Bobby's painful death instructed the Blanketmen, the Republican Movement, supporters and sympathizers, and particularly the mothers and family members of the three men still on hunger strike what they had to look forward to. It wasn't pretty. It also instructed them what to expect from the Brits, as if they didn't know.

After Bobby's heroic death, the Bits did nothing. They were content to watch Irish men die. Couched in the righteousness that oppressors assume with regards to their oppressed, they refused to even pretend to care. When world opinion turned upon the news of Bobby's death, the Brit establishment took on the patronizing, bored attitude they always put on when asked to confront themselves or their arrogant conception of their innate superiority.

Everyone knew in their heads, if not in their hearts, that the taste of blood was in Thatcher's fangs and her government's taste was similarly whetted. It would now be death after death after death. All four men died within 17 days of each other.

The Blanketmen waited and prayed for the souls of their comrades; there wasn't much sense in praying that Thatcher would put an end to the dying.

Bik: "I was a prolonged nightmare as we watched while Frank, Raymond, and Patsy followed the same torturous path as Bobby; Frank died a week after bobby; Patsy and Raymond nine days later on 21 May ... I wrote the same type of sympathy or condolence letter to each grieving and heart-broken family." [ Nor Meekly Serve My Time. ]

The Legend of Frank Hughes

I knew an Irish American whose name just happened to be Francis Hughes. He was traveling through the north during the late 70s and gave his name upon request at Brit checkpoint. He could see the soldiers' irises dilating into pinheads at the sound of the hated words: "Francis Hughes". The man almost had a heart attack. What was he supposed to say when asked for his name? He headed south. Fast. Such was the fear and hatred that Brit crown forces learned to have for even the sound of the name of Francis Hughes.

The Hughes' ancestral family had managed a living on country farmland near Bellaghy, South Co. Derry, in a place called Tamlaghtduff for as long as anyone remembered. Joseph and Margaret Hughes had a large family to raise, four boys and six girls. Joe was known to be of Republican sympathy, but that was all. Actually, Frank's father, Joe, fought with the IRA in the ‘20s, but was quiet about all of that, having enough to do keeping a dozen human beings and a number of animal beings alive to talk about past struggles. Life was a struggle, but a good one. They had enough, neither rich nor poor.

Nonetheless, the RUC, British army, and particularly the British army regiment recruited locally among Unionists and Loyalists -- the Ulster Defense Regiment, targeted the Hughes boys for abuse and surveillance.

For Frank, the "troubles" begin at fifteen

The struggle in the north first impacted Frank Hughes as a 15-year-old school boy. One cold morning the RUC and Brit army raided the Hughes family home with rifles and guns drawn, broke into the room that Frank shared with his older brother Oliver, and dragged Oliver away to an internment camp where, without trial or due process, he served 8 months "behind the wire." Oliver had a clip of ammunition in the pocket of the jacket his mother insisted he wear against the cold as they took him off. Luckily, he found a moment to fling it unnoticed into the dark Irish morning. He had plans to be married in 10 days.

When Frank turned 17, he was beaten badly by a UDR patrol while returning home from a dance. He hid the fact from his family, but the pain was so bad that his father, Joe, finally got the truth out of him. Joe told him to report the incident to the RUC and go to a doctor. Frank replied, "I'll get my own back in my own time." He would do better than that.

No one really knows how many of the British crown forces were killed by the hand of Francis Hughes; the "official" count is thirty. But there was never a sense of revenge, Francis always thought of himself as a soldier for Ireland and wore full military gear when operating. In 1973, he and a group of young neighbors joined the Provisional IRA after a brief stint with the "Officials", which they left to form their own fighting group they called the "Independents".

Frank's leadership and technical skill was apparent. He was deadly with a weapon and probably invented, clearly perfected, a deadly booby-trap bomb constructed with a clothespin, a piece of stick, and some fishing line that he connected to an explosive device.

Always on the attack

But his greatest assets as a fighting man was his calmness, courage, and desire to engage the enemy at all times. He was fearless. One IRA leader said, "He was the sort of man who would shoot up a few policemen on his way to a meeting to plan our next attack on the police."

Once Frank was trapped upstairs in a safe house surrounded by a Brit patrol. When an officer entered the house and confronted the scared witless owner, Frank, wearing his typical combat jacket and bristling with weaponry, came down the stairs and walked calmly passed the officer saying, "Nothing inside." And off he went into the night.

Another incident that displayed Frank's coolness under pressure was when he and two armed comrades were stopped by a Brit army patrol in an isolated area. He told the officer that they were taking "a shortcut" and was amazingly waved on through. When they were well passed the check point, the other two were horrified as Frank turned back and asked the Brit officer if he had a light. He calmly strode back and lit his cigarette. Little did the Brits know that they had just lit a fag for the most dangerous man in Ireland.

Another time he hitched a ride from a friend. Unfortunately, Frank was carrying with him a very considerable rifle. They ended up driving right into a check-point on a road too narrow to turn around on. Frank said, "Keep driving" and explained that he would smash the windshield and open fire. The friend was naturally petrified at the prospect and Frank so calm about it. A Brit soldier aimed his rifle at the two; the driver raised his shaking hands high. Frank saluted the soldier, who for some reason, panic or befuddlement, waved them through. There was no way that soldier didn't see Frank's riffle butt prepared to smash the window. No problem for Frank one way or the other.

The Moneymore escape

It was obvious Frank's readiness to fight gave him the edge. Another incident would catapult him to the top of Britain's "most wanted" list. On April 8th ‘77, four RUC men were on routine patrol when the VW Frank and two other IRA men were driving in pulled onto the road to Magherafelt [in South Derry] forcing the RUC car to brake. They drove after Francis' car and motioned to the driver to pull over, expecting to give the "boys" a lecture on reckless driving. The VW jammed on its brakes and the RUC overshot them before stopping. The VW attempted a U-turn only to end up in a roadside ditch. Frank and his comrades jumped out and opened fire on the RUC men who were themselves flying out the doors of their vehicle. A Constable Sheehan was hit immediately and was knocked back into the vehicle. Constable MaCracken took a fatal hit. More RUC were now converging on the scene as the three escaped through the fields. An RUC car answering the call for support came upon three men jogging towards them in a field next to a quarry near Moneymore. Frank engaged the RUC in a covering firefight before joining his comrades who had leapt over a fence and began running through the open quarry. There they could be easily picked off by the RUC who were perfectly located. But the men, lead by Hughes, took turns covering each other by firing upon the RUC position. They did this so perfectly, each firing and falling back in turn, 4 or 5 yards apart, that the RUC never got a clear shot, although they fired away ineffectively, more interested in keeping their heads down.

The RUC and Brit army poured in reinforcements in pursuit of the men, who took cover in a small clump of bushes in the middle of an open field hoping that the obviousness of the spot would cause the Brits not to bother with it. Instead, the Brits set up a command post on the spot, yards away from Frank and his men. Unbelievably, they were undetected and made a break for it as night fell -- using the same "leaps and bounds" military cover technique they had used earlier.

Word quickly spread through the north, Frank Hughes did it again!

The British army and RUC were so impressed with Francis' military ability, as evidenced by the classic cover tactics employed in the Moneymore escape, that his photo was circulated on posters all over the Six Counties. Frank was now "the most wanted terrorist" in Ireland. Frank had a different "most wanted terrorist list" in his head: Britain's crown forces in his Country.