Two years ago an aerial image from the Electric Picnic flooded social media. The Wolfe Tones had drawn the biggest crowd ever in the 18-year history of the Electric Arena.

Many of the young people at the tent were not alive when the Good Friday Agreement was signed in April 1998. The chant of ‘oh ah up the ’Ra’ had a different connotation to a generation that grew up to news stories of car bombings, of two sides engaging in tit-for-tat murders.

More than 40 years had passed since 11 men died during a seven-month hunger strike, when Republican paramilitary groups murdered 16 prison officers during the protests.

A particularly bleak time in the history of Ireland. The divide between north and south contracted and dilated at that time. One example was the participation of those on hunger strike in the 1981 election to Dáil Éireann.

During the hunger strike protest, Martin Hurson stood as a H-Blocks Armagh candidate in the Longford Westmeath constituency. The June 1981 general election here saw Hurson polling extremely well, but missing out on a Dáil seat.

The young Tyrone man spent 46 days on hunger strike from May 29, before dying on July 13, 1981. He was the sixth person to die on hunger-strike in Long Kesh following the deaths of Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Patsy O’Hara and Joe McDonnell.

Playwright Gerry Cunningham has taken Martin Hurson’s story and crafted it into a theatrical dramatisation for the stage. Cunningham’s play, simply entitled The Martin Hurson Story, presents a unique view of those dark days of 1981.

“A few years back, I discussed with Martin’s family about putting together a dramatic piece that would tell his story,” Gerry told the Westmeath Examiner.

This story begins with the arrest and interrogation in Omagh Barracks and the sequence of events up to the hunger-strikers’ death:

“It’s a dramatised factual account of Martin’s story. It covers his original days within the movement and his arrest. When he was charged he got a bad beating and signed a confession,” Gerry said.

Tackling such a politically charged subject is one that requires a deft touch: “It was a moment in history. The one thing this play does not do, one thing the family and ourselves set out to do, was not glorify it. It was important to not make it anything more than it was. It was a sad period in our history.”

The four decades that have passed since have been transformative, but it’s important to look back on that time to plan for the future. The hunger strike was a direct challenge to Margaret Thatcher’s government by the Irish Republican prisoners seeking political status and an end to the prison protests.

“Men gave their lives for what they believed in,” Gerry said of the protest, “There were up to 300 men signed up for the hunger strike, that was colossal in the history of Irish struggle, but it was the families of the men who also suffered.

“It was a difficult time, particularly for those families, a stressful time, and probably a defining moment in the Troubles.”

To delve into that particular period of our history requires a great deal of sensitivity. Sensitivity to the family, but also to the wider community.

“This is a hard hitting story acted out by a brilliant cast with no frills and no sense of triumphalism,” the playwright explained, “It’s a story that could be told, should be told and will be told for future generations to appreciate and understand the horrors of those dark days of our recent past.”

The story takes the audience to 1981, when Republican prisoners in the Maze, or Long Kesh as it was better known, embarked upon the hunger ending in 10 deaths in the most horrific circumstances imaginable.

Gerry put in a great deal of research before embarking on writing the play to ensure historical accuracy: “I met with Martin’s family, I also did a lot of work with his comrades.

These were fellas who served time with him, people who were charged at the same time.

“They all gave me permission to use their names, and permission to use their stories as well, within Martin’s story. These were cell-mates, people who shared cells with them, people who were on a hunger strike with them, they all gave me the go-ahead to use it.”

Martin died after 46 days on hunger strike, suffering greatly in the final weeks and days.

Gerry’s story has been described as “very factual and honest” reflecting greatly the suffering of the family who were victims too.

“There’s no happy ending to this. This is not a Disney film, this is a sad, sad period in our history, and particularly for the families. The audience gets a stark reminder of what life was like here 40 years ago. It’s a story that will leave many feeling numb at the end.”

The play has received many plaudits: “The play has sold out everywhere.

It was staged in the Waterfront in Belfast, a 2,000-seat venue that sold out two shows. It also sold out the Millennium Forum in Derry. The Galbally Community Centre in Armagh. We did seven nights there.

“Mark Hennessey of the Irish Times went to it, and he wrote a piece on it. He said it was a powerful, emotional play. He just said it was a harrowing play, but a story that has to be told.”

Gerry believes the lessons of The Martin Hurson Story are simple: “Thank God those days are gone for us and hopefully will never return. If anything, this play will help people realise that those were difficult and deadly times. We wouldn’t want to see them again and I wouldn’t want my children to go through it.”

Gerry said bringing the show to Westmeath is a way of acknowledging the 4,573 voters in the constituency who gave the hunger striker their first preference votes, a tally that kept him in the race until the final count.

The Martin Hurson Story will be staged in Mullingar Arts Centre on Friday October 17; doors at 8pm.