Pat McGeown

A plaque in memory of McGeown

Pat "Beag" McGeown (3 September 1956 – 1 October 1996^[1]) was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.

Background and IRA activity

McGeown was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland on 3 September 1956, and joined the IRA's youth wing Fianna Éireann in 1970.^[2][3] He was first arrested aged 14, and in 1973 he was again arrested and interned in Long Kesh until 1974.^[1][3][4] In November 1975 McGeown was arrested and charged with possession of explosives, bombing the Europa Hotel, and IRA membership.^[3] At his trial in 1976 he was convicted and received a five-year sentence for IRA membership and two concurrent fifteen-year sentences for the bombing and possession of explosives, and was imprisoned at Long Kesh with Special Category Status.^[3][4]

In March 1978 he attempted to escape along with Brendan McFarlane and Larry Marley. The three had wire cutters and dressed as prison officers, complete with wooden guns.^[5] The escape was unsuccessful, and resulted in McGeown receiving an additional six-month sentence and the loss of his Special Category Status.^[1][3]

Prison protests

McGeown was transferred into the Maze Prison's H-Blocks where he joined the blanket protest and dirty protest, attempting to secure the return of Special Category Status for convicted paramilitary prisoners.^[1][3] McGeown described the conditions inside the prison during the dirty protest in a 1985 interview:

In late 1980 the protest escalated and seven prisoners took part in a fifty-three-day hunger strike, aimed at restoring political status by securing what were known as the "Five Demands":

1. The right not to wear a prison uniform;
2. The right not to do prison work;
3. The right of free association with other prisoners, and to organise educational and recreational pursuits;
4. The right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week;
5. Full restoration of remission lost through the protest.^[7]

The strike ended before any prisoners had died and without political status being secured, and a second hunger strike began on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands, the IRA's former Officer Commanding (OC) in the prison.^[8] McGeown joined the strike on 9 July, after Sands and four other prisoners had starved themselves to death.^[9] Following the deaths of five other prisoners, McGeown's family authorised medical intervention to save his life after he lapsed into a coma on 20 August, the 42nd day of his hunger strike.^[9][10]

Freedom

McGeown was released from prison in 1985, resuming his active role in the IRA's campaign and also working for Sinn Féin, the republican movement's political wing.^[1][10] In 1988 McGeown was charged with organising the Corporals killings, an incident where two plain-clothes British Army soldiers were killed by the IRA.^[11] At an early stage of the trial his solicitor Pat Finucane argued there was insufficient evidence against McGeown, and the charges were dropped in November 1988.^[11][12] McGeown and Finucane were photographed together outside Crumlin Road Courthouse, a contributing factor to Finucane being killed by the Ulster Defence Association in February 1989.^[13][14] Despite suffering from heart disease as a result of his participation in the hunger strike, McGeown was a member of Sinn Féin's Ard Chomhairle and active in its Prisoner of War Department, and in 1993 he was elected to Belfast City Council.^[15]

Death

McGeown was found dead in his home on 1 October 1996, after suffering a heart attack.^[2][16] Sinn Féin chairman Mitchel McLaughlin said his death was "a great loss to Sinn Féin and the republican struggle".^[10] McGeown was buried in the Republican plot at Belfast's Milltown Cemetery, and since his death is often referred to as the "11th hunger striker".^[17][18] In 1998 the Pat McGeown Community Endeavour Award was launched by Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, with Adams describing McGeown as "a modest man with a quiet, but total dedication to equality and raising the standard of life for all the people of the city".^[19] A plaque in memory of McGeown was unveiled outside the Sinn Féin headquarters on the Falls Road on 24 November 2001,^[20][21] and a memorial plot on Beechmount Avenue was dedicated to the memory of McGeown, Kieran Nugent and Alec Comerford on 3 March 2002.^[22]

References

External links

• Photograph from the funeral of Pat McGeown
• Photograph of mural of Pat McGeown in Ballymurphy, Belfast