Northern Ireland: Death Cycle

The rhythm quickens

By now the mournful drama had taken on all the predictable ritual of a Passion Play. First came the terse announcement that Raymond McCreesh, 24, an inmate of the Maze Prison, had become the third Irish Republican Army hunger striker this month to take "his own life by refusing food and medical intervention," as the British government officially put it. Then came the rioting through Catholic neighborhoods of Belfast and Londonderry as women banged dustbin lids in the early morning darkness and gangs of youthful I.R.A. sympathizers attacked army...

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