As one who lost a nephew Jonathan Ball (age 3) to a bomb placed by these murderous thugs that you call "soldiers," in a Belfast market bombing, let me tell you that those imprisoned in the Maze were killers of 2,000 innocent men, women and children in an attempt - not to unite Ireland - but to impose a Marxist government on it (as in the Sinn Fein manifesto.) My little nephew was toddling on his little chubby legs to buy a Mother's Day card for my sister. Along with other children, he was blown apart. In a similar outrage in Warrington, the IRA set a bomb in a trash can outside a favorite kids' eatery, and a second one timed to catch those fleeing the first - more dead kids and innocent women and men.

The Czech Semtex used in IRA bombs came from Libya, bought by money collected in Irish-Amereican pubs, bars and clubs in the New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago etc. Michael Hensall, Bishop of Warrington, said: "Pictures should be sent to America and people there told 'this is what some of you are funding. Look at it. See what you have done.'"

So don't give me your rubbish about how the IRA represent the Republic of Ireland. They have been illegal from the very formation of the Republic in 1922. Eamon deValera, no lover of Britain, used to hang IRA members as enemies of the state (ironically, he used the official British hangman!) Every single Irish Prime Minister has condemned the IRA, and the majority of Irish regard them as thugs, murderers and Mafiosi. Most of them are not even Irish; they are from the six counties that form Northern Ireland, recognized by every country on earth as part of the United Kingdom.

The prisoners in the Maze were not "political prisoners" - men imprisoned for their political beliefs - they were there because they committed murder, arson, torture and maiming, and witness intimidation - violent offenses illegal in any civilized country. As common prisoners they were required to wear prison clothing during the day, but WERE ALLOWED TO WEAR THEIR OWN CIVILIAN CLOTHING AFTER WORK HOURS, AND DURING THE DAY WHEN RECEIVING VISITORS. They took their case to be treated as "special case" (i.e. political) prisoners to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled that they did not qualify for any special treatment or classification.

Sands was convicted of several weapons offenses, including possession of a gun used to fire at police. First conviction 1972; five years. On release in 1976 (one year off) he returned to the same criminal activity, being involved in one bombing. Leaving behind two wounded confederates (brave of him) after a gun battle with police, he and three others tried to escape by car, but were cought. His printes were on one of the guns in the car. This time he got 14 years. Some hero.

Example of the other hunger strikers are just as ghastly:

Sean McKenna: 21 offences, including attempted cop killing, kidnapping, hijacking, possession of firearms and explosives, intimidation of witnesses - all in 13 months. April 10, 1972, he and his buddies hijacked a car at gunpoint, shot at a policeman and policewoman, wounding the male. At his triel, he said: "I didn't think I had killed the policeman ... I intended to kill him." But this piece of dirt was just getting warmed up. Ordered to kill a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force in Newry: "We hijacked a car and drove to the house where I thought he lived. I asked the girl for her husband and fired three shots into him. Then we drove to the Border Inn and had a few drinks. I found out that I'd shot the wrong man."

John Nixon: Armed robbery and possession of arms;
Tom McFeeley: Ditto
Tommy McKearney: Murder of a part-time cop;
Raymond McCartney: Murder of DuPont executive Jeffrey Agate and a cop;
Leo Green: Cop killing;
Brendan Hughes: Firearms possession.
And on the list goes. Murder, arson (one was imprisoned for killing an elderly woman in the shop he firebombed). As Sean O'Casey said: "They live to kill and they kill to live."

Want to hear the ultimate irony? The first hunger strike deaths were in 1940, when seven prisoners went on hunger strike IN DUBLIN'S MOUNTJOY PRISON, BECAUSE THE REPUBLIC'S DEVALERA WOULDN'T ACCORD THEM POLITICAL PRISONER STATUS. Two of them, Tony D'Arcy and John McNeela, died after 51 and 54 days, respectively. :)