The Hunger Strikes by R.K Walker

• Contains exclusive interviews with surviving hunger strikers
• Contributions from senior republican, loyalist, British army personnel
• Coverage in Sunday Post
• 10k sold in hardback, 10k sold in paperback
• 5th reprint
• Updated 2011 edition

THE BOOK

Uniquely balanced, this book is fast becoming recognised as definitive and contains interviews across the board. Never before have all shades of Green, Orange and British opinion on the Hunger Strikes been collected together in the same book, and woven together with an extremely well sourced narrative. The achievement of gathering contributions from former government ministers, MI5 and MI6 operatives, British Army, IRA, Police, loyalists and surviving hunger strikers is unprecedented.

The hunger strikes of 1980/81 are often said to have changed the course of Irish history. Republican prisoners were fasting for the right to be recognised as political prisoners. The British government, led by Margaret Thatcher, refused acknowledgement. A titanic battle of wills ensued. Bobby Sands, the most famous hunger striker has streets named after him across the globe. More than 100,000 people attended his funeral, dispelling the myth that the IRA had no constituency worth addressing. Sands legacy is compounded by the fact that he was elected to the British parliament by the voters of Fermanagh and South Tyrone in April 1981, at the height of the hunger strikes.
Many believe that this electoral success was pivotal in persuading the IRA and Sinn Fein that politics had a role to play in the Republican struggle. A quarter of a century on, Sinn Fein is now the dominant political voice of Irish nationalism in the Six Counties/Northern Ireland.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

R.K. Walker has authored several books under various “pen names” over 15 years. This is his first book under his own name. Living in Ireland several months a year for over 20 years, Walker developed contacts within both Republican and Loyalist, as well as among RUC, Army and Intelligence personnel and resolved to write his book which accurately represents the diverse viewpoints and retrospective reflections on this contentious subject.

Price: £7.99

ISBN 13: 9781904684206

192 pages

5th Reprint released 1st October 2011

Category: Military/History/Politics

Format: B Paperback 198 x 130 mm