Torturing the dying
The following is an excerpt from an article first printed in the
10 January 1976 edition of Republican News. GERRY ADAMS, writing
from the Cages of Long Kesh Prison, writes of the terrible
conditions for republican POWs in English prisons, particularly
of the horrors of forced feeding, as Frank Stagg entered the
final month of his hunger strike. As it happened, Stagg was not
force fed during the hunger strike on which he died, but he had
been on previous fasts and it was this brutal method of torture
that led directly to the death of his comrade and fellow Mayo man
Michael Gaughan in 1974.
Britain's Ambassador to Chile, Mr Reginald Seconde, said
yesterday that he knew Sheila Cassidy, detained in Chile for 59
days for helping a wounded Chilean guerilla, had been tortured by
Santiago police two weeks after her arrest last November. Mr
Seconde was reporting to the Brit Foreign Office after his recall
from Chile and pressure is building on Brit Foreign Secretary Jim
Callaghan to take some firm action against Chile over the
treatment of Dr Cassidy. The case has achieved immense piublicity
on the Brit news mwedia and English politicians have been making
very angry noises against, and about, the use of torture on
political prisoners.
At the time of writing, and for the past few weeks, Frank Stagg,
a republican POW in Wakefield Prison, has been on hunger and
thirst strike, while Roy Walsh and two of his comrades are still
in solitary confinement in the Prison Segregation Unit (Special
Control Unit) of Wormwood Scrubs after their protest there last
November. Republican prisoners in England are held under solitary
confinement conditions and Paul Holmes, in particular, has spent
most of his time in the Segregation Unit of Parkhurst Prison,
known among republican POWs as `The Hole'. They are all making
one basic demand, and that is a transfer to Ireland so that they
may serve their sentences nearer home.
The precedent for this move was made when Dolours and Marion
Price were transferred after a long and horrifying hunger strike
and again, when Hugh Feeney and Gerry Kelly were moved to Long
Kesh. Loyalist prisoners, albeit without hunger strikes, have
also been transferred. Once again, England has shown her ability
to condemn torture abroad against her citizens, while at home in
her own prison helll-holes, day and daily, Irishmen and
Irishwomen are tortured in the most cowardly and bestial manner.
Within the next week or two support for Frank Stagg will build in
the ghettoes and among the freedom loving people of Ireland. This
may be too late. It must be stressed that Frank Stagg will die if
pressure is not brought to bear on the Brits immediately. With
this horrible eventuality in mind I decided to write a short
article on conditions for republican POWs in English gaols, so
that whil we go about our dauily business, at work or at home,
each and every one of us may understand the daily hell which our
prisoners in England are fighting against.
To assist me in this, I asked two comrades, Hugh Feeney and Gerry
Kelly, to scribble a brief outline of their experiences, so that
I could give an outline of Frank Stagg's prison `routine'. Their
notes arrived in this cage this evening and I have used them
below almost as they were written. As a republican prisoner
myself, who has spent a few years in Long Kesh and a month or two
on the Maidstone Prison Ship, I have often felt quite sorry for
myself and many times I have had the audacity to feel chuffed at
enduring all this. Since reading Gerry and Hugh's account of
forced feeding I have stopped kidding myself. My two brief
punishment sessions `on the boards' here, the off beating-up on
Brit raids and the conditions which my visitors endure have all
paled to insignificance beside the plight of our people in
England. Long Kesh, Magilligan, Armagh, Crumlin, Portlaoise, the
Curragh, the `Joy and Limerick Gaols are bad. English Prisons are
worse and are, in truth and fact, living hell-holes.
There is no martyr complex in the following notes, no talk of
doing `bird', no self-pity. Republicans in England are there only
because of the English presence in Ireland. Until that presence
is removed it is the duty of every Irishman and woman to push
relentlessly for the transfer of our prisoners from English to
Irish Gaols. The precedent has been set. English hypocrisy must
find no excuse for continuing their torture of Irish republican
POWs. It must stop now before Frank Stagg dies, alone and
unwanted in his prison cell.
Frank has been on four previous hunger strikes and the conditions
he is at present suffering are as they were when he was on hunger
strike and in solitary confinement in Parkhurst and Long Lartin.
He is now in the hospital wing of Wakefield prison, under the
`care' of Doctors Knox and Xavier. Both these men have force-fed
Irish prisoners and, last May, Frank Maguire MP reported that a
week after being force fed, Frank Stagg still bore the nail-marks
of Dr Xavier on his wrists. These doctors call force-feeding,
`tube' feeding.
Frank Stagg may be in the hospital wing, but a prison hospital
cannot, in any way, be equated with a civilian hospital. Frank
has been moved from one cell of the prison punishment block to a
greater punishment - the possibility of forced feeding. He still
remains in complete solitary confinement and he must inevitably
face force feeding again even after the decision by the British
Medical Association to condemn it. Forced feeding has not been
stopped, but it is left to the discretion of the prison doctor.
