Thomas McElwee

Thomas McElwee (30 November 1957 – 8 August 1981) was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer who participated in the 1981 hunger strike.

From Bellaghy, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, he died at the age of 23 after 62 days on hunger strike.

[2] Following his arrest, he was charged and sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment for possession of explosives and the manslaughter of Yvonne Dunlop, who was killed when one of the firebombs destroyed the shop she was working in.

The Waterford RSF had adopted the Lennon name without the permission of his son who noted that his father had, in later years, become a committed pacifist and opponent of the war in Vietnam.

McElwee is the main subject of the song Farewell to Bellaghy, which also mentions his cousin Francis Hughes, other members of the independent Republican unit and deceased volunteers of the South Derry Brigade of the Provisional IRA.