on the Antrim coast, and to see a house he had lived in on Percy Street off the Falls Road.
Turklington shook his head and said he doubted I would find the house on Percy Street because a number of buildings in that district had been destroyed some time ago. He was referring to August 1969, when groups of loyalists invaded several streets in the area and threw petrol bombs into Catholic homes, forcing their residents to flee. In fact, I had already found the house, and though the windows were boarded up and no one was living there, the building was still standing. I kept that to myself.
He handed me an envelope and said they had developed the film from my camera, and I was welcome to keep the enclosed contact sheet of photos. I thanked him, glanced at the sheet, and noticed that all the shots of the rally had been blacked out. He then handed me a new roll of film to replace the one that had been confiscated and wished me a pleasant stay.
Towards the end of my two weeks there, the health of Joe McDonnell worsened. He was a local man from West Belfast and one of the hunger strikers. By this point, he had been without food the longest. A rally was organized in front of the Busy Bee shopping centre to highlight his deteriorating condition. As the large crowd assembled, a British army helicopter circled low overhead. Police and British troops remained at the ready but out of sight.
Most of the hunger strikers were young men and single. But Joe McDonnell was married with two young children. His wife, Goretti, addressed the rally. She made a moving appeal, calling on the Thatcher government to grant the prisoners’ demands and save the life of her husband and the father of her children. Her plea fell on deaf ears. Joe McDonnell died a few days after my return to Canada, and other men joined the hunger strike.
One of the provisions in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended the most recent phase of armed conflict, provides a pathway to the reunification of Ireland. A referendum on the future status of Northern Ireland can be held if there appears to be majority sentiment for such a move. Based on recent opinion polls and demographic changes, it now seems possible that within the next decade, a majority of people could vote to end the century-old partition of the island. That would be a fitting tribute to the 10 men who died on hunger strike in 1981.