Irish Political Prisoners and Post Hunger- Strike Resistance to Criminalisation

Political prisoners in the North of Ireland have a well-documented capacity to influence events inside and outside of prison. From the widespread opposition to internment (1971) to the hunger-strikes of 1980-81 and the signing of the Good Friday Agreement [1] , political prisoners have remained central to broader political and social developments in society [2] . This paper contextualises the British Government's attempted criminalisation of political prisoners in the North of Ireland from 1976 until the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. The historical material presented demonstrates the typically fractious relationship between imprisoned Irish insurgents and the British state, a relationship characterised by a degree of fluidity in terms of state recognition of their political motivation. The contemporary analysis describes the politicisation of Irish penality through the introduction of internment and the achievement of Special Category Status [3] . State criminalisation from 1976 onwards attempted to reverse prisoner gains, prompting a prolonged struggle between the British state and republican prisoners, culminating in the hunger-strikes of 1980-81. The ending of the 1981 hunger-strike involved a transitional phase of prison based struggle and resistance, and a shift in context from all-or-nothing protest to a longer-term strategy of incremental advance. Political prisoners demonstrated a capacity to achieve political gains on the basis of their political characteristics, their particular strategies of resistance and their ability to socialise prison guards and politicise the prison environment. Most of this activity occurred in contradiction of official and public texts throughout the period in question. The early release of political prisoners as a consequence of the Good Friday Agreement realigned public acknowledgement of their political motivation with the private reality of the HBlock [4] situation. The Contested Idea of the Political Prisoner Political prisoners occupy a special place in the British psyche. Colditz was described as the stronghold where Allied prisoners of war...were incarcerated. it was the cage in which were shut the birds that longed to be free, that beat their wings unceasingly against the bars. In such conditions birds do not usually survive long. It says something for the resilient spirit of man that those Allied prisoners...who were sent to Colditz mostly survived the ordeal. They were men of action...they were prisoners expiating no other crime than the unselfish service of their country (Reid, 1974:13,14). British POWs in Japan and elsewhere are similarly feted (for example, Lucas, 1975). In the early part of this century the suffragettes also agitated successfully for political recognition. As a result of their determined protests they were granted certain privileges in 1910, awarded to 'those whose offences did not involve personal dishonour' (Walker, 1984:193). These privileges related to personal clothing, the absence of prison work and additional exercise, visits and letters [5] , and survived in Prison Rules until 1972 when this 'discrete recognition of political status' was abolished as a consequence of the emerging Irish difficulties (Walker, 1984:194). In Irish circumstances, what constitutes a political prisoner has become highly contested. The British administration in Ireland has consistently denied a political motive to those involved in the use of political violence in the long standing conflict over sovereignty in Ireland initially and, more recently, in the North of Ireland. Irish republican prisoners have made organised political demands on the orthodox prison system since the middle of the 19th century, Clarke describing 'the indignities, brutalities and torture which British prison officials have devised especially for Irish political prisoners' (Clarke, 1997:13). Political recognition was consistently denied to individual prisoners during this period, and they appear to have been singled out for special treatment because of their unwillingness to conform to 'normal' prison conditions. ...they were never sure of getting a letter or a visit at the due time; these could be stopped for the slightest misdemeanour such as trying to talk to one another or to any other prisoner (Clarke, 1997:13). Irish prisoners were first accorded large scale POW status in Frongoch in North Wales, immediately following the 1916 Easter Rising. O Mahony outlined how... Captivity was just another chapter in a continuous struggle for freedom. In this manner at Frongach were laid out the foundations for the policy of organisation and resistance in jails and internment camps which formed the basis of all subsequent prison activity in the years to follow (O Mahony, 1987:59). Similarly, MacStiofain wrote in the 1950s, we found officers who recognised a difference between criminal and political prisoners, no matter what English law said. They understood we were in prison because of principles...in the Republican movement, a political prisoner did not just vanish into jail to be forgotten. The jails and camps themselves were an important sector of the revolutionary front (MacStiofain, 1974:66, 73). Contemporary Re-Affirmation of Political