Laurence McKeown

Laurence McKeown (b. 1957 in Randalstown, County Antrim, Northern Ireland) is an author, playwright, scriptwriter, and former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.

Background and IRA activity

McKeown was born in 1957 in Randalstown, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.cite web | title = Searc's Web Guide to 20th Century Ireland - Laurence McKeown (born 1957) | author = | url = http://www.searcs-web.com/mckeown.html | publisher = Searc's | date = | accessdate = 2007-10-05] As a teenager, McKeown had ambitions of becoming an architect and when aged 15 he started working in the offices of a quantity surveyor.cite web | title = The legacy of the hunger strikes | author = Melanie McFadyean | url = http://politics.guardian.co.uk/northernirelandassembly/story/0,,1721872,00.html | publisher = "The Guardian" | date = 4 March 2006 | accessdate = 2007-10-05] When aged 16 he joined the IRA, and he was arrested in August 1976 and charged with causing explosions and the attempted murder of a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. At his trial in April 1977, McKeown was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Maze Prison.

Imprisonment and hunger strike

While in prison McKeown took part in the blanket protest and dirty protest, attempting to secure the return of Special Category Status for convicted paramilitary prisoners. In late 1980 the protest escalated and seven prisoners took part in a fifty-three day hunger strike, aimed at restoring political status by securing what were known as the "Five Demands":

# The right not to wear a prison uniform;
# The right not to do prison work;
# The right of free association with other prisoners, and to organise educational and recreational pursuits;
# The right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week;
# Full restoration of remission lost through the protest. [cite book | last = Taylor | first = Peter | authorlink = Peter Taylor (Journalist) | title = Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin | publisher = Bloomsbury Publishing | date = 1997 | pages = pp. 229–234 | doi = | isbn = 0-7475-3818-2 ]

The strike ended before any prisoners had died and without political status being secured, and a second hunger strike began on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands, the IRA's former Officer Commanding (OC) in the prison.cite web | title = A Chronology of Main Events | author = | url = http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/hstrike/chronology.htm | publisher = CAIN | accessdate = 2007-10-05] McKeown joined the strike on 29 June, after Sands and three other prisoners had starved themselves to death.cite web | title = List of Dead and Other Hunger Strikers | author = | url = http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/hstrike/dead.htm | publisher = CAIN | date = | accessdate = 2007-10-05] Following the deaths of six other prisoners, McKeown's family authorised medical intervention to save his life on 6 September, the 70th day of his hunger strike. He described his recollection of the events in an interview:

You're very sleepy and very, very tired and you're sort of nodding off to sleep but something's telling you to keep waking up. This was the thing that kept everybody going through the hunger strike in trying to live or last out as long as possible. I knew death was close but I wasn't afraid to die - and it wasn't any sort of courageous or glorious thing. I think death would have been a release. You can never feel that way again. It's not like tiredness. It's an absolute, total, mental and physical exhaustion. It's literally like slipping into death. ["Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin", p. 250.]

Freedom

McKeown completed a bachelor's degree in social science from the Open University while in prison before being released in 1992, and subsequently obtained a Ph.D. from Queen's University Belfast. [cite web | title = The prison that served its time | author = | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/848603.stm | publisher = BBC | date = 27 July 2000 | accessdate = 2007-10-05] cite web | title = Long Kesh memories | author = | url = http://www.irishresistancebooks.com/reviews/mckeown.htm | publisher = Irish Resistance Books | date = | accessdate = 2007-10-05] In the mid-1990s he co-founded the Belfast Film Festival, and has written two books about republican prisoners in the Maze Prison–"Nor Meekly Serve My Time: The H-Block Struggle 1976-1981" (co-written with Brian Campbell and Felim O'Hagan) was published in 1994, and "Out Of Time: Irish Republican Prisoners, Long Kesh, 1972-2000" was published in 2001. McKeown and Campbell co-wrote a film about the 1981 hunger strike called "H3" which was directed by Les Blair, and premiered in cinemas on 28 September 2001. [cite web | title = Harsh facts of the hunger strikes | author = | url = http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2001/09/30/story302485828.asp | publisher = "The Sunday Business Post" | date = 30 September 2001 | accessdate = 2007-10-05] Before the death of Campbell in 2005, he and McKeown also wrote two plays together, "The Laughter of Our Children" which debuted in 2001, and "A Cold House" which debuted in 2003. [cite web | title = Lawrence McKeown | author = | url = http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsM/McKeownLawrence.htm | publisher = dollee.com | date = | accessdate = 2007-10-05] [cite web | title = A Cold House | author = | url = http://republican-news.org/archive/2003/May22/22play.html | publisher = "An Phoblacht" | date = 22 May 2003 | accessdate = 2007-10-05] McKeown's first solo play, "The Official Version", debuted on 18 September 2006. [cite web | title = New play commemorates Hunger Strikes | author = Aine Ni Bhriain | url = http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/15958 | publisher = "An Phoblacht" | date = 14 September 2006 | accessdate = 2007-10-05] In 2006 he appeared in a two-part documentary titled "Hunger Strike", which was shown on RTÉ to mark the 25th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike. [cite web | title = Hunger strikes: A tale of two Irelands | author = Emmanuel Kehoe | url = http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2006/05/07/story13932.asp | publisher = "The Sunday Business Post" | date = 7 May 2006 | accessdate = 2007-10-05] McKeown also works as a Development Officer for Coiste na n-Iarchimí, an umbrella organisation of republican ex-prisoners groups. [cite web | title = Out from behind the doors | author = Laurence McKeown | url = http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/17550 | publisher = "An Phoblacht" | date = 25 January 2007 | accessdate = 2007-10-05]

=Bibliography=
*"Nor Meekly Serve My Time: The H-Block Struggle 1976-1981" (1994, with Brian Campbell and Felim O'Hagan) ISBN 9780951422953.
*"Out Of Time: Irish Republican Prisoners, Long Kesh, 1972-2000" (2001) ISBN 9781900960106.

References