Richard O’Rawe (born 1953) is an Irish author and former republican activist. He has written several books about

The Troubles The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...

Background

Richard O'Rawe was born in 1953 and spent the first fourteen years of his life in the Lower Falls district of

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

. His home was at the corner of Peel Street and Mary Street. Nearby lived Gerry Conlon. In 1970, his home in Peel Street was demolished as part of the redevelopment of the area and he and his family moved to Ballymurphy, a new housing estate. At this time,

was developing. In 1971, the Ballymurphy massacre occurred in which eleven civilians were killed by the British Army. The following year, there was the

Battle at Springmartin The Battle at Springmartin was a series of gun battles in Belfast, Northern Ireland on 13–14 May 1972, as part of The Troubles. It involved the British Army, the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the Official Irish Republican Army, and the U ...

nearby. As a result of the heightened conflict in the area, O'Rawe got involved in

Irish republican Irish republicanism () is the political movement for an Irish republic, void of any British rule. Throughout its centuries of existence, it has encompassed various tactics and identities, simultaneously elective and militant and has been both w ...

politics. He was later arrested and imprisoned in Crumlin Road gaol and then in Long Kesh prison.

Role in the hunger strikes

In Long Kesh prison in 1981, he was

Provisional IRA The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...

press officer. He claims that terms for ending the 1981 hunger strikes, accepted by the prisoners' leadership in the prison, were rejected by IRA commanders outside. He suggests that the IRA rejected the deal as the

candidate Owen Carron would have a better chance of winning the Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election if the hunger strike was ongoing on polling day.

Writing career

On his release from prison in 1982, O'Rawe worked for the Republican Movement for a further fifteen years doing publicity work. He then left the movement and became involved in a range of community activities and began to write about his prison activities. He then widened his range to include work on Gerry Conlon and Freddie Scappaticci. He also began to write more imaginative fiction.

Publications

* 2005: ''Blanketmen: An Untold Story of the H-block Hunger Strike''. New Island Books * 2011: ''Afterlives: The Hunger Strike and the Secret Offer that Changed Irish History''. Lilliput Press. * 2017: ''In the Name of the Son: The Gerry Conlon Story''. Merrion Press. * 2018: ''Northern Heist''. Merrion Press * 2022: ''Goering's Gold: A Ructions O'Hare Novel''. Melville House. * 2023: ''Stakeknife's Dirty War: The Inside Story of Scappaticci, the IRA's Nutting Squad and the British Spooks Who Ran the War''. Merrion Press.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:ORawe, Richard Living people Writers from Belfast 21st-century writers from Northern Ireland Male non-fiction writers from Northern Ireland Provisional Irish Republican Army members Male novelists from Northern Ireland 1956 births