Frank Stagg was last force fed in May 1975. Jenkins, in a reply a
few months ago in the Brit House of Commons, stated that he had
left it to the prison doctor. If, as is likely, Frank Stagg is
forced fed again he will suffer the following torture and,
because his throat and stomach in particular cannot have healed
properly, his health will deteriorate more quickly than it is
doing at present.
``He will face the possibility of at least one and maybe two
`feedings' daily. Force feeding is always brutal. No matter how
often it occurs the victim does not get used to it. Some sessions
are worse than others, but all are terrible experiences. If the
`feedings' are not at regular times each day, and usually they
are not, then he spends the entire day trying to prepare himself
emotionally. Trying to restock his determination to fight.
A team of screws are the first to appear. They come into the cell
with varying expressions on their faces. These range from snarls,
through impassive indifference to the odd sheepish apologetic
smile. He will be `fed' either in his cell or dragged outside
into another one. He will be held in a bed or on a chair. Usually
six or eight screws are involved. They swop in an obviously
planned manner, holding and pressing down on arms and legs. He
will struggle as best he can even though he knows it is useless.
One grabs him by the hair and forces his head back, and when he
is finally pinned down in the proper manner the doctor and his
assistant arrive.
Various methods will be employed to open Frank's mouth. His nose
will be covered to cut off air, or a screw or doctor will bunch
their fists or bore their knuckles into the joints on each side
of the jaws. A Ryle's tube will be used. This is a very long thin
tube which is pushed through the nose. It is supposedly for nasal
feeding, but, in forced feeding, it is simply a torture weapon
used to force open the jaws. It rubs against the membrane at the
back of the nose and, if not coated in a lubricant (which it
seldom is), it causes a searing pain, akin to a red-hot needle
being pushed into one's head. If Frank cries out with this pain,
a wooden clamp will be pushed very forcinbly between his teeth.
If this fails to work, the doctor will use a large pair of
forceps to cut into the gums, the ensuing pain agan forcing the
jaws to open sufficiently for the clamp to be forced in.
Sometimes a metal clamp, rather like a `Bulldog' clip, is used.
It is forced between the teeth and a bolt is turned, forcing a
spring and the jaws to open.
When Frank's jaws are finally pried open, a wooden bit, rather
like a horse bit, is forced into his mouth. This bit has two
pointed ends, which are used to force and to hold an opening. It
`sits' across his mouth with a screw holding each end, and there
is a hole in the centre of it through which the feeding tube is
forced. A flat piece of wood is inserted first to press the
tongue down and then a three-foot long rubber tube, coated in
liquid paraffin, is shoved in and down his throat. A funnel is
placed on the open end and they will pour some water in. If the
water bubbles, they know the tube is in Frank's lungs. If so, the
tube is removed and the whole process starts again.
Michael Gaughan was murdered in this way. When the tube is
eventually fixed properly, it is pushed down into Frank's
stomach. There are different widths of tube and obviously the
wider they are, the more painful the torture. Doctors usually use
the widest as food goes down quicker and they don't have to delay
overlong. Frank will feel his stomach filling up and stretching,
an expwerience he has undergone before. Automatically, he will
vomit up, the disgorged food being caught in a kidney dish. If
the doctor in charge is especially sadistic the vomit will be
forced back down his throat again (this happened to Gerry Kelly).
As the tube is removed it tears at the back of his throat, more
so than before because the liquid paraffin has worn off on the
way down. The last few inches will be ghastly. Frank will get
violent pains in his chest. He will choke and, at this point, he
will be sicker than before, as the tube coming out triggers off
more retching (Marion Price passed out at this stage once). After
`feeding', Frank will find it impossible to stand up, to sit up,
or to move in any way.
Frank Stagg is also on thirst strike. This is dealt with in two
ways. The first method employed is simply more force feeding with
water fluids in the food. Since this liquid bypasses his mouth
(via the tube) that is where he will feel it most. The other
method involves putting extyra salt in the liquid during force
feeding. This causes a more concentrated dehydration and
increases the desire for water. To repeatedly alternate between
thirst and hunger strike, as Frank Stagg is doing, is extremely
difficult and indescribably agonising. He may be refused a towel
or water to wash off his vomit as Hugh Feeney was, and his cell
will stink of sour milk mand disgorged food. On one occasion Hugh
Feeney was even denied Communion by a priest, so Frank could find
himself denied even spiritual comfort.''
This then is a broad outline of the barbarism condoned by English
politicians in England and condemned by them elsewhere. It is
inflicted, with equal savagery, on girls as well as men. Dolours
and Marion Price were tortured like this during a strike which
lasted 205 days.
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