Richard O'Rawe

Richard O’Rawe is a former IRA 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. 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.[1]

Role in the hunger strikes

In Long Kesh prison in 1981, he was Provisional IRA 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 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.[2]

Allegations about Gerry Adams

Fellow former IRA member Anthony McIntyre and O'Rawe have claimed that Gerry Adams was a key figure in the IRA.[3]

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)[4]
gollark: I don't think the brain actually does tradeoffs like that.
gollark: No, I can draw *slightly* mentally and offload more complicated stuff to paper.
gollark: Not really.
gollark: Did you not know of this? It's quite common. Some people don't have internal monologues either.
gollark: (it is called aphantasia)

References
  1. "From the cradle up". Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  2. "Will IRA ever admit truth over hunger strike?". The Belfast Telegraph. 27 March 2008.
  3. More pressure for Adams as documentary puts issue of IRA membership back in spotlight. thejournal.ie. 24 Nov 2013
  4. "Northern Heist". Retrieved 2 January 2020.
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