PRESS RELEASE: 32CSM Reorganise in Britain
Received via email from Dawn Michele Duarte
[Republicanarmy]
6 May 2008
At a recent meeting the 32CSM in Britain have made a decision to re launch itself under the auspices of the recently formed Gaughan/Stagg cumann.
Both Vols. Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg joined a hunger strike begun by other IRA Volunteers, such as Marian and Dolores Price in Brixton and their comrades Hugh Feeny and Gerry Kelly, demanding repatriation to Ireland.
Michael Gaughan suffered force feeding, he endured this brutal procedure seventeen times in the course of his hungerstrike. The last time was on the 2nd June, the night before his death. On the 3rd June, 1974, he died from injuries suffered when food lodged in a lung punctured by a feeding tube. He had been on hungerstrike 67 days. He was 24 years old.
Frank suffered force feeding for 70 days. Following Michael Gaughan’s death, negotiations were begun and the hunger strike was called off. But the talks were deemed a ruse by Frank Stagg and his supporters to halt the strike and prevent further highly publicised deaths.
Instead of meeting the demands, the authorities moved Frank to a solitary confinement punishment cell, where he remained under 23-hour lockdown. He was allowed no furniture, radio, newspapers or cigarettes, and prevented from sleeping by a bright light in his cell day and night.
In Wakefield Prison, on 14 December 1975, Frank Stagg began his fourth and final hunger strike, with the demand again for repatriation. Frank battled against starvation for 62 days before he died on 12 February 1976. He last request was “to be buried next to my republican colleagues and my comrade, Michael Gaughan”.
Michael Gaughan left a final message for his comrades and his country:
“I die proudly for my country and in the hope that my death will be sufficient to obtain the demands of my comrades. Let there be no bitterness on my behalf, but a determination to achieve the new Ireland for which I gladly die. My loyalty and confidence is to the IRA and let those of you who are left carry on the work and finish the fight.”
We, the republican movement in Britain, acknowledge Vol Gaughan’s message, we who are left will carry on the work and finish the fight
The Gaughan/Stagg Cumann.
32CSM Britain
www.32csm.info
