"In the twenty six counties, a quarter of the population live below the poverty level and unemployment is increasing in both partitionist states. The minority Dublin government have shown themselves, like Fianna Fail before them, to have no answers to these questions nor to the national question, and in the North the SDLP ad the Irish Independence PArty Have been seen as similarly impotent.

Against this background of social and economic discontent, the national question has clearly been brought into focus by the courage of the prisoners.

The deaths of ten hungerstriking comrades have understandably caused frustration among IRA Volunteers on the ground, who, although politically concious, are open to the frustration felt by the IRA supporters who believe that the IRA should pay the British government in kind for the deaths of comrades and for the deaths on the streets.

That the IRA will do that goes without saying, but this is, of course, no answer to people who have suffered directly in the last twelve years by a British terror campaign, and indirectly over the decades as reluctant and dispossessed citizens of a six county state.

That IRA Volunteers, men and women, remain calm in the face of such adversity and provocation is a tribute to their discipline."
  ¶ 2:44 a.m.