The equality commission says Omagh District Council has breached its own equality regulations when it erected a monument to the hunger strikers, consisting of a graveyard, a tree for each hunger striker and an Irish tricolour, in the grounds of the Old Dromore Church.

The commission said that by failing to conduct a screening exercise or an equality impact assessment in relation to policies that resulted in the memorial remaining on its property for the last 4 years. To add insult to injury, the memorial was erected on land that used to belong to the Church of Ireland and the council has voted to transfer ownership of the land to the "Dromore Memorial Committee," an organisation dedicated to the glorification of republican terrorists.

The Equality Commission have told them they should now take action to have the memorial removed from council property.

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An MLA has claimed that "hunger strike commemorations are only being used as another weapon in what republicans would describe as 'the struggle'". Commenting on the use of a parish centre near Dunloy, Co. Antrim, for a hunger strikers commemoration DUP assemblyman Mervyn Storey said he was "extremely disappointed" that the centre was being used to stage what he called "an insult to the victims in north Antrim".

Of course he's right, all the various Sinn Fein's have been trying to use the commemoration of the hunger strikes to bolster their own standing. In Dungiven, Co. Londonderry, there are crudely erected 'memorials' looking like cheap billboards, at least one of which was emblazoned with the faces of the 10 dead criminals and simply the words "Republican Sinn Fein" and another sponsored by the IRSP, showing that it's not just the Provos who are vying to associate themselves with the men who died for their dogma.

Sometimes I wonder how nationalists can so conveniently overlook the fact that these were gunrunners and murderers when they so readily venerate them, praising their "bravery" and how they "stood up for what they believed in". No matter how hard I try, and I sometimes do, I can't see myself ever understanding the mindset that can honour 10 bloodthirsty killers as heroes. Others, I wonder if they really are oblivious to the attempts by Sinn Fein (in all its flavours) to use the hunger strikers for their own political and financial advantage, even more in death than they did when they were alive.

Conviction: Theft and possession of firearms
Sentence: 12 years
Joined Hunger Strike: 22nd June
Suicided: 20th August

Michael (or Micky) Devine was born in Springtown, a former US army camp In Londonderry, in 1954 where the family lived until they moved into a brand new council house in 1960. His father Patrick, a coalman by trade, had served in the British merchant navy during the Second World War. It's reported that Micky had an "unremarkable, but reasonably happy" childhood until the age of 11, when his father died of a serious illness.

After seeing the civil rights marches on TV in 1968, Devine's attitude towards the police changed. As a child he'd been taught not to talk to them and generally to have nothing to do with them, but following riots at the march he developed overnight what he himself described as "an intense hatred" of the police. That night he went out in the city smashing shop windows and stoning the police. In later riots in 1969 Micky would end up in hospital following confrontations with the police.

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Conviction: manslaughter, possession of explosives
Sentence: 20 years (reduced from life)
Joined Hunger Strike: 7th(?) June
Suicided: 8th August

Thomas McElwee was born the 5th of 12 siblings to a family in Bellaghy. The previous year McElwee's father Jim became the uncle of Francis Hughes, who would later precede McElwee on hunger strike. Growing up, McElwee was an argumentative type and enjoyed listening to rebel songs and causing grief for his neighbours. Its said that few were surprised when he joined the Fianna Eireann at the age of 14, and later the IRA.

McElwee was arrested on several occasions as the IRA campaign of violence in the south of Co. Londonderry escalated, although they police couldn't manage to gather enough evidence to have him convicted and he never went into hiding as a fugitive like his cousin.

In October 1976, the McElwee family received mass in their home, one evening, from a Roman Catholic priest. The very next day, Thomas and his brother Benedict were out planting a bomb in Ballymena when it exploded prematurely. It was their sister Bernadette's birthday, and that afternoon the family got a call telling them the brothers had been rushed by the British Army to Wavery Hospital in Ballymena following the explosion. Thomas lost an eye in the blast, and his other was only saved following transfer from Ballymena to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast for emergency surgery. Even so, he was without sight for 3 weeks.

