A History of Ireland in Song

Tony O' Hara looks back on the H Block struggles

This article was written by Tony O'Hara, Irish Republican Socialist. I've made a few minor punctuation and spelling changes.

The British government passed legislation in 1975 doing away with Special category status (political status) that was to come into effect on March 1st 1976. This was to coincide with a major policy initative for the six county statelet called "Ulsterisation." The main facet of this policy was to say to the world the war had ended and that Britain had no longer any political prisoners.

Since 1971 all the major towns in the North looked like war zones, with city centres sealed off with highrise fencing and gates manned by security forces, personnel that searched everyone who wished to enter these "control zones". These were ripped down to give the appearance of normality ("Normalisation"), and thus further enhance the effects of Ulsterisation.

So to the world after March 1, 1976, the conflict had ended and the ones responsible for the continued attacks on the security forces were criminals and Mavericks lead by faceless Godfathers. To make this world, a conveyer belt of "justice" was set up. Arrested people would be taken to interrogation centres, tortured into confession, then tried before a non-jury court (Diplock court) with one judge presiding, and be sentenced to lengthy sentences, taken then to a new controlled prison H Block, where the staff would inflict mental and physical torture in attempt to break the will of the prisoner and make him/her conform to the prison system.

The first prisoner to come up against this was Ciaran Nugent. He was sentenced to five years in October 1976 and was taken to H Block where he was asked to wear a prison uniform, where his famous retort was uttered "I wouldn"t wear it if you even nailed it to my back." So began the "Blanket Protest".

I was sentenced to five years in May 1977 and transferred to the H Block 4, where in the reception I was told to strip naked and then given a uniform to wear. I refused and was dragged down onto a wing and thrown into a cell. The next day, the governor came around and tried me (Kangaroo court) and sentenced me to three days solitary confinement. I was to learn that the only difference between this and the normal life on the blanket was the removal of the matress for three days, as we existed on solitary confinement for 24 hours a day, being refused access to reading materials, radios, TV, writing materials, and exercise. We were allowed to receive only one letter per week. I managed to get a total of three letters during the four years, four months of the protest, desptite having letters and cards sent weekly from family and friends. We were allowed only half hour visit per month, that was later extended to weekly. All this was to foster a climate of isolation and deprivation from the outside world.

I pointed out to the screws that I was entitled to exercise one hour per day. They told me I could have all the exercise I wanted if I wore the prison garb, so I was being punished double for refusing to be criminalised. For the next few years, until 1979, we lived in the monotony of cellular confinement naked except for a blanket or towel worn around the waist. My first visit was with Miriam Daly, Chairperson, IRSP Ard Comhairle. She was shocked at my condition, ashen faced, gaunt, with a hyper-nervousness due to me being outside a cell door for the first time in 8 months. This led to the beginning of her organising prisoners' relatives into forming the "Relatives Action Committee." At that stage, the only one interested in helping the prisoners were the relatives and the IRSP. Sinn Féin ignored it until a meeting in Dublin drew a crowd of over 5,000 and they jumped on the platform (Miriam Daly told me this).

My next visit was even more of a shock with my brother Patsy, he didn't recognise me and walked passed me until I called him. By then I had long hair and a bushy beard and the bulging bloodshot eyes.

Five demands were drawn up that would end the protest. 1. The Right not to wear a prison uniform 2. The Right not to do prison work 3. The Right of free association with other prisoners 4. The Right to organize their own educational and recreational facilities 5. The Right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week

John Nixon came on the blanket in 1977 and we formed a staff for the Republican Socialist POWs on the protest. Up until then we were facing abuse and intimidation from some members of the IRA's POWs and treated as second class citizens, something that was to last the whole duration of the protest. With our staff in place we established contact with the IRSP outside on a weekly basis, and held discussions amongst ourselves at mass as to how to approach the strategy on the protest. We decided to follow everything the IRA did so as not to cause more bad feeling and due to the fact that we were small in numbers and had difficulty maintaining more than weekly contact.

We decided from day one that it would take a hunger strike to end this nightmare and had set up the structures in motion for such a protest, but agreed to give it a few years to see how things developed. As the protest escalated and more and more sentenced prisoners joined we established a chain of communication by smuggling letters out on visits. Most of these went to the Belfast office where they were typed up and filed into the particular POW's folder.

In 1978 we upped the ante by refusing to slop out or wash. This was due to the fact that men got badly beaten everytime they left their cells. So by refusing the above, we would be making working conditions unbearable for the screws and make them reluctant to enter cells to carry out the sytematic beatings. We smashed the furniture and windows to signal the beginning of the new form of protest. The prison regime reacted with its usual brutality, beating everyone badly that day!

