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John Tusa reports on the Vatican's dramatic intervention in the IRA hunger strikes at the Maze prison following the failure of the European Commission of Human Rights to mediate. Prior to arriving in Belfast Monsignor Magee had a one hour meeting at Heathrow airport with Peter Blaker of the Foreign Office and Michael Alison of the Northern Ireland office. The Pope's envoy, Msgr. Magee, spent an hour with Sands. His message from the Pope is a plea to Sands to give up his fast and a promise to see what could be done to alleviate prison conditions.

The Pope's message is essentially the same as the one he gave to the people of Ireland during his visit to Drogheda in September 1979 when he begged the IRA to turn away from the path of violence. The report illustrates this with an excerpt from the Pope's famous speech.