As well as the bomb that went off prematurely, McElwee was charged over another attack on a shop, the Alley Catz Boutique, also in Ballymena. McElwee was convicted of possession of explosives and the murder of the 26 year old woman, Yvonne Dunlop the owner of Alley Catz, who was killed in that attack, though the murder conviction was reduced to manslaughter on appeal.

In prison he was defiant, and frequently disciplined for his conduct. Having already volunteered for the hunger strike the previous year in 1980, McElwee naturally volunteered a second time in the 1981 hunger strike, but this time he participated. He began refusing food in June and died of self-imposed starvation on 8th August leaving Northern Ireland with one less unapologetic convicted killer able to reoffend.

Conviction: Possession of firearms and explosives, hijacking a car
Sentence: 18 years
Joined Hunger Strike: 22nd May
Suicided: 2nd August

Born in Andersonstown in west Belfast in 1955, Kieran/Ciaran Doherty was the third of 6 children in his family and won a Co. Antrim minor medal for GAA in 1971. Doherty's family had been involved with the IRA long before Kieran was even born, with his uncle, Ned Maguire, part of a rooftop breakout from Crumlin Road prison in Belfast in 1943 and Ned's son (also called Ned) had broken out from Long Kesh when it was an internment camp before being recaptured at Twinbrook. Young Ned's sisters were members of the women's republican paramilitary organisation, Cumann na mBan and were killed by the army in 1971.

That Autumn, Doherty joined na Fianna Eireann (an organisation proscribed to this day under the 2000 Terrorism Act, originally set up in 1902 and later allied with the anti-Treaty IRA in the Irish war of independence) and worked hard to impress, hoping to be recruited by the IRA. It seemed to work.

Unfortunately for Doherty the army had noticed his activities, and they eventually came to arrest him in October 1972, however they had to release him when it was proved he was under 17 (by 10 days). When the army lay in wait for him on his 17th birthday, he had already been warned and transported across the border and down to Limerick until early in 1973 when he returned to Belfast, eager to get "back into action".

A week after returning he was arrested and interned for 2½ years at Long Kesh, and was released when the government abandoned internment. On his release in November 1975 he immediately reported back to the IRA and was involved in a series of attacks on the army and was chased by them once while transporting weapons, but managed to evade arrest.

His "heavy involvement" with the IRA meant he had little time for his girlfriend, Geraldine, even when he wasn't in prison. This "heavy involvement" would later ensure he had even less time with Geraldine. In August 1976 he was part of a group of IRA members carrying out a bomb attack near Balmoral Avenue in Belfast. As the police were chasing the van he got out, leaving his 'comrades', and stole a car, abandoning it a number of streets away. His accomplices were arrested following the chase and Doherty was picked up a mile and a half away.

He was charged and convicted of stealing the car and possession of firearms and explosives, which earned him a total of 22 years in prison (4 for hijacking the car, 18 for possession). Once in prison, Doherty was often punished for his insolence towards the warders. He joined the hunger strike on 22nd May (replacing Raymond McCreesh) the day before INLA member Kevin Lynch, and was to finally die the day after – a total of 73 days, making Kieran Doherty the most successful (or least efficient) of his batch of hunger strikers.

Sentence: 10 years
Joined Hunger Strike: 23rd May
Suicided: 1st August

Born in Park, near Dungiven, Co. Londonderry in 1956, Lynch was the youngest of 8 children. He grew up well known for his strong desire to win and while a good sportsman (particularly fond of Gaelic football and hurling), he was frequently found to be the source of "devilment" in his school until he left at the age of 15.

After spending some time in Bedford (England), Lynch returned home to Dungiven in 1976 (still an apprentice brick layer) and almost immediately joined the INLA because of his "national awareness" and "cultural love of Irish sport." Three months later, at 20 years old, Lynch was arrested by the police following an ambush in which a police officer was injured. He was charged on 4th December with (among other things) conspiracy to disarm members of the security forces, involvement in a shooting and stealing shotguns.

