It's difficult to convey just how difficult the atmosphere was in this part of the world in 1981; impossible to capture in words how hot and hostile that particular year was in the conflict between two communities.

It's also difficult to fully appreciate what a significant and historical year it was.

In some ways, the period is a reminder that we have had economic problems before. As the policies of the recently-elected British Conservative Government of Margaret Thatcher began to take effect, 1980 had been described in Fermanagh as "the year cuts hit schools, hospitals and social services." Unemployment in the county was running at an incredible 23.3 per cent.

But this was all against a violent backdrop as the "Troubles" which began in the early 1970s were now entering a second decade.

In Fermanagh in 1981, three UDR men were killed by the IRA, we heard of two British Army soldiers found guilty of the infamous "pitchfork" murders of two Catholic farmers Michael Naan and Andrew Murray at Newtownbutler in 1972, and a young Catholic woman was shot dead near her Enniskillen home.

But it was the hunger strike by Republican prisoners that was to dominate the year's headlines, and in April, one of them, Bobby Sands was elected MP for Fermanagh-south Tyrone, later bringing Provisional Sinn Fein into the electoral process for the first time in decades.

1981 began with the Church of Ireland Rector of St. Macartin's, Enniskillen, Dean Thomas Clements preaching a New Year sermon in which he said: "Politics is the art of the possible. We must know now that neither side will gain either a political or military victory." He was articulating a desire that many people had, that after 10 years of violence, people were longing for a resolution.

But it proved a forlorn hope.

Unionists were sharply divided. The Ulster Unionist leader, James Molyneaux was under pressure to take a more hardline stance from leaders such as Ernest Baird, leader of the new United Ulster Unionist Party.

The Rev Ian Paisley, leader of the DUP accused Margaret Thatcher and her Secretary of State, Sir Humphrey Atkins of a "sell-out" of the Union in the face of what he called the IRA "campaign of genocide against Protestants." One of Paisley's tactics was a series of "Carson Trail" rallies, one of which was in Fermanagh.

In response, Thatcher visited County Fermanagh in early March. The county had seen 64 deaths in 10 years and the British Prime Minister landed at St. Angelo, where the British Army's Royal Artillery were based, before being taken on a helicopter tour of the Border.

From the air, the county would have looked very different to today. In addition to Army units, UDR and police patrols maintained a heavy presence. Watch towers and permanent checkpoints were dotted along the Border, some roads were deliberately blown up to prevent IRA units making their getaways after regular attacks on the security forces, particularly local men who were part-time members.

By co-incidence, the very week that Margaret Thatcher paid a visit to Fermanagh, the death as a result of a heart attack of the local MP was to have serious ramifications for the entire future of the area and the wider world.

Athlone native Frank Maguire ran the family pub in Lisnaskea; he'd held the Fermanagh-south Tyrone Westminster seat since 1974 after becoming an agreed Nationalist candidate. He never made a speech at Westminster and attended only once, failing to bail out the James Callaghan government in 1979 because they didn't give him enough assurances about the treatment of Irish prisoners in English jails.

Mr. Maguire was also a firm supporter of Republican prisoners in Long Kesh or the Maze prison. But his death at the age of 51 was to highlight the issue of prisoners more than he could have imagined.

Following his death in early March, a by-election was called for April 9, and at first it looked as though this would be a contest along the usual lines.

One Unionist described it as a "golden opportunity" to win the seat back, but there was still talk of up to eight candidates overall.

Raymond Ferguson was the leading Unionist front runner. He'd narrowly lost to Frank Maguire in 1979 and was a leading member of Fermanagh District Council, as well as being a nephew of former MP, Harry West, former UUP leader and a leading icon of the party in the west.

It was proving difficult to get the DUP and the Baird-led UUUP to give him a clear run.

On the Nationalist side, a likely candidate was Frank Maguire's brother, Noel, who helped him with his constituency work.

But the SDLP candidate, Austin Currie was also likely to run, even Provisional Sinn Fein were being tipped to enter the election.

And there was also talk that Bernadette McAliskey would run. As Bernadette Devlin, she'd become a young MP in the late 1960s, and was now a prominent campaigner on the H-blocks issue.

