Back to the Blocks
Former hunger striker Laurence McKeown, who spent sixteen years in
the H-Blocks of Long Kesh, went inside the jail again this week for
the first time since his release in 1992. It was an emotional visit,
full of memories
I was back inside the H Blocks of Long Kesh again on Monday. Not on a
visit but as part of a delegation comprising Leo Green and Mary
McArdle of Sinn Féin's POW department and Mike Ritchie and myself on
behalf of Coiste na n-Iarchimí. Coiste na n-Iarchimí is the new
umbrella organisation comprising 18 local republican ex-prisoner
self-help groups based in the nine counties of Ulster with plans for
the formation of more groups in Galway, Dublin and in the south-west.
It held its first national conference on Saturday last in the Felons
on the Falls Road and will be publicly launched in early January. The
purpose for our visit to the H Blocks was to explain the concept of
the Coiste to the prisoners, to report back to them on the outcome of
the conference and to involve the prisoners in the Coiste's programme
of work for the coming year.
There are no family visits on a Monday so the visitors' waiting room
was empty. The screws on duty quickly and politely took our details,
rifled through a bundle of photos of previous delegations to the
prison then asked Mike and myself to pose for additions to the
bundle. We obliged and were soon on our way to the legal visits for
the first meeting of the day.
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I yearned to walk around the yard on my own or just sit in a corner
of it and gather my thoughts and feelings together. I wanted to go
inside and look out from between the bars of a cell as I had often
done in the past. Just look at the sky and life above and beyond the
razor wire
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Geraldine Ferrity from Maghaberry Prison was there when we arrived
along with Pauric Wilson, Jim McVeigh and Joe Brennan. Brian Arthurs
joined us later when he returned from a two-day parole. Geraldine's
plight as the only female republican prisoner still held in the north
was thoroughly discussed and her future depends much upon the outcome
of a hearing to be held into her case this Friday. Go n-éireoidh leat
Geraldine.
At lunchtime Geraldine was removed to the Hospital Block and we were
taken to H Block 5. This was the part of the visit I had been eagerly
awaiting. I had heard much about the changes to the prison regime
since I had been released in 1992 and was eager to see the conditions
for myself. My first impression as I walked into the circle of H5 was
that it looked very small and cramped - not like I recalled it at
all. Most of the locks are now electronically operated and you turn
the handles of the grilles yourself; a strange sensation.
The wings and corridors seemed even more cramped and initially
strange. The phone booth, the coat hangers on the wall, no locks on
the cell doors and no screws on the wings. The wings also seemed
strangely quiet. I looked out through the window of cell 26 (the
double cell used as a venue for meetings) to see if everyone was in
the yard. I could see no one at all. It was then I realised that
numbers on the wings are now very low. In this case 16 whereas there
was once almost three times that number.
Cell 26 looked the same as ever, the soft seats, the TV, the murals
and posters on the walls, the books in the library now complemented
with educational videos.
We were hungry by this stage and were offered the meal of the day -
chicken burgers. Leo, Mike and myself accepted, Mary declined. Wise
Mary. We then settled into the business at hand and over the next two
hours teased out some of the issues that the Coiste should or could
be dealing with in coming months. We also discussed the new
opportunities for educational provision to the prisoners and how they
can be more centrally tied into the structures on the outside prior
to their release. As the afternoon wore on I was anxious to get out
to the yard. I felt that only by being there would I really
appreciate the fact that I was indeed in the H Blocks. Up until that
point it seemed somehow surreal. The others on the delegation also
wanted to get around the Block a bit so we split up, some crossing
over to the Gaeltacht, Brian and myself going out to the yard.
I soon fell into an easy stride. You can now walk in a figure eight
between the two combined yards whereas once you went round and round
in tight circles in one smaller yard. I noticed the black muddy
patches in the corners, always a danger to the joggers though today
there were only walkers. I wondered if anyone jogged any more.
A weak sun dipped below the corrugated iron fencing as we talked
about some mutual acquaintances. All too soon it was time to leave. I
yearned to walk around the yard on my own or just sit in a corner of
it and gather my thoughts and feelings together. I wanted to go
inside and look out from between the bars of a cell as I had often
done in the past. Just look at the sky and life above and beyond the
razor wire. But I had to go. Others there would have loved to have
been in such a privileged position. And I was conscious of that as I
shook hands with those we had spent the day with.
Our exit from the prison was as speedy as our entrance. Familiar
faces, faces from the past, opened the van doors at various stages of
our journey and nodded in recognition - so much unspoken.
Shortly afterwards the turnstile clanked behind us as we walked free
from the prison, stepped into our car and sped homewards.
It was a strange sensation. Crossing into two very different worlds
yet doing so with a minimum of hassle. Two worlds that I'm very
familiar with and yet have their own very different concepts of time
and space, priorities, needs and wants.
I feel privileged. Privileged that I was able once again to
experience the inside of the H Blocks yet under much more favourable
circumstances. Knowing you can walk free from it makes its walls and
fortifications so much less solid, much less impressive, much more
temporary. Yet for so many years those same walls held such
foreboding for prisoners and families alike, symbolising heartache,
pain, torture, brutality, loneliness, starvation and death.
I was privileged and it is a privilege that must be extended to other
ex-prisoners. They too must be given a chance to once again walk
through Long Kesh, be it the H Blocks or the Cages. And not only them
but their families too and the public in general. Only by doing so
will we be truly able to deal with that period in our lives. Only
then will we be truly able to move on in our respective journeys.
Long Kesh should remain. It should remain as a symbol to future
generations of the futility of attempting to deny the legitimacy of
Irish republicanism and of the courage, humanity and dignity of a
risen people.
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