In 1977 Kevin Lynch was sentenced to 10 years in prison. While there he sought and failed to get elected to the Dublin parliament as a Deputy for Waterford, before joining the hunger strike on 23rd May 1981 and eventually escaping prison, like only a hunger striker can, on 1st August.

Conviction: possession of landmines, conspiracy to kill members of the security forces, IRA membership, causing an explosion
Sentence: 20 years
Joined Hunger Strike: 29th May
Suicided: 13th July

Hurson was the 8th of 9 children born to a farming family from Cappagh (near Dungannon) who owned 30 acres of farmland. His mother, with whom he was said to have been very close, died when he was only 13 and it was Martin who found her when one day when she'd taken seriously ill.

His family didn't discuss politics and internment hadn't affected anyone from Cappagh, nevertheless east Tyrone was fast becoming a hotbed of republican terrorist activity and Martin Hurson wasn't going to be left out.

Hurson was arrested in November of 1976 and charged with IRA membership, possession of landmines used in terrorist attacks, conspiracy to kill members of the security forces and causing an explosion. He signed statements confessing to involvement in republican terrorist activities, but later claimed these were extracted under torture. In a retrial, the original statements were ruled inadmissible, but later statements obtained elsewhere were ruled sufficient to affirm Hurson's conviction.

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The hunger strikers were political prisoners. I love how this little gem goes so unquestioned in Irish America (and even by many in Northern Ireland). Kate McCabe is obviously a classic Irish American who begins her story with this quote from a Guantanamo Bay detainee who, obviously inspired by the myths of Bobby Sands more than the reality, compares his self-inflicted starvation with that of Mr Sands.

"Bobby Sands petitioned the British government to stop the illegitimate treatment [sic] of Irishmen without trial. "

Actually, no Mohammed. He didn't.

Detention of suspected terrorists without trial was ended by 1976, 5 years before the Bobby Sands took the decision to end his life. From that point on, anyone imprisoned on terrorist offences was tried in court. Hands up who thinks Kate "as an Irish American" McCabe corrected this glaring mistake.

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Conviction: possession of a weapon
Sentence: 14 years
Joined Hunger Strike: 9th May
Suicided 8th July

Born on the Falls Road as the youngest child in a family of 10, Joe McDonnell is claimed not to have been involved with the paramilitaries in the early part of his life, but would later go on to meet Gerry Adams and Bobby Sands. In 1970 he married and moved to Lenadoon, a largely Protestant estate, where it's said his house was attacked on numerous occasions.

Despite claims he wasn't involved with terrorist groups, he was interned on the HMS Maidstone which is where he would meet Gerry Adams, a meeting that no doubt had a huge influence on the direction of his life. When he was released he joined the Belfast brigade of the IRA.

By the time he was arrested again in 1976 he had been involved in multiple bomb attacks - a popular story among republican websites being of how he joked as a car he was travelling in with other "volunteers" and several bombs started to fill up with smoke. He was arrested with Bobby Sands in 1976 when the pair were involved in a 9 man firebomb attack on the Balmoral Furnishing Company furniture store near Twinbrook.

After firing at police and army personnel at the scene, McDonnell, Sands and 2 others were caught trying to flee in a car and arrested and charged with posession of a revolver also found in the vehicle. When the men all refused to recognise the court (and also therefore, to defend themselves) they were all sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Conviction: Possession of a hand grenade
Sentence: 8 years
Went Hungry: 22nd March
Suicided: 21st May

Born in Londonderry in 1957, O'Hara joined the INLA and was sentenced to 8 years in January 1980 for possession of a hand grenade.

O'Hara's grandfather enlisted in the army and fought in the battlefields of Europe during World War One, before turning to the paramilitaries and transporting weapons down the River Foyle into Londonderry. O'Hara's grandmother's uncle was in the RIC until it was disbanded in 1921, something which grated on Patsy, whose own grandmother described him as "a wee bit bigoted about my uncle being a policeman."

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