Ireland's OWN: Hungerstrikes

Ireland's OWN: Hungerstrikes

Thomas McElwee
(1957-1981)
—by Míchealín Dhochartaigh and T O Hara

Thomas McElwee was the tenth republican to join the hungerstrike. He was 23 years old, and first cousin to Francis Hughes, also from Bellaghy, who died after 59 days on hungerstrike, on 12th May 1981.

Family

Thomas McElwee was born on 30th November 1957; he was the fifth of twelve children. He and his brother, Benedict, lived less than a mile from their cousin, Francis Hughes, in the townland of Tamlaghtduff (Bellaghy, So Derry). Thomas, Benedict and Francis were inseparable from childhood.

Thomas, who had a great love for cars and stock-car racing, attended a technical college in Ballymena, and worked during the years before his arrest, for a local mechanic.

Involvement

By the time he was 14, Thomas had joined na Fianna Éireann and subsequently joined the independent unit led by his cousin, Francis Hughes, which concentrated on defence of the local area and ambushes of British forces, before it was recruited into the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA).

The three lads were active in the So Derry area, with a succession of successful bomb blitzes of the commercial centres of towns like Magherafelt, Bellaghy, Castledawson, and Maghera, as well a high level of ambushes and traps against occupied forces.

The McElwees’ home was first raided in 1974, and Thomas was arrested for three days. On another occasion, both he and Benedict were arrested, and taken to Coleraine barracks, after a raid on their home. Thomas, however, unlike his cousin Francis, was never forced to go on the run.

Explosion

There were four men in the car — Thomas and Benedict McElwee, Colm Skullion and Sean McPeake — on their way to Ballymena, where they planned to plant incendiary bombs in shoppes as part a commercial bombing campaign coordinated by Dominic McGlinchey.

As they parked near one of the targeted shoppes and Tom reached for one of the bombs, they saw a flash of white light. The bombs were made of a commercial explosive, Frangex, attached to creosote and mixed with petrol in tins.

The car had only two doors, and they had a difficult time getting out. Colm lost two toes, Sean lost one of his legs, Benedict suffered from shock and perforated eardrum, and Thomas — who had covered his face with his creosote-soaked hand to avoid shrapnel — lost his right eye.

Following the explosion, several other republicans in the town were arrested, for a subsequent explosion inside Alley Katz Boutique. These included Dolores O'Neill, from Portglenone and Ann Bateson, from Toomebridge, both of whom joined the protest in Armagh women's jail.

Thomas was transferred from the Ballymena hospital to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast for emergency surgery to save his remaining eye. It would be three weeks, however, before he would be able to see.

After six weeks he was transferred again, this time to the military wing of the Musgrave Park hospital — where Benedict also was — and then charged and sent to Crumlin Road jail.

At their subsequent trial in September 1977, Thomas was convicted not only of possession of explosives but also of the killing of the woman who had accidentally died in the other bomb attack in Ballymena on that fateful day. (The shoppe had been on a list of targets found in the McElwee car.)

H-Blocks

Thomas was sent to the H-Blocks of Long Kesh prison, and immediately joined the Blanket Protest. There he joined his brother Benedict in H-6. The McElwee’s were often singled out by the screws and abused. On one occasion Thomas was put on the boards for 14 days for refusing to call a prison warder ‘sir’.¹ The brutality and degradation they endured, however, only served to deepen their resistance to criminalisation.

Hungerstrike

Both Thomas and Benedict had volunteered for the 1980 hungerstrike. As Sean McKenna neared death, the McElwee family learned first that Benedict was going on hungerstrike, and within and hour later they were informed that Thomas was also going on hungerstrike.

Thomas, Benedict and Francis also volunteered for the 1981 hungerstrike. Thomas was the tenth republican to go on hungerstrike.

After five days on hungerstrike, Thomas wrote the following letter:

To the people of South Derry
I have been on hunger strike 5 days now and a long road stretches ahead of me. Sometimes the thought of the pain and suffering that my Comrades Bobby, Francis, Raymond and Patsy endured scares me. But my determination greatly outweighs and extinguishes any fear that might be there.
The British government will only bow to a might more powerful than that of her imperial army. That might is present in our country today. It is of a risen and united people. With the strength of their unity we will regain the rights of our political prisoners incarcerated behind the barbwire and steel in these British camps. With it also we march forth to unity and free our long oppressed nation. Within every individual Irish person lives the key. I implore you to use the key.
Mise le meas,
Tomas MacGiolla bhui

Thomas McElwee, after 62 days of slow agonising hungerstrike, died at 11.30am on Saturday, 8th August 1981.

Note:
¹The boards were the punishment block, with no furniture and just a board to sleep on.

See also: Farewell to Bellaghy / McElwee's Farewell (a song)