The windows were to become a mini battleground over the next three years. Perspex replaced glass, being unbreakable. After a few months we burned them out. They then built screens around the window openings, the bottom of which was uncovered allowing the elements to determine the cells temprature. The heating pipes were turned on full in the summer and switched off in the winter. I remember waking up on New Year's Eve 1980 with my top blanket covered in frost and stiff as a board! Needless to say, we managed to burn the screens also by making wicks from towel threads and margarine.

The NIO and the Thatcher government did its best to keep the situation quiet so as not to ruffle the flow of the Criminalisation policy. But, as the numbers in the RAC increased as did the protests. Two events occurred that would bring the plight of the blanket protest to world attention. Frank Maguire MP for Fermanagh/South Tyrone was allowed to enter the blocks to visit his constituents. The stench was so overwelming that he was sick a few times but managed to get around. Three days later he issued a statement about what he saw.

A few months later, Cardinal Tomás O Fiach entered on a similar visit and compared the conditions in the H Blocks to the "sewers of Calcutta." The word was finally out, and the press fell over themselves to interview relatives and the political representatives of the POWs.

In 1980 a press corps was allowed to enter the prison and film the conditions, as we geared up for the first hunger strike. As the attention increased, so did the attacks on, and killings of, leading H Block/Armagh personnel on the outside. Miriam Daly who was then Chairperson of the H Block/Armagh Committee was shot dead in 1980. Ronnie Bunting and Noel Little were soon to follow. Bernadette Mc Aliskey was lucky to survive a January 1980 attack, despite British solidiers lying in wait outside her door. The Nationalist community was in no doubt that these attacks were sanctioned by the Thatcher government.

The hunger strike began on October 27, 1980 with seven men beginning the fast. Each man represented a county in the 6 occupied counties and Seán Mc Kenna represented the rest of Ireland. The statement starting the hunger strike was:

"WE, the Republican Prisoners of War in the H Blocks, Long Kesh, demand, as of right, political recognition and that we be accorded the status of political prisoners. We claim this right as captured combatants in the continuing struggle for national liberation and self-determination.

"We refute most strongly the tag of "criminal" with which the British have attempted to label us and our struggle, and we point to the divisive partitionist institutions of the six counties as the sole criminal aspect of the current struggle.

"We declare that political status is ours of right and we declare that from Monday 27th October, 1980 a hunger strike by a number of men representing H Blocks 3, 4 and 5 will commence."

The statement should have read Republican and Republican Socialist POWs. No explaination was given as to why the latter was left out. Four weeks later 28 more men and three woman from Armagh gaol joined the fast in attempt to increase the momentum for the final push as the health of the first seven deteriorated. As the Thatcher government negotiated behind the scenes she issued a hardline statement:

"There is no such thing as political murder, political bombing or political violence. There is only criminal murder, criminal bombing and criminal violence. We will not compromise on this. There will be no political status."

As the hunger strike entered it 53th day Seán Mc Kenna had fallen into a coma. The British government offered a 28 page document that seemed to grant us the most of the demands we sought. On December 18th, the protest was called off in good faith. The no wash - no slop out protest ended also, and we waited to have or own clothes delivered. During this period, Bobby Sands had freedom to travel around the blocks meeting various IRA OC's and Patsy O Hara INLA OC. Patsy had tried to have access to consult with the INLA POWs but was refused. We felt we were being pushed into a corner and ignored as unimportant despite having John Nixon representing our movement in the first group of seven and five others among the 28 that later joined.

Bobby came into meet Patsy to tell him that the hunger strike was called off. A major row occurred over the IRA leadership having no authority to call off the INLA hunger strikers. The document was read and Bobby explained that it meant we had won 95% of the demands. Patsy was not impressed and seen nothing in the pages but clever word playing that were so ambiguous as to mean anything. He stated that if this fell through, "the INLA would hunger strike on its own," but was prepared to wait and give the agreement a chance.

As the British stalled and then reneged on the agreement, we prepared for another hunger strike with the INLA going alone. Ten days after the meeting, Bobby returned and threaten that if the INLA went alone, "they would be alone forever more in the prison". This didn't change anything and suddenly a week later Bobby told Patsy of the IRA's intention to join a second hunger strike. This time we were to have one representative for every three IRA men. An agreement was made for to stagger the hunger strike.

Patsy was to join the fast the third week, and the Provos put Raymond Mc Creesh on the same day without our knowledge so as to minimise the effects of the first INLA hunger striker joining the fast. The reasoning behind it was, "in case, O Hara doesn't go through with it!!" Even then we were still second class POWs.

We knew that this time men would probably have to die or face serious risk to health. The Brits would push this to the brink, and plans were made for a second string to join the fast in the event of a prisoner dying, so that there would be always four POWs on fast. This time around the woman in Armagh were ask not to join the protest as it was thought that the focus would be taken away from the blocks. The next five months were to be the most heart-breaking and intense in Ireland since the executions following the 1916 rising.

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