Take Me Home To Mayo
The Ballad Of Michael Gaughan

The ballad Take Me Home To Mayo is written by Seámus Robinson in 1974 in memory of Michael Gaughan who died in 1974 owing to the effects of being force-fed while on hunger strike.

Michael Gaughan
Source: An Phoblacht:
Remembering the Past

After finishing schooling Michael Gaughan left his birthplace Ballina in County Mayo and emigrated to London in search of a job. In London he became an active volunteer of the London based Active Service Unit (ASU) of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (pIRA). He was arrested during a fund-raising drive, charged of the possession of firearms and conspiracy to rob a bank and ultimately in December 1971 convicted to seven years imprisonment.
After serving two years in Wormwood Scrubs in London and Albany Prison in Newport on the Isle of Wright Michael Gaughan was moved to the high security prison Parkhurst in Newport. In Albany Michael had filled his first request for political status without avail. In the contrary, Michael was punished for his insolence with solitary confinement.

In 1973 the Provisional Irish Republican Army (pIRA) launched a campaign in Britain and on 8 March London was startled by two explosions near the Old Bailey and the Ministry of Agriculture for which ten volunteers, known as The Belfast Ten, were arrested and convicted. In November 1973 the Belfast Ten demanded to be transferred to an Irish prison. Four of them, the Price Sisters Marion and Dolours, Hugh Feeney and Gerry Kelly, went on hunger strike to enforce their demands.
Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg took up the demands and joined the hunger strike by refusing food on 31 March 1974.

Similar to the Price Sisters and other hunger strikers at that time Michael Gaughan had to endure the degrading and excruciating practice of being force-fed. In short, and without enlarging the gory details, the medical procedure started with overpowering the hunger striker with up to eight wardens. Once pinned down on the bed with his head pulled backward the mouth of the prisoner was opened with brute force, for example by rubbing the gums with forceps or by inserting a small tube in the nose to trigger a vomiting reflex or, when the patient had learned to suppress this reflex, to rub the tube against the sensitive membranes. A wooden or metal clamp containing a hole for the feeding tube was jammed in the open mouth and hard-handed the feeding tube was inserted. More than often the treatment, which was carried out in a non-sterile prison environment, caused damages to cavities, gullet, windpipe or even lungs.
After being on hunger strike for 64 days and force-fed for 17 times Michael Gaughan died on 3 June 1974 of pneumonia caused by a dirty feeding tube that had punctured his lung. In accordance with Michael's wishes his body returned home to Mayo where he is buried with full honour.

Michael Gaughan's death, and other force feeding related incidents, caused upheaval in medical cycles as a result of which involuntary force feeding of hunger strikers is prohibited by the World Medical Association (WMA) since the 1975 Declaration of Tokyo and the Declaration on Hunger Strikers of 1991. The Declaration of Tokyo leaves some room for interpretation whereas the Declaration on Hunger Strikers, also known as the Declaration of Malta, is abundantly clear on the matter at issue: Forcible feeding is never ethically acceptable. Even if intended to benefit, feeding accompanied by threats, coercion, force or use of physical restraints is a form of inhuman and degrading treatment..

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Take Me Home To Mayo / The Ballad Of Michael Gaughan

Take me home to Mayo, across the Irish Sea;
Home to dear old Mayo, where once I roamed so free.
Take me home to Mayo, there let my body lie;
Home at last in Mayo, beneath an Irish sky.

My name is Michael Gaughan, from Ballina I came;
I saw my people suffering and swore to break their chain
I raised the flag in England, prepared to fight or die
Far away from Mayo, beneath an Irish sky.

Take me home to Mayo, across the Irish Sea;
Home to dear old Mayo, where once I roamed so free.
Take me home to Mayo, there let my body lie;
Home at last in Mayo, beneath an Irish sky.

My body cold and hungry, in Parkhurst Gaol I lie;
For loving of my country, on hunger strike I die
I have just one last longing, I pray you’ll not deny
Bury me in Mayo, beneath an Irish sky.

Take me home to Mayo, across the Irish Sea;
Home to dear old Mayo, where once I roamed so free.
Take me home to Mayo, there let my body lie;
Home at last in Mayo, beneath an Irish sky.

Take me home to Mayo, across the Irish Sea;
Home to dear old Mayo, where once I roamed so free.
Take me home to Mayo, there let my body lie;
Home at last in Mayo, beneath an Irish sky.

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