On the blanket in B wing
The protest for political status is taking place in three
centres, Long Kesh `H' Blocks, `B' Wing, Crumlin Road Gaol and
Armagh Women's Prison. There are almost 350 men and women taking
part in the protest.
Six republicans in `B' Wing Crumlin outline the conditions they
are held in.
``We are kept in solitary confinement and are put on the boards
every 14 days for three days. We are allowed to wear a towel and
an old pair of gym slippers, which are occasionally thrown away
by the crims.
``No one who hasn't been through solitary confinement can know
what it is like to sit all day alone. We are allowed one book per
week but recently a certain screw has been ripping the books up
to prevent us reading them. We are not allowed papers, radios, or
tobacco. All we get in our monthly parcel is hankies, soap and
shampoo.
``Now the Boards: a PO comes into our cell and orders us to put on
the uniform, we refuse and are placed `on report'. That afternoon
we are brought out naked to see the governor, we are kept
standing in the middle of the wing until he is ready to see us.
When we are brought before the governor he reads out the charges.
We refuse to answer.
``Then we're sentenced to three days confined to cell (boards), 28
days loss of remission, 14 days loss of pay, 14 days loss of
privileges. Then our cells are cleared of everything except a
water container and chamber pot; we spend the three days with
nothing except a towel, winter or summer.
``This week has seen another attempt to break us. we were told
that when we left the cell we had to do so naked. We refused to
leave the cell at all. The governor told us then that we could
wear towels when leaving our cells. Some of the men who were on
the blanket here last year lived for seven months naked all the
time on a No.1 diet for three days every time they were on the
boards. We have told the governor that we would be willing to
wear the trousers to mass. But he has refused us.''
Phoblacht, 1 July 1978.
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