The Kansas City unit of Irish Northern Aid is named for Pat McGeown, regarded
as the 11th victim of the hunger strikes in 1981.
   Pat McGeown was born in Belfast in 1956. He was first arrested without charge at
the age of 14. Two years later, in 1973, he was interned without trial in the infamous
Long Kesh concentration camp for 18 months. After his release, he was arrested
again in 1975 and spent another nine years in Long Kesh. During this term of
imprisonment, McGeown joined with Bobby Sands and others in a hunger strike for
political status in 1981. Sands and nine others died on the hunger strike before it was called off after the prisoners' demands were met by the British government. The hunger strike was to have a critical effect on both the quality and length of Pat McGeown's life.
                                                                                                                            After his release from Long Kesh, Pat helped head up
                                                                                                                         the Sinn Fein Publicity Department and was elected to
                                                                                                                        the Belfast City Council as a Sinn Fein representative in
                                                                                                                        1989. He was appointed the Sinn Fein emissary to all
                                                                                                                        Irish Republican prisoners in Ireland, England and the
                                                                                                                        United States, explaining the developing peace process
                                                                                                                        and eliciting the prisoners' input into that process.
                                                                                                                            He also served on Sinn Fein's ard comhairle and
                                                                                                                        played a leading role in the party's political strategy, as
                                                                                                                        well as in anchoring the peace process within the
                                                                                                                        Republican movement. His political analysis and ability
                                                                                                                                            to develop his political ideas made him an out-
                                                                                                                                            standing exponent of Sinn Fein policy and a
                                                                                                                                            respected debater, both inside and outside the
                                                                                                                                            party.
                                                                                                                                                It was the hunger strike of 1981, though,
                                                                                                                                            that best defined Pat McGeown's commitment
                                                                                                                                            and sacrifice to a re-united and free Ireland.
                                                                                                                                            He was on his 43rd day of the strike when it
                                                                                                                                            ended, and, while he did not die on that hunger
                                                                                                                                            strike, his health was irreversibly ruined by
                                                                                                                                            those 43 days without food. The fast caused
                                                                                                                                            him to develop heart disease, which plagued
                                                                                                                                            him for the remainder of his life, finally culmi-
                                                                                                                                            nating in his death from a heart attack, at age
                                                                                                                                            40, on September 29, 1996.
                                                                                                                                                Pat McGeown was truly the 11th victim of
                                                                                                                                            British intransigence and delay during the
                                                                                                                                            hunger strikes of 1981.                                                   
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Top: Aerial view of the "H Blocks" at the infamous Long Kesh.
Right: View of entrance.
Right:
Bobby Sands'
funeral.