IRA volunteer Michael Gaughan died in Parkhurst prison in 1974 after 64 days on hunger strike (staılc ocraıs). He was force-fed seventeen times during the strike and his family alleged that he died from food stuck in a punctured lung. The practice was ended after Gaughan’s death.

Frank Stagg was on the Parkhurst hunger strike with Gaughan, and another in Long Lartin prison, and a third in Wakefield in December 1975. He died after 62 days on February 12th, 1976.

Gaughan’s coffin was draped with the Tricolour used to bury Terence McSwiney in 1920, whose famous quote is at the top of the board: “It is not those who can inflict the most but those who can endure the most who will achieve ultimate victory.”

Falls Road, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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