Maze inmate insists IRA blocked hunger strike deal

A FORMER IRA jail chief attacked for claiming the organisation blocked a life-saving deal to end the 1981 hunger strike last night declared: “The truth’s on my side.”

Richard O’Rawe, the Provisionals’ spokesman inside the Maze Prison, revealed he has been ostracised for alleging the leadership refused a package of British concessions.

Margaret Thatcher’s administration was prepared to meet nearly all of the demands in a move that would have halted the protest just before the fifth prisoner died, he insisted.