Richard O'Rawe

Richard O'Rawe (born 1953) is an Irish author and former Irish republican activist from Belfast, best known for his 2005 memoir Blanketmen: An Untold Story of the H-Block Hunger Strike, in which he claimed that the Provisional Irish Republican Army leadership rejected a British settlement offer that could have ended the 1981 Irish hunger strike before six further prisoners died. A former Provisional IRA volunteer, O'Rawe served as press officer for the prisoners in Long Kesh during the hunger strikes and was among the original blanket men. His allegations, which implicated Gerry Adams and other senior republicans in a decision shaped by electoral calculation rather than the welfare of the hunger strikers, provoked lasting controversy within the republican movement. He has since written a biography of Gerry Conlon of the Guildford Four, a study of British agent Freddie Scappaticci, and a debut novel, Northern Heist, loosely based on the Northern Bank robbery of 2004.

Early life Richard O'Rawe was born in 1953 and spent the first fourteen years of his life in the Lower Falls district of Belfast. His home was at the corner of Peel Street and Mary Street. Nearby lived Gerry Conlon. In 1970, his home in Peel Street was demolished as part of the redevelopment of the area and he and his family moved to Ballymurphy, a new housing estate. At this time, The Troubles was developing. In 1971, the Ballymurphy massacre occurred in which eleven civilians were killed by the British Army. The following year, there was the Battle at Springmartin nearby. As a result of the heightened conflict in the area, O'Rawe became involved in Irish republican politics.

O'Rawe has said that his father was a committed IRA man during the 1940s and was interned without trial during the IRA campaign of the 1950s. He joined the IRA at the age of seventeen. He was interned twice in the early 1970s.

Role in the hunger strikes In Long Kesh prison in 1981, O'Rawe served as the Provisional IRA press officer for the prisoners, effectively second-in-command within the prison during the 1981 Irish hunger strike. Six more hunger strikers died after the point at which O'Rawe contends the offer was rejected. In 2001, O'Rawe gave testimony to the Boston College oral history project, during which, for the first time, he described in detail his account of events during the 1981 hunger strikes. He has said the experience was emotionally overwhelming and led him to publish his account publicly.

Blanketmen (2005) O'Rawe's first book, Blanketmen: An Untold Story of the H-Block Hunger Strike, was published in February 2005 by New Island.

The book provoked significant controversy. Danny Morrison said O'Rawe should "hang his head in shame" and strenuously denied that the IRA leadership had rejected a viable British offer. O'Rawe had known Scappaticci from his time in Long Kesh in 1973, describing him as a nodding acquaintance whom he had regarded as a serious IRA man. He has said that the armed struggle "didn't work" and that it is "difficult to disagree" with the position taken by John Hume and Seamus Mallon at the time. 2022: Goering's Gold: A Ructions O'Hare Novel. Melville House. 2023: Stakeknife's Dirty War: The Inside Story of Scappaticci, the IRA's Nutting Squad and the British Spooks Who Ran the War. Merrion Press.