Kieran Doherty (hunger striker)

Kieran Doherty
Teachta Dála
In office June 1981 – 2 August 1981
Constituency	Cavan–Monaghan
Personal details
Born	(1955-10-16)16 October 1955 Andersonstown, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Died	2 August 1981(1981-08-02) (aged 25) HM Prison Maze, County Down, Northern Ireland
Cause of death	Died after 73 days on hunger strike
Resting place	Milltown Cemetery
Political party	Anti H-Block
Military service
Paramilitary	Fianna Éireann (1971–1972) Provisional IRA (1972–1981)
Rank	Volunteer
Unit	Belfast Brigade
Battles/wars	The Troubles

Kieran Doherty (16 October 1955 – 2 August 1981) was an Irish republican hunger striker and politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cavan–Monaghan constituency from June 1981 to August 1981. He was a volunteer in the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).

Doherty was the third son in a family of six.^[1] He was born in the Andersonstown area of Belfast. He was educated at St. Theresa's Primary School and Glen Road Christian Brothers School (CBS). The Doherty brothers were known cyclists and sportsmen in the Andersontown area; Kieran won an Antrim Gaelic football medal at minor level in 1971.^[2]

Doherty joined Fianna Éireann in Autumn 1971, quickly being recruited into the Provisional IRA thereafter.^[1][3] On 6 October 1972, his home was raided by the British Army and he was detained. He was later released after it was proven he was under 17 and couldn't be interned. The Army returned again ten days later, when he turned 17, but Doherty had been warned and fled across the border to stay with an uncle in Limerick. He eventually returned to Belfast in early 1973.^[3]

He was interned by the British Government between February 1973 and November 1975.^[1][3] Kieran's brothers Michael and Terence were interned between 1972 and 1974.^[1]

Doherty worked as an apprentice heating engineer.^[4] His girlfriend was Geraldine Scheiss; although they never became formally engaged, they became very close towards the end of his life. Before his arrest, she had not known that he was in the IRA.^[5]

In August 1976, while he was out to set a bomb, the van he was in was chased by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). During the chase Doherty managed to leave the van and hijack a car. He later ditched the car some streets away and was found 1 mile (1.6 km) away from the car.^[1] He was convicted and sentenced to 18 years for possession of firearms and explosives, with another four years for the hijack.^[1]

Doherty began his strike on 22 May. He died at the age of 25 in the 1981 Irish hunger strike in the Maze Prison (known to republicans as Long Kesh). He lasted 73 days on hunger strike, the longest of the 1981 hunger strikers, and only one day short of Terence MacSwiney.^[6]

While on hunger strike he was elected as an Anti H-Block TD for the Cavan–Monaghan constituency at the 1981 general election, which was held in Ireland on 11 June.^[4] He received 9,121 (15.1%) first preference votes and was elected on the fourth count.^[7] Doherty is the shortest-serving Dáil deputy ever, having served as a TD for two months. The two seats gained by Anti H-Block candidates denied Taoiseach Charles Haughey the chance to form a government,^[8] and the 22nd Dáil saw a Fine Gael-Labour Party coalition government come to office, with Garret FitzGerald as Taoiseach.

He is commemorated on the Irish Martyrs Memorial at Waverley Cemetery in Sydney, Australia.^[9] Decades earlier, another hunger striker, Joseph Whitty (aged 19), likewise died on 2 August, during the 1923 Irish Hunger Strikes. In October 2016, a painting of him was unveiled in Leinster House by Sinn Féin.^[10]

He is buried in the republican plot at Milltown Cemetery in West Belfast.^[11]

• List of members of the Oireachtas imprisoned since 1923