Republican prisoners in the H-shaped blocks had been campaigning for political status. They'd previously refused to wear prison clothes, donning only blankets, and then smeared their own excrement on prison walls. The "blanket men" and "dirty protest" tactics were followed by an initial hunger strike in 1980 which came to an end after 53 days without any casualties.

But their campaign escalated in 1981, with a fast to the death unless their "five just demands" were met.

Tension rose, with Margaret Thatcher declaring that "crime is crime is crime, it is not political." By the end of March, it emerged that the first man to go on hunger strike, the Officer Commanding of the Provisional IRA in the Maze, Bobby Sands was nominated to fight Fermanagh-south Tyrone.

Initially, this wasn't met with universal Nationalist approval. An SDLP member of Fermanagh District Council, Tommy Murray was threatened with expulsion for signing Sands's nomination papers, and the SDLP leadership at first suggested they would call on supporters to abstain.

But as the days went on, there was increasing support for Sands, whose campaign was based on putting pressure on the Thatcher Government to "save a life." A meeting in Enniskillen to launch the campaign, co-ordinated by his election agent, Owen Carron, was attended by a wide spectrum of Nationalist opinion.

It included TD, Neil Blaney, Bernadette McAliskey, former Fermanagh-south TAyrone MP Frank McManus, Fermanagh Councillor Patrick McCaffrey, Jim Gibney and Tommy Murray.

Republican figures such as Danny Morrison were here electioneering.

The counter side to this was that Unionist Harry West was "persuaded to come out of retirement" to be the Unionist standard-bearer in what became a straight fight.

Unionists refused to accept the humanitarian calls of the Sands campaign, insisting that a vote for him was a vote for the IRA campaign of violence.

Tension in the weeks leading up to the poll escalated rapidly across the Province, and in election week Census worker, Joanne Mathers was shot dead in Derry.

Locally, the mistrust between the two communities was almost palpable, and there were reports of schoolchildren fighting on school buses with pupils of the opposite religion.

The world's press descended on Fermanagh, not for the last time, and the fact that Sands won the poll made it an even bigger story.

The poll was a massive 86 per cent, almost split down the middle.

In those days, the election count was held in the Technical College Assembly hall (now South West College) and the hall was packed to hear Returning Officer, Alistair Patterson read out "Sands, Bobby, Anti-H-Block Armagh political prisoners, 30,492." West, who polled 29,046. was later to say "We now know the type of people we live amongst." It was a significant comment, putting a finger on the Unionist psyche.

Owen Carron said, "Nationalists have spoken clearly. It is time Britain did what they should always have done, get out of Ireland." The long hot summer continued.

That Thatcher Government refused to budge, and 26 days after he was elected and on the 66th day of his hunger strike Bobby Sands died at the age of 27. His funeral in West Belfast was attended by 100,000 people,and throughout the year 10 hunger strikers would die before agreement was reached to end it.

In August, Fermanagh-south Tyrone saw a further by-election. Election agent Owen Carron won the poll this time, defeating the new Unionist candidate, Ken Maginnis, a UDR major from Dungannon.

Later in 1981, UDR man Ronnie Graham was shot dead at Donagh in June, and in November, his brother,Cecil was killed in November, as was a third member of the regiment Albert Beacom near Maguiresbridge.

In Enniskillen, a 25-year-old Catholic, Angela D'Arcy was shot dead.

Before the year ended, Free Presbyterian Minister and DUP man, the Rev. Ivan Foster brought masked loyalist on to the streets of Enniskillen in s show of strength by his "Third Force." With Bobby Sands death and the continuation of the IRA campaign which intensified in the early 1980s, it may have seemed initially that the hunger strike changed little.

In fact, it changed everything and was a seminal moment in the last quarter of the last century.

Sinn Fein embraced electoralism, despite a walk-out at the Ard Fheis which took the decision and as the 80s went on, and people not even born when the Troubles started were now taking up arms, a "war-weariness" on all sides allowed some movement by the politicians.

This led to the peace process which we see in place today.