About Raymond McCreesh
Raymond McCreesh (Irish: Réamonn Mac Raois, 25 February 1957 – 21 May 1981) was an Irish volunteer in the South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). In 1976, he and two other IRA volunteers were captured while attempting to ambush a British Army observation post. McCreesh was one of the ten Irish republicans who died during the 1981 Irish hunger strike in the Maze Prison. McCreesh was one of 22 Irish republicans (in the 20th century) who died on hunger-strike. == Background == Raymond Peter McCreesh, the seventh in a family of eight children, was born in St Malachy's Park, Camlough, on 25 February 1957. He was born into a strong Irish republican family, and was active in the republican movement from the age of 16. McCreesh attended the local primary school in Camlough, St Malachy's, and later attended St Colman's College in Newry. Raymond first joined Fianna Éireann, the IRA's youth wing, in 1973, and later that year he progressed to join the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade. McCreesh had worked for a short time as steelworker in a predominantly Protestant factory in Lisburn. However, as sectarian threats and violence escalated, he switched professions to work as a milk roundsman in his local area of South Armagh: an occupation which greatly increased his knowledge of the surrounding countryside, as well as enabling him to observe the movements of British Army patrols in the area.
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