Pat Sheehan (born 28 May 1958) is an Irish

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

politician, and former

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

hunger striker A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...

at the

Maze Prison Her Majesty's Prison Maze (previously Long Kesh Detention Centre, and known colloquially as The Maze or H-Blocks) was a prison in Northern Ireland that was used to house alleged paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles from August 1971 to Sep ...

Hunger strike

Sheehan was born in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

, Northern Ireland. In 1978 he was convicted of causing an explosion and sentenced to 15 years. Sheehan was the 17th republican inmate at the

to join the

1981 hunger strikes The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during the Troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976, when the British government withdrew Special Cat ...

, which was aimed at gaining political status for

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

and Irish National Liberation Army prisoners. He began fasting on 10 August – after nine prisoners had already died – and ended when the hunger strike was officially called off on 3 October. He survived 55 days without food. By the time Sheehan began fasting, the strike had already begun to break. Another protester, Paddy Quinn, was taken off the hunger strike on 31 July after his mother called for medical intervention when her son was close to death following 47 days without food. This action – and calls by the Catholic Church to end the strike – prompted other relatives to do the same. The last prisoner to die was Michael Devine, who died on 20 August after 60 days. The hunger strike was ultimately called off after it had become clear that nearly all the prisoners' families would intervene to stop their sons from dying. He was released in 1987, but was convicted again in 1989 for more bombing offences and sentenced to 24 years. He was released under the terms of the 1998

Belfast Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...

. On 3 October 2006, Sheehan marked the 25th anniversary of the end of the hunger strike by reading the prisoners' statement that ended the protest outside the gates of the now closed Maze Prison.

Political career

On 7 December 2010, he succeeded

Gerry Adams Gerard Adams ( ga, Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh; born 6 October 1948) is an Irish republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020. ...

as MLA for Belfast West, Adams having resigned to contest the

2011 Irish general election The 2011 Irish general election took place on Friday 25 February to elect 166 Teachtaí Dála across 43 constituencies to Dáil Éireann, the lower house of Ireland's parliament, the Oireachtas. The Dáil was dissolved and the general electi ...

. Sheehan retained the seat for Sinn Féin at the 2011 Assembly election. Sheehan has provoked anger and controversy by describing

the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...

as "probably quite civilised" and saying the IRA "could have left a 1,000lb car bomb on the Shankill" if it wanted to kill Protestants. As at August 2015, he is a Political Member of the

Northern Ireland Policing Board The Northern Ireland Policing Board ( ga, Bord Póilíneachta Thuaisceart Éireann, Ulster-Scots: ''Norlin Airlan Polisin Boord'') is the police authority for Northern Ireland, charged with supervising the activities of the Police Service of Nor ...

Personal life

Pat Sheehan is the widower of Sinn Féin activist Siobhán O'Hanlon who died from cancer in 2006. He has a son. Pat is also a keen

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

fan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheehan, Pat 1958 births Irish republicans Living people Northern Ireland MLAs 2007–2011 Northern Ireland MLAs 2011–2016 Northern Ireland MLAs 2016–2017 Northern Ireland MLAs 2017–2022 People educated at St Malachy's College Politicians from Belfast Provisional Irish Republican Army members Republicans imprisoned during the Northern Ireland conflict Sinn Féin MLAs Irish hunger strikers Northern Ireland MLAs 2022–2027