Blanketmen by Richard O'Rawe

Author:Richard O'Rawe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Island Books
Published: 2016-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

I had known Father Denis Faul from the days of internment, when he would visit the cages to say Mass. He was a fierce critic of the establishment and had co-written several books with Father Raymond Murray condemning British torture and human-rights abuses in the North. He also wasn’t slow to criticise the IRA when atrocities were committed in its name, but that was Denis – a human-rights campaigner who cherished his independence.

He had been in to see Bobby and had tried to convince him that more time was needed to move the British. Bobby was firm: he believed that the Thatcher government had had ample opportunity to settle the matter reasonably, and to delay any further was a waste of time. The British, he was convinced, wanted the confrontation.

Before Father Faul left, Bobby quoted Jesus Christ: ‘Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for his friends.’ A sorrowful Father Faul concluded that Bobby was acting in good conscience and that there was no answer to the quoted words. It must have been a touching experience for both men.

At Mass on the three Sundays that Bobby remained in our wing, he, Bik, Jake Jackson, Pat Mullin and I huddled behind the hot plate (an oven used to keep the food warm) discussing the situation. Bobby’s main concern was to ensure that we would not accept a half-baked settlement just because he was at death’s door. He made it crystal clear that he was to be allowed to die if that happened. Just what that half-baked solution might be wasn’t discussed, but it was taken as read that he was referring to a situation where the clothes demand alone was being offered, along with some minor adjustments to the prison regime. At the time, I was more concerned with enjoying my last moments with Bobby than with focusing on what constituted a half-baked settlement. Sure, there were technical things that needed our immediate attention – lines of communication being one of them – but we never got down to the fine detail of what the complexion of a settlement with honour could possibly be, or what our minimum requirements were. We had made five demands that, on the face of it, needed no explanation.

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