Marian Price | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1954 (age 70–71) Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Occupation(s) | Provisional IRA volunteer; political activist |
| Spouse | Gerry McGlinchey |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Dolours Price (sister) |
| Military career | |
| Paramilitary | Provisional IRA |
| Unit | Belfast Brigade |
| Battles / wars | The Troubles |
Marian Price (born 1954), also known by her married name asMarian McGlinchey,[1] is a formerProvisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA)volunteer.
Born into aRepublican family in Belfast, Price joined the Provisional IRA in 1971, along with her sisterDolours Price.[2] They both participated in the1973 Old Bailey bombing, for which Marian Price was sentenced to two life terms.[3][4] The sisters carried out a prolongedhunger strike at the start of their sentence. Marian Price was freed in 1980 on aRoyal prerogative of mercy whenanorexia nervosa, resulting from being force-fed on her hunger strike, was deemed to put her life at risk.[5][6][7]
After her release she withdrew from public life, but in the 1990s she became a vocal opponent ofSinn Féin's "peace strategy."
In 2009 she was arrested in connection with theMassereene Barracks shooting. She was charged with providing property for the purposes of terrorism in 2011 and released in 2013.
Price was born into a stronglyRepublican family inAndersonstown, westBelfast. Both of her parents had been imprisoned, her father for involvement with theIrish Republican Army and her mother as part of theCumann na mBan. Their mother's sister, Bridie, who lived with them, had lost both hands and her eyesight at the age of 27 in an accident while moving explosives.[2]: 9–13
Price and her sisterDolours participated in the Belfast to Derry civil rights march in January 1969 and were attacked in theBurntollet Bridge incident.[2]: 22–4
In 1971, together with Dolours, she joined theProvisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA).[2]: 43–4
Price was jailed for her part in the Provisional IRA's London bombing campaign of 1973. She was part of a unit that placed fourcar bombs inLondon on 8 March 1973. The1973 Old Bailey bombing and that of the Whitehall army recruitment centre saw 200 injured. A warning was issued an hour before the blast.[2]: 138 One man died of a heart attack, although an autopsy found his heart attack had begun before the Old Bailey blast.[2]: 143 She and her sister Dolours were apprehended along withHugh Feeney,Gerry Kelly, and six others, as they were boarding a flight to Ireland. They were tried and convicted at the Great Hall inWinchester Castle on 14 November after two days of deliberation by the jury. Marian Price was sentenced to twolife terms.[8][3][9]
The Price sisters, along with Kelly and Feeney, immediately went onhunger strike in a campaign to be repatriated to a prison in Northern Ireland. IRA prisoners in Ireland at the time hadSpecial Category Status (similar topolitical status), which was not granted to IRA prisoners in England, and the IRA volunteers did not see themselves as criminals but insisted to be treated likeprisoners of war. The hunger strike lasted over 200 days,[10] with the hunger strikers beingforce-fed by prison authorities for 167 of them.[11]
In an interview withSuzanne Breen, Price described being force-fed:
Four male prison officers tie you into the chair so tightly with sheets you can't struggle. You clench your teeth to try to keep your mouth closed but they push a metal spring device around your jaw to prise it open. They force a wooden clamp with a hole in the middle into your mouth. Then, they insert a big rubber tube down that. They hold your head back. You can't move. They throw whatever they like into the food mixer – orange juice, soup, or cartons of cream if they want to beef up the calories. They take jugs of this gruel from the food mixer and pour it into a funnel attached to the tube. The force-feeding takes 15 minutes but it feels like forever. You're in control of nothing. You're terrified the food will go down the wrong way and you won't be able to let them know because you can't speak or move. You're frightened you'll choke to death.
Marian Price was freed in 1980 on a Royal prerogative of mercy when her anorexia nervosa, resulting from being force-fed during the hunger strike, was deemed to put her life at risk.[6][7] She resumed a private life, emerging only in the 1990s as a vocal opponent of Sinn Féin's "peace strategy". Price has been critical of theGood Friday Agreement, saying "It is certainly not what I went to prison for, and it is not what my sister went to prison for".[12]
Price was refused avisa to enter the United States on 15 December 1999. She had been due to speak at anIrish Freedom Committee fundraising event in New York.[13] In 2000 Price gave the funeral oration for Joseph O'Connor, a member of theReal IRA.[14] As of 2003 she was a member of the32 County Sovereignty Movement and worked for aprisoners' welfare organisation.[15] Interviewed inThe Guardian in 2003 she expressed no regrets for her past actions and her continued support for armed struggle.[15]
On 17 November 2009, she was named as being one of two people arrested in connection with anattack on the Massereene Barracks in Northern Ireland in March 2009, organized by thedissident republican group theReal IRA, in which twoBritish soldiers were shot dead.[16] In 2011 she was charged with providing property for the purposes of terrorism.[17]
On 15 May 2011, she was charged with encouraging support for an illegal organisation. This related to her involvement in a statement given at anEaster Rising rally inDerry in 2011.[18] On the same day theSecretary of State for Northern Ireland,Owen Paterson, revoked her release from prison on licence. Paterson said the decision was made because the threat posed by Price had "significantly increased".[19]
Price was the only female inmate atHM Prison Maghaberry nearLisburn from May 2011 until she was moved to the hospital wing ofHM Prison Hydebank Wood in February 2012. In May 2012, at a rally in her support, Price's husband, Gerry McGlinchey, stated that his wife was near breaking point. The charges against Price and three men from Derry in relation to the Easter Rising rally were later dismissed at Derry Magistrates' Court in May 2012.[20]
On 7 June 2012, a protest close toTimes Square inManhattan, New York, called for Price to be released from what her family describes asinternment.[21] On 30 May 2013, Price was released from prison after a decision by the Parole Commissioners.[22][23]
Price was portrayed byHazel Doupe andHelen Behan in the 2024 limited series,Say Nothing, which depictsthe Provisional IRA in Belfast andThe Disappeared duringThe Troubles.[24] On 4 December 2024, Price announced, through her solicitor, that she would be taking legal action againstDisney+ over the series depicting her killingJean McConville.[25][26][27] In response to the threatened lawsuit,Say Nothing author, journalistPatrick Radden Keefe, stood by his allegation that Marian Price murdered Jean McConville, saying, "I stand by my reporting. I’m quite transparent about my process of deduction in the book, so readers can decide for themselves whether they are persuaded." He would go on to note that before Dolours Price's death, she told multiple people that she witnessed Marian killing McConville.[28] On 2 July 2025 Price filed a claim against Disney in the Dublin High Court seeking damages and the removal of the scene in the ninth episode that showed her shooting McConville.[29]
Marian McGlinchey received two life sentences in 1973 for her part in the Old Bailey bombing.
The hunger strikers were subjected to 165 days' force-feeding; their mouths were held open with callipers while a tube conveying liquid nourishment was forced down their throats. This treatment, which the Prices compared to rape and which gave the sisters lifelong anorexia nervosa,...