[Imc-chicago-audio] Former Irish Hunger Striker to lead Hunger Strikes March in St. Pat's Parade

[Deirdre Fennessy]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
The Irish Freedom Committee
Charlie Kerins Unit
P.O. Box 11417
Chicago IL 60611
Ph. 312-560-9311

CHICAGO, IL – March 6, 2006


Former Irish Hunger Striker to lead Hunger Strikes Commemoration in St. 
Patrick’s Day Parade


Picture credit: The Chicago Sun-Times
http://www.irishfreedomcommittee.net/IFC_INFO/FRANK/Frank_1980s_at_bar.jpg

Frank O’Neill, veteran Irish Republican activist and former Political 
Prisoner and Hunger Striker, will lead the Chicago unit of the Irish Freedom 
Committee in Saturday’s St. Patrick’s Day parade in Downtown Chicago.   The 
focus of the group’s march will be a commemoration of the 25th Anniversary 
of the Hunger Strikes at Long Kesh prison in Ireland, where ten men died in 
1981.

Frank O’Neill, 83, was born in the North of Ireland at a time when Ireland 
was torn apart by bloody Civil War.  He joined the Irish Republican Army in 
the 1940’s and was later interned in some of the worst prisons in Ireland 
including the Curragh, Moountjoy, and Portlaoise Prison; where he went on 
Hunger Strike three times for the right to be classed as a political 
prisoner, and not as a criminal.

After moving to Chicago in the 1950’s Frank owned and operated “O’Neill’s”, 
a popular establishment on Chicago’s Northwest side for over forty years 
frequented by many well-known politicians, judges, lawyers, and city 
workers.  A former boxer, Frank ran a tight ship.  There were never any 
fights at O’Neill’s; he cut them all off before they had the chance, gently 
telling them they’d had enough.  It didn’t matter if they were ward bosses, 
captains of industry or bus drivers, Frank treated everyone the same.

Frank O’Neill has dedicated his life to the cause of a united Ireland, free 
of British interference.  Frank has been a member and founder of numerous 
Irish humanitarian organizations in the United States since the 1960’s.  In 
1987 Frank testified in the Illinois Legislature as an expert witness in the 
McBride Principles, whose passage guaranteed fair employment practices for 
Irish Catholics in the North of Ireland.  At the present time Frank is a 
National Board Member of the Irish Freedom Committee/Cumann na Saoirse, and 
is Chairman of the Chicago Chapter; which was named in honor of his 
associate and good friend Charlie Kerins, executed by a British hangman in 
1944.  The Irish Freedom Committee, established in 1961, is a Nation-wide, 
registered Not-for-Profit organization dedicated to education on the root 
causes of the conflict with England, and to the charitable and humanitarian 
support of the children and dependents of Irish Republican Political 
Prisoners.

On Saturday, Mr. O’Neill will lead a contingent of activists marching in 
respect for the memories of ten brave young Irish men who gave their lives 
on Hunger Strike twenty-five years ago at Long Kesh Prison in the North of 
Ireland.  These young men, Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Patsy O’Hara, Ray 
McCreesh, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Thomas 
McElwee, and Michael Devine; died for the right to be classed as political 
prisoners, and as not criminals.

In the words of three-time hunger striker Frank O’Neill, “Hunger strike is a 
tactic used for centuries to bring the struggle to the oppressor’s door”.  
It is not an easy one, as the deaths of these ten consecutive Hunger 
Strikers in 1981 was to show.  Twenty-five years later, not one of the 
demands the 1981 Hunger Strikers died for has come to pass—Ireland un-united 
is still not at peace.  And today, almost unknown to the world, nearly 100 
Irish republican political prisoners in jails in Britain and Ireland still 
battle for the same right to be classed as political prisoners – a right 
taken from them with the signing of the 1998 Treaty with England.

Mr. O’Neill recently told a Derry conference on prisoners’ rights; “The 
British government…will always deny Irish prisoners human dignity, but it is 
my hope that no Political Prisoner will ever have to suffer the ordeal of 
starving in a dark wet cell, in a hope to be allowed basic human rights.  I 
hope that we will never see another Hunger Strike.”

The Irish Freedom Committee/Cumann na Saoirse will be Unit #153 in 
Saturday’s parade.  For more information and event updates please visit The 
Irish Freedom Committee at http://www.irishfreedomcommittee.net, or email 
the Chicago unit of the IFC at Saoirse at irishfreedomcommittee.net.


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