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Ten Men Dead: The Story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike
 
 
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Ten Men Dead: The Story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike (Paperback)

~ (Author), Peter Maas (Introduction) "The Angel was huddled in a borrowed overcoat, but even that and his Arran jersey were not enough to keep out the cold..." (more)
Key Phrases: fourteen days loss, comm today, first hunger strike, Sinn Fein, Secretary of State, Army Council (more...)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
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  Hardcover, February 28, 1989 -- $16.99 $2.81
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Ten Men Dead: The Story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike + One Day in My Life + Nothing But an Unfinished Song: The Life and Times of Bobby Sands
Price For All Three: $39.11

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  • This item: Ten Men Dead: The Story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike by David Beresford

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Taken inside infamous Long Kesh prison in Belfast, the reader of this searing journal experiences the emotional stranglehold that the legacy of troubled Ireland has on 10 men who in 1981 chose to perish in a hunger strike. Written by a reporter who covered the story for The Guardian , the book is shaped around secret communications, scraps of cigarette paper which the prisoners wrote on and concealed in bodily orifices until the messages could be smuggled outside to the IRA leadership. These "comms" are intimate, meticulous records of the men who went first "on the blanket" in naked protest, then to their self-scheduled deaths. We see and hear the families, alike and yet different in their grief; the churchmen and political leaders in attempts to dissuade and negotiate; and "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher, resolute in the grim battle of wills. In the final compelling words of Beresford, "They died for a cause more ancient than the gray walls of Long Kesh prison."
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


From Library Journal

The author, a journalist from The Guardian , was given access to the secret IRA communications ("comms") that flowed in and out of the H Blocks at Long Kesh prison in Northern Ireland during the strike. These add an important new dimension to the history of the event. The choice of the hunger strike, the goals, the recruitment of volunteers, the agony of the ten deaths, and the capitulation of the IRA, in the end, to the families who would not allow their sons to die, is recounted with compelling intensity. Beresford writes with empathy for all those involved, but his book is not an IRA tract. His excellent, thorough narrative finds blame enough for everybody, and serves to show how the hunger strike tragedy mirrors the larger tragedy of Ulster. Recommended to those who want to know more about the IRA and the price nationalism extracts from its supporters.
- Richard B. Finnegan, Stonehill Coll., North Easton, Mass.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 334 pages
  • Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press (January 10, 1997)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 087113702X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0871137029
  • Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #268,099 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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David Beresford
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Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
The Angel was huddled in a borrowed overcoat, but even that and his Arran jersey were not enough to keep out the cold. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
fourteen days loss, comm today, first hunger strike, blanket protest, criminalization policy, second hunger strike, protesting prisoners, special category status, hunger strikers, five demands, external leadership, dirty protest, active service unit, blanket men, outside leadership
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sinn Fein, Secretary of State, Army Council, Mountain Climber, Long Kesh, Paddy Quinn, Bobby Sands, Republican Movement, Kieran Doherty, Kevin Lynch, Humphrey Atkins, Patsy O'Hara, Fermanagh-South Tyrone, House of Commons, Frank Hughes, Gerry Adams, Crumlin Road, Francis Hughes, John Hume, Owen Carron, Red Cross, Chief of Staff, Danny Morrison, South Armagh, Falls Road
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Customer Reviews

23 Reviews
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4.1 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for anyone involved in social protest, January 12, 2001
By Alan Mills (Chicago, Illinois USA) - See all my reviews
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Social protest takes many forms. Some simply write letters. Some picket, or go on strike, risking their jobs. Some even go on a hunger strike for a few days.

The ten members of the IRA whose story is told (in incredibly moving detail) in this book take social protest to a level most of us are not familiar with. They quite literally agreed to sacrifice their lives...not in one fell swoop (like those who set themselves on fire), but in a slow, agonizing death drawn out over many weeks.

This is true dedication to a cause. Having read the book, one is tempted to view all other social protests as half-hearted. Of course, their protest only made sense because of the mass organization and widespread support the strikers had, both inside the prison and on the street. Bobby sands was actually elected to Parliment while dying!

Anyone who wants to learn about what it takes to effect change, and the pitfalls of adopting such radical tactics, must read this book.

