not kill) a member of the RUC. Eventually, McFeely and the other man surrendered and were arrested. McFeely was charged and found guilty of attempted murder, possession of weapons and the robbery of the post office, and sentenced to 26 years in prison in 1977. The presiding judge described McFeely as "an extremely dangerous, intelligent and vicious young man". Involvement in 1980 Irish hunger strikes By 1980, McFeely was "Commanding Officer" of the IRA men imprisoned in "H Block" at "Long Kesh", officially known as HM Prison Maze in County Down. Following a decision by the British state to no longer recognise IRA prisoner as "political prisoners" with special status within prisons, McFeely was amongst seven IRA men who went on hunger strike in 1980 in protest. Over the course of the strike, McFeely went without food for 53 days. McFeely and the rest were ordered by the IRA to end their strike when it appeared to the IRA that they had successfully brokered an official deal with the British government. However, this deal was never actually secured. McFeely, who had opposed the original order to end the strike, was infuriated that no deal was ever actually officially struck. Nevertheless, during the 1981 hunger strikes, McFeely once again offered to strike, but this was rejected by the IRA leadership. Split from Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin In 1986, Sinn Féin voted to recognise the legitimacy of Dáil Eireann and stand candidates for election in the Republic of Ireland. This caused a number of splits in both Sinn Féin and the Provisional IRA, creating groups such as Republican Sinn Féin and the Continuity IRA. Concurrently, a number of IRA men imprisoned in Long Kesh also split from the Provisional IRA. Amongst them were McFeely and Tommy McKearney, who subsequently formed a new group called the League of Communist Republicans. Property developer Following a successful appeal of his case, McFeely was released from prison in 1989 and moved to Dublin, where he took up work once again on construction sites. McFeely's return to construction coincided with the beginnings of a building boom as part of the Celtic Tiger in the Republic of Ireland, and within a few years, McFeely had gone from almost penniless and homeless to being wealthy enough to purchase a pub in his hometown of Dungiven. By the mid-2000s, McFeely had become a major property developer in Ireland but