Within three months IRA prisoners under the leadership of Bobby Sands, embarked upon a second hunger strike that was to call into question all around the world Britain's very role in Ireland. That hunger strike began on the 1 March, ironically, the proposed date for the beginning of the proposed twin-track talks process. The British thought they had defeated the Republican Movement after the 1980 Hunger Strike and they know what happened then. They have convinced themselves yet again, that they have brought about a situation in which republicanism can be smashed. How many tragedies must now occur before Britain realises that victory is not in its grasp, that peace means peace and can never be interpreted, nor implemented, as a ploy to achieve the unachievable.
Peace is still available and peace is still possible.
Even at this late hour John Major has the power to rescue both our peoples from looming disaster. A short statement of serious intent, a simple phone-call, can pull us all back from the brink. And whatever happens, the commitment of Sinn Fein to a strategy for peace will remain constant. This British government, or, for that matter, any British government to come, will find that the nationalists of Ireland are not into the business of surrender. What we are about is the release of Irish republican prisoners from Britain jails, the removal of British injustice and inequality from our midst, and the search for agreement among all the people of Ireland on how we govern ourselves in the days, months and years to come.