Former IRA 'dirty protester' says Bobby Sands could have been saved

A former IRA prisoner has claimed in the Mail's new podcast that the 1981 hunger strikers could have been saved - but Republican chiefs including Gerry Adams chose not to accept a secret deal offered by Margaret Thatcher because they wanted to boost their profiles.

Bobby Sands was one of ten who went on hunger strike inside the infamous Maze Prison in 1981 over the British government's refusal to grant Republican inmates 'special category status' that would have seen them treated as prisoners of war rather than criminals.

Sands, who was elected as an MP while in prison, became a global icon during his strike and finally died after 66 days without food. 

A further nine other Republican activists passed away before the action came to an end in October 1981.

Speaking on newly-released From Bomb to Ballot: The Rise of Sinn Fein, ex-IRA man Anthony McIntyre, who spent 18 years in prison for the murder of a loyalist activist in 1976, blamed their deaths on Republican leaders.

He highlighted how the release of classified documents in 2012 appeared to show that - despite her public hard line - Mrs Thatcher had made a secret offer to the strikers that would have given them all their demands.

Mr McIntyre claims that IRA negotiators leading discussions inside the Maze were prepared to accept the offer but were overruled by Adams and other Republican leaders.

Asked by presenter John Lee, the Daily Mail's executive editor in Ireland, why they did so, he said:  'Well I think they preferred to generate as much animosity and public animosity towards the British as possible, and in the meantime building up their own profile.

'I mean, Adams, throughout the Hunger Strikes, built himself a serious, serious profile, which he didn't have prior to that. 

'He was known, but he didn't have this persona, television, media personality, which he became.'

NEW PODCAST: From Bomb to Ballot: The History of Sinn Féin

DON'T MISS: The Mail's John Lee delves into the evolution of Sinn Féin, exploring its roots in the Troubles and interviewing key figures to understand the party's past and future.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts now. 

He then launched a personal attack on Adams, saying: 'I've said it continuously anyway, Adams never carries coffins, Adams uses coffins to carry him. And he has surfed on the coffins of IRA volunteers and IRA hunger strikers to a career.'

Mr McIntyre added that whilst the hunger strikers were 'very brave' and 'great, courageous people', it would have been 'much better' if they had survived. 

Earlier this year, the High Court ordered secret recordings in which Mr McIntyre spoke of what he did during the Troubles be handed over to police.

He was one of dozens of former IRA paramilitaries who gave testimonies to a history project run by Boston College, on the understanding they would stay secret while they were alive.

Police then went to court to secure access to the transcripts and tapes of former IRA woman Dolours Price and loyalist Winston 'Winkie' Rea.

That was followed by a protracted legal battle over the other material, including the contribution of Mr McIntyre.

He also told the Mail of his time in prison, saying: 'We weren't allowed anything. What we had in the cell was a mattress on the floor, no pillow, three blankets, a paper thin towel, and it was just to cover your rear going on wing shifts.'

Mr McIntyre added that he warned he would use a Bible he was given as 'toilet roll' and for 'cigarette paper'. 'I'm going to f*****g stand on it and keep my feet warm,' he added.  

Meanwhile, fellow former terrorist Martin Ferris spoke in the Mail podcast about surviving 47 days on Hunger Strike. 

He said: 'You were on your own. 

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'You have sentenced yourself to death and you're hoping for a reprieve. It's voluntary, totally voluntary, there was no one putting any pressure on you to do it.

'Everything goes through your mind. The effects you're going to have on your family in particular.'

He added: 'But the only time I knew that I would prepare to die and would be able to die was after seeing my mother. 

'And that was in the 45th day. I was taken out in a wheelchair, and into a kind of a cubicle. 

'And I was wheeled out and my mother was there and she leaned up on the wire, and I'll never forget the shock on her face. 

'And she looked and next thing she said, "we back you Martin", she said, "whatever you decide, we're backing you a hundred percent". And that gave me the courage to continue. Simple as that.'

Also interviewed is Bertie Ahern, the former president of the Republic of Ireland.

He claimed that Mrs Thatcher's hardline public stance only hardened the responses of the Republican activists.

'She didn't seem to have any, either sympathy or respect or really want to find, a solution to those problem,' she said. 

'And I suppose, I mean, she probably felt in the end, after a number of deaths and you know, where the Republican movement effectively stopped it, she probably felt that was another victory. 

'But I mean, that was only hardening positions and hardening people's attitudes against it. And in hindsight, it was evolving the, the hardliners into a stronger position than they ever were.' 

All seven episodes of From Bomb to Ballot: the history of Sinn Fein are available now.