Diary of a Hunger Strike

Diary of a Hunger Strike investigates the complex and controversial issues surrounding the H-block hunger strike.

Day 52, the warder once again leaves the tray of food near the semi-conscious person. Even were he willing, he would be unable to digest the meal as his bodily functions have regressed too far. But the warder will persist with the gesture of offering food. Both men are trapped, one by the ravages of enforced hunger, the other by the enforcement of meaningless rituals.

But there is pressure on his relatives and the Church to save his life. The word is that the Government will not back down. That’s official.

Roles: Pat O’Connor, OC, Sean Cranford, Lord Rothleigh, Governor, Warden McClay, Warden Maxwell, Bernie, O’Connor’s fiancee.

O’CONNOR

You can inform her that the prison authorities are procrastinating on our agreement with the Government.

MCCLAY

I’ll tell her you can’t see her.

O’CONNOR

Tell her the truth.

MCCLAY

I’m not the Government, O’Connor.

O’CONNOR

You’re their paid agent.

MCCLAY

I’ll send your love.

MCCLAY EXITS.

O’CONNOR MOVES TO WINDOW WHILE

CRAWFORD RETRIEVES CIGARETTE.

CRAWFORD

Well, what did you decide?

O’CONNOR

The blocks are simmering. Almost at boiling point. One false move and the top’s going to blow off this place. Three weeks and still no sign of movement.

CRAWFORD

Do you think they’re going to renege?

O’CONNOR

They don’t have to renege.

CRAWFORD

But we have an agreement with them. PAUSE.

We do have an agreement, don’t we?

O’CONNOR

And they haven’ t broken it, have they?

CRAWFORD

They haven’t implemented it either.

O’CONNOR

That’s precisely my point. Once the hunger strike ended we no longer had the world’s media focused in on us. So they adopted delay tactics. And it’s beginning to work. It won’t take much to spark a riot in here.

CRAWFORD

If that’s what they want, let’s give it to them.

O’CONNOR

No, we have got to maintain out discipline.

CRAWFORD

Why?

O’CONNOR

If we riot they’ll use that as the formal excuse for abandoning the deal. No. While they continue to recognise our command structures by giving me access to the other O/C’s, there’s still the hope of forcing their hand.

CRAWFORD

Well, it sounds like an almighty bluff to me, and we’re not playing with a very good hand.

O’CONNOR

But we’re still in the game, and while we’re in, we play. I put a proposition to the men just now.

CRAWFORD

Which is?

O’CONNOR

As a gesture of cooperation, we’re going to deescalate the dirty protest in a principled step by step fashion. We’re going to have 30 men from this block moved so that their cells can be cleaned and refurbished. If that fails to herald in the agreement, well, who knows, all hell is likely to break loose.

CRAWFORD

And hell hath no fury like a Republican scorned

O’CONNOR

That sounds like Shakespeare.

CRAWFORD

No, not Shakespeare, Crawford.

O’ CONNOR

You?

CRAWFORD

No, the old man. See, every year in his job there was a dress dance. And the old man, as a snub to the mother, used to take his unmarried sister. And every year, despite the warnings , from me Ma, he came home pissed.

O’CONNOR

What has this piece of family debauchery got to do with anything?

CRAWFORD

Wait a minute. Every year, like clockwork, he was met on his return by a series of flying missiles. A one woman Active Service Unit my mother was. Delph, knives, forks, / assorted china and other hand missiles. The riots in here wouldn’t hold a candle to it . And the old man would repeat, every year as he ducked, the immortal phrase ... hell hath no fury like a Republican scorned.

O’CONNOR

Shakespeare.

CRAWFORD

No, I told you, Crawford. I know, ‘cos I was there. I saw her with my own two eyes

Extract courtesy of Peter Sheridan

This is a play primarily concerned with the humanity of prisoners. Scenes of excrement smeared cells, of naked prisoners being given internal searches and yet reacting with dignity.