‘He will live on in my heart forever’

On the morning of July 13, 1981, Bernadette Donnelly, was travelling to Long Kesh in the hope of seeing her fiancé, Martin Hurson, who by then was on the 46th day of his hunger strike.

As she made her way to the notorious prison with members and friends of the Hurson family, the news came on the radio that he had died at 4.30am, just a few hours earlier.

The sixth person to die on hunger strike, the Cappagh man’s passing sparked widespread protests against the British Government’s refusal to grant political status to prisoners.

Thousands of people attended his wake and funeral a few days later.

As Bernadette grieved a lost fiancé and her hopes of a life with him, the Hurson family mourned their son and brother. Four decades on, the now Bernadette O’Connor has spoken to the UH’s ‘What’s the Story’ podcast about her time with Martin Hurson and her determination to ensure that his memory is never forgotten.

The couple first met in 1975 and over the subsequent years regularly attended dances in Carrickmore, Omagh and Kildress.

However, their lives and time together changed forever when he was arrested in October 1976. A year later, he was sentenced to 20 years.

“I met Martin first at preparations for a wedding in Pomeroy in 1975 and then we began going out some time after that. We had a great social life like any young couple at that time. Going to dances in places like the Gap in Carrickmore, the Kildress Inn and the cinema in Omagh,” she recalled.

BEATINGS

“Then came 1976 when he was arrested. That changed everything and one of the things that I’d like to see is that the beatings which he and others received in those years would be more publicised. Following his arrest, Martin was given a very bad beating in Omagh barracks.

“He was spread across the table, punched and kicked and had no sleep, day or night. Martin had just turned 22 and now he had been arrested.”

Over the coming years, Bernadette enjoyed regular visits with Martin in prison and it was there, just as she was turning 21, that the couple got engaged.

“March 3, 1979 was my 21st birthday and we got engaged during a visit in Crumlin Road on March 10. Martin said to me that we were together three years and he had asked his brother, Francie, to sell a car and give me the money to buy an engagement ring,” she added.

“He was awaiting a retrial at that time. I got the engagement ring in Dundalk and then we got engaged in Crumlin Road jail and we were both very happy.”

Republican prisoners at this time staged what was known as the ‘blanket protest,’ refusing to wear prison uniforms in a bid to attain status as political prisoners. This later escalated into the ‘dirty protest’ which resulted in prisoners smearing the walls of their cells with excrement.

These protests culminated in a number of prisoners staging the first hunger strike in 1980.

RENEGED

Agreement was reached at this time, but when the British Goverment then reneged on the prisoners receiving political status, a second hunger strike began in the early months of 1981.

Martin Hurson was among those who ‘went on the blanket’ and, after a period in which she had been able to visit him regularly, Bernadette was well aware of the consequences of the escalating situation.

“He was sentenced in September 1979 and then in 1980 the hunger strike began. Martin was one of 30 at that time who were part of a back-up group ready to go on hunger strike. Everyone in the whole world thought that they had got their demands, but the British Government reneged on that,” she added.

“It came out on the news on May 29, 1981, that Martin was joining the hunger strike. We knew then how serious it was for myself and the Hurson family. We knew that his time was short.

“I got to see him the first week that he was on hunger strike. He was very strong and determined and told us that he had thought long and hard about going on hunger strike. After about 20 days they moved him to the prison hospital, but then the last time I saw him there I thought he was just really in bad shape. I didn’t know that was to be the last time I’d see him alive.”

Martin Hurson died on hunger strike after 46 days in the early hours of July 13, 1981. His fiancée was travelling to the prison when his passing was announced on the 7am radio news.

PROTESTS

The death sparked widespread protests across the North, while in Cappagh, the immediate family and Bernadette were awaiting details of when and where his remains would be released. At 11.40am, word came through to them that the body would be released at 12 noon at the morgue from the Tyrone and Fermanagh Hospital in Omagh, or “the body would be dumped”.

When they reached there, a stand-off developed over the route that the cortege would take on its way back to Galbally.

At one stage, according to an UlsterHerald report at the time, the RUC let Alsatian dogs loose and encouraged them to attack family members present at the morgue.

Eventually, the remains were taken via the Crevenagh Road and A5 back to the Hurson home. Over the next days, thousands of people attended the wake and the funeral.

“The wake and the funeral were all go, all the time, with as many people there at nighttime as during the day. Busloads were parked and even on Wednesday morning before the funeral there were still people arriving.

“I had given Martin a ring just before his 22nd birthday in September 1976. He said to me to keep the watch and ring and give it back to him when he got out of jail. On that Wednesday morning, I took the ring, and before they put the lid on the coffin, placed it on his finger. I was looking at him and said to him I was keeping my promise. I placed it on his finger.

“Martin was very strong and dedicated. They picked on the wrong man when they thought they could beat him. As long as there is breath in my body, his memory will never die. He will live on in my heart forever.”

l The full ‘What’s the Story’ podcast on Bernadette’s powerful memories can be accessed on ulsterherald.com and through the UlsterHerald social media pages.