America
