1. Brendan Hughes was a leading Irish republican and former Officer Commanding of the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
22 Facts About Brendan Hughes
1. 2.
Brendan Hughes joined the British Merchant Navy in the late 1960s, believing it would reduce the income burden on his father.
3.
Brendan Hughes became involved in the republican movement after the 1969 riots, believing he would be protecting his community from loyalist mobs.
4.
From 1970 to 1972 Brendan Hughes was involved in a number of attacks on British soldiers and bank robberies to raise funds for the republican movement.
5.
Brendan Hughes was an excellent military strategist and was key to the IRA's early success in Belfast against the British Army, especially in and around the Falls Road area of Belfast, sometimes carrying out along with his unit as many as five operations a day against either the British Army or the RUC.
6.
Brendan Hughes regarded the operation as a disaster, as he explained in an interview set up by Boston College:.
7.
On 19 July 1973, Brendan Hughes was arrested on the Falls Road along with Gerry Adams and Tom Cahill.
8.
On 10 May 1974, Brendan Hughes was arrested following a tip-off, and the house was found to contain a submachine gun, four rifles, two pistols and several thousand rounds of ammunition.
9.
Three years after his arrest, Brendan Hughes was involved in a fracas and received an additional five-year sentence for assaulting a prison officer.
10.
Brendan Hughes refused to wear a prison uniform and joined the blanket protest.
11.
Shortly after arriving in the H-Blocks, Brendan Hughes became the OC of the IRA prisoners, and in March 1978 ordered the prisoners to begin the dirty protest.
12.
Whilst in prison, Brendan Hughes formed a friendship with Shankill Butchers and Ulster Volunteer Force member Robert Bates, who later foiled a UVF plot to assassinate Brendan Hughes.
13.
Brendan Hughes was the Officer Commanding during the 1980 hunger strike.
14.
Brendan Hughes assumed that the compromise was in good faith and ended the hunger strike after 53 days.
15.
Bobby Sands had taken over as leader of the republican prisoners in the prison after Brendan Hughes began his strike.
16.
Brendan Hughes was released from prison in 1986, and returned to live in Belfast, staying initially at the home of Gerry Adams.
17.
Brendan Hughes was appointed to the IRA's Internal Security Unit and liaised between IRA Northern Command and rural units in Tyrone and Armagh.
18.
In 1990, Brendan Hughes appeared at a press conference in Bilbao organised by Herri Batasuna, the political wing of the Basque nationalist paramilitary group ETA, to support an amnesty for ETA prisoners.
19.
In October 2006, Brendan Hughes was pictured on the front page of the Irish News wearing an eye patch after undergoing an operation to save his sight, which had been badly damaged due to his hunger strike.
20.
At the beginning of February 2008, Brendan Hughes was hospitalised due to a chest infection and influenza, later falling into a coma.
21.
Brendan Hughes died at the age of 59 years in Belfast City Hospital a week later on 16 February 2008.
22.
Adams denied any role in the death of McConville and said Brendan Hughes had been lying.