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Well Balanced and Thoughtful Account, February 11, 2003
By A Customer
This book gives a gripping and well detailed account of the 1981 Hunger Strike. Beresford is a journalist who was provided with "comms" (communications) from the hunger strikers and inmates at Long Kesh prison, and much of the book is based on these smuggled notes. Beresford does a fine job of presenting background, and of tempering views by providing background on both sides. Although I find myself in the Republican camp, I did find that he presented the situtation well. When it feels as though you are strongly backing actions and previous criminal acts by inmates and hunger strikers, Beresford depicts family members and biographies of Union/Loyalist supporters to remind us that all are human beings with families and lives who have been lost in this long-standing problem. But Beresford also engages the reader, revealing the hunger strikers as people who were seriously committed to a cause they were willing to give their lives for. The struggle over Northern Ireland is not taken lightly. Although the writing stumbles occasionally, the journalistic approach and research off-sets it by documenting a great deal. This book provides a wonderful historical picture and insight into a tragic part of history.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars "Comms" a powerful testament, October 22, 1997
By A Customer
This is a great book, made so by the author's plentiful use of the prisoners' "comms." These were messages to the outside world written in tiny handwriting on pieces of cigarette paper and then smuggled in and out of the prison in various bodily orifices. This book certainly opened my eyes to just how much can be jammed up the back door (a portable radio and a camera?!) The author was given unprecedented access to these day by day records of the hunger strike by the IRA Army Council, and he makes extensive use of them. This is a powerful and moving chapter in modern history, and the writings of the prisoners' commander "Bik" -- Brendan McFarlane, who studied to become a priest before joining the IRA -- tell the story better than any historian could. My only complaint with the book is that it gets disorganized in the middle. After carefully tracing the development of the hunger strike and laying out the stories of the hunger strikers through the first four deaths, the author drops the ball. All of a sudden we're told that there are five people on strike, then a few pages later eight. This had me searching previous chapters to find out who these people were, to no avail. The author goes back and picks up the pieces for some of the hunger strikers later on, but he should have stuck with the person by person style of the early part of the book. Also, it was sort of annoying that several names of key players were spelled wrong, leading me to wonder if other details may have been wrong.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Soldiers for Freedom
This is an amazing book - a riveting, heartbreaking story of the 10 hunger strikers who died a slow and painful death for what they believed. Read more
Published on July 10, 2007 by Swan

4.0 out of 5 stars Sound, Sensitive Treatment of a Delicate Subject
"Ten Men Dead" is the story of the 10 1981 Irish Republican Army hunger strikers. All starved themselves to death protesting both the British occupation of Northern Ireland and... Read more
Published on December 10, 2006 by Mcgivern Owen L

3.0 out of 5 stars Seriously biased
Beresford tries to explain away his lack of sources by referring to this book as a work of journalism, not history. If this is the type of journalism Mr. Read more
Published on August 15, 2004 by waitingtoderail

3.0 out of 5 stars History or historical fiction?
I read this book as a text for a class I took about resistance movements. (I have my own views on the Irish question, but this is not the appropriate place to express them. Read more
Published on May 17, 2003 by Lisa L. Munro

4.0 out of 5 stars The 1981 Hunger Strike
Ten Men Dead is an inside look on how the British govenment's criminalizational policy failed and how it will continue to fail. Read more
Published on May 16, 2003 by A. Vegan

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful.
This is an amazing book. Peter Maas summed it up much better than I can when he said that this secret "coms" that were the smuggled writings of the prisoners (and make up much of... Read more
Published on February 7, 2002 by tml123

5.0 out of 5 stars None Better
This is the most exhaustive book on the hunger strikes I have ever read. Great detail and care went into the book, plus the extra of having IRA "comms" interspersed... Read more
Published on October 11, 2001 by Spencer B. Clark

2.0 out of 5 stars Sands Lost his life, but did win Weightwatcher of the year!
As a briton of Irish descent I do perhaps have a better idea of the IRA than americans of irish descent. The Facts are:

1. Read more

Published on October 10, 2001 by unenlightened

5.0 out of 5 stars emotionally moving
After reading "Ten Men Dead" I understand how Maggie Thacher got the name Margaret "Bloody"Thacher. Read more
Published on September 2, 2001 by margaret Brenner

2.0 out of 5 stars Less We Forget
A well written book but let's not forget what these people where in prison for. They where in prison for having murdered or helped to murder other people agree or disagree with... Read more
Published on June 2, 2001 by Adrian

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