Word: hungering
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...eventually disappear. The prisoners concentrate instead on their daily five pints of water. Now their only concern is whether they can hold down the water without retching. A small bowl of salt is provided for each prisoner, and he can sprinkle in as much as he wants. When the hunger strikes are far along, the prisoners ask for carbonated water and the British grant the request...
I.R.A. leaders at first feared the idea of hunger strikes, believing the men would be unable to persist and would thus endanger the esprit of the movement. The longstanding question-Would starvation bring results?-was raised again early this year by prison leaders and debated for hours up and down the blocks. Some of the inmates spoke into the darkness and predicted glumly that the British would never yield. Such comments were usually met with silence. The men were asked to consider the proposal for one week and then volunteer if they felt ready...
...hundred offered to die. I.R.A. commanders in the Maze, startled by the number, ordered the hunger strikes to begin. The volunteers quickly became heroes, paid special attention by the other prisoners, passed extra cigarettes, showered with support in the early days of stomach cramps. Poems were written to them and recited through the pipes and doors and shouted across the blocks...
...more interested in the hourly news, often interrupting conversation when they realize the program has already started, hoping, in the midst of dying, they will get word that the British have relented-that they can live. For two hours each evening, from 6 o'clock to 8, the hunger strikers are allowed to visit together in a small television room. Four or five gather at a time. After years alone in a cell, the men are fascinated by TV. The sudden appearance of their hated enemy, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, sets them off into howls of outrage...
Prison officers say the hunger strikers undergo a drastic personality change when they leave the discipline of the blocks. They become far more civil, even amiable, finally speaking directly to the staff, asking and answering questions. They spend a great deal of time in bed, trying to preserve their strength. The staff puts sheepskin rugs in their beds to warm their bodies, now slowly turning colder. Although they refuse medication, the men do ask the nurses to give them liniment rubdowns to soften their parched skin. A barber comes in once a week to trim their hair and, if they...