Hunger strike outside Leinster House hits 40 days as industrial school survivors refuse to give up
Four survivors have been sleeping rough without food for 40 days and 40 nights
A meeting with the Taoiseach has failed to end a 40-day hunger strike by four industrial abuse survivors.
Maurice O’Connell, Mary Donovan, Miriam Moriarty Owens and Mary Dunlevy Green have been sleeping rough outside Leinster House and have gone without food for 40 days and 40 nights.
They are calling for long-promised state support for Boarded Out survivors, who were sent to family farms while in state care. Many were subject to strenuous manual labour and some were abused.
The group say they will not stop hunger striking until they are promised in writing a HAA medical, a full contributory state pension and a State apology. The four survivors met with Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Wednesday night, as he pleaded with them to end the strike.
Mr O’Connell, 57, said a full agreement could not be reached so they have been assigned a mediator. However, the mediator cannot meet them until Monday, so they will continue without food and sleeping rough until at least then.
The Boarded-Out survivor told the Irish Mirror: “It was a productive meeting but we are still on hunger strike. We are still outside Leinster House because we want it in writing and we want a firm commitment of what they are going to do for us, because the government has broken promises to us before.
“The Taoiseach asked if we could go off the hunger strike and we said not until we get a firm commitment in writing. He asked us several times during the meeting to please get off the hunger strike.. But we told the Taoiseach it should never have gotten to this point.”
Mr O’Connell, from Cahersiveen, Kerry, said he and the other three survivors are struggling physically, but they will never give up. They are living on electrolytes, water and coffee, and have seen significant weight loss over the past 40 days.
The Kerry man has lost over three stone since the strike started, but he said being hungry is not new to the group as they “starved as kids”. He continued: “The body is weak but our minds are still strong and we are still determined to carry on.
“We are not going to listen to the government saying they will give us this and that and then go off the hunger strike and find out we didn’t get our promises cause we couldn’t go back on the hunger strike, I wouldn’t anyway.
“We have medics coming in all the time, every second day they check our blood pressure, oxygen levels and sugars in the blood. We are okay to keep going, even if the paramedics tell us we can't, we will keep going until there is a conclusion in this.”
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