Richard O’Rawe is a former

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 ...

prisoner and author of ''Blanketmen''.

Background

He grew up in a house at the corner of Peel Street and Mary Street in the Lower Falls district of

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 Kingdo ...

. When that house was demolished in 1970 as part of the redevelopment of the area he and his family moved to Ballymurphy. It was there that he got involved in politics. He was interned and imprisoned in both the Crumlin Road gaol and in

Long Kesh Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...

Role in the hunger strikes

In Long Kesh prison in 1981, he was

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

Irish republican Irish republicanism ( ga, poblachtánachas Éireannach) is the political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland under a republic. Irish republicans view British rule in any part of Ireland as inherently illegitimate. The develop ...

candidate

Owen Carron Owen Gerard Carron (born 9 February 1953) is an Irish republican activist who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Fermanagh and South Tyrone from 1981 to 1983. Early life Carron was born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. He qualified as a teach ...

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

Publications

* Blanketmen: An Untold Story of the H-block Hunger Strike (2005) * Afterlives: The Hunger Strike and the Secret Offer that Changed Irish History (2011) * In the Name of the Son: The Gerry Conlon Story (2017) * Northern Heist (2018)

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 Year of birth missing (living people)