Bik to launch new H Block CD
Bik McFarlane, the former OC of the republican POWs in the H Blocks, will launch Music from the Blocks 2, a recording of 20 famous ``jail songs'', in the Andersonstown Social Club on Saturday 22 April.
Owen Smith, a Sinn Féin councillor from Monaghan Town, an ex-POW, will officially launch a new badge for the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Committee, of which he is chairperson.
Despite the many releases of POWs in accordance with the Good Friday Agreement, there are still republican prisoners incarcerated. And as recently as last week, the Dublin authorities arrested Nessan Quinlivan, who they are set to extradite to Britain.
Music from the Blocks 2 is the follow up to the tape of the same name (minus the 2) that emerged from the H Blocks almost ten years ago and anyone who spent any time in jail will recognise the repertoire immediately. For many a former prisoner, this CD will conjure up the `Big Cell' on a Saturday night.
Bik notes on the inlay sheet: ``The H Blocks of Long Kesh will forever remain in the minds of struggling people as both an indictment of British brutality in Ireland and as a testament to the resolve and endeavour of republican prisoners of war.''
He describes the CD as an example of ``the culture of resistance which pervades all aspects of community life throughout the occupied Six Counties''.
Everyone is invited to come along to Saturday's launch (3pm), although an especially warm welcome is being extended to former prisoners.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)