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Waterside Press - Tom Murtagh

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381 pages

English

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Description

he Maze Prison shows how an establishment built to hold those involved in terrorism, atrocities, murder and allied crimes became a pawn in the partisan conflict that was Northern Ireland. There followed a breakdown of norms, values and control as the last of these shifted from Governors to Ministers, outside officials and even prisoners.

Sujets

Terrorism

Prison

Informations

Publié par	Waterside Press
Date de parution	20 février 2018
Nombre de lectures	1
EAN13	9781910979471
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	3 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,3250€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

The Maze Prison
A Hidden Story of Chaos, Anarchy and Politics
Tom Murtagh OBE
Foreword Phillip Wheatley CB
Copyright and publication details
The Maze Prison
A Hidden Story of Chaos, Anarchy and Politics
Tom Murtagh
ISBN 978-1-909976-50-4 (Paperback)
ISBN 978-1-909976-55-9 (Hardback)
ISBN 978-1-910979-47-1 (Epub ebook)
ISBN 978-1-910979-48-8 (Adobe ebook)
Copyright © 2018 This work is the copyright of Tom Murtagh. All intellectual property and associated rights are hereby asserted and reserved by him in full compliance with UK, European and international law. No part of this book may be copied, reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, or in any language, including in hard copy or via the internet, without the prior written permission of the publishers to whom all such rights have been assigned worldwide.
Cover design © 2018 Waterside Press. Front cover: Aerial photo © Alamy; Archive photos; Back cover hut door courtesy Public Records Office of Northern Ireland.
Main UK distributor Gardners Books, 1 Whittle Drive, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN23 6QH . Tel: +44 (0)1323 521777; sales@gardners.com ; www.gardners.com
North American distribution Ingram Book Company, One Ingram Blvd, La Vergne, TN 37086, USA. Tel: (+1) 615 793 5000; inquiry@ingramcontent.com
Cataloguing-In-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library.
Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, United Kingdom.
e-book The Maze Prison: A Hidden Story of Chaos, Anarchy and Politics is available as an ebook and also to subscribers of Myilibrary, Dawsonera, ebrary, and Ebscohost.
Published 2018 by
Waterside Press Ltd
Sherfield Gables
Sherfield-on-Loddon
Hook, Hampshire
United Kingdom RG27 0JG
Telephone +44(0)1256 882250
E-mail enquiries@watersidepress.co.uk
Online catalogue WatersidePress.co.uk
Table of Contents
Copyright and publication details ii
Publisher’s note v
About the author vi
The author of the Foreword vii
Acknowledgements viii
Dedication ix
List of Illustrations x
Acronyms, abbreviations and other terminology xi
Foreword xv
Map of The Maze Prison xviii
Preface 21 A Historical Backdrop 31 Long Kesh 63 HMP The Maze: Special Category Status 91 A Changing Control Dynamic 109 Murder, Escapes and Direct Political Intervention 121 Riot and Inferno 149 The Gardiner Report 183 H-Blocks and the Blanket Protest 233 The Dirty Protest 263 Cardinal Tomas O’Fiaich 285 The First Hunger-strike (1980) 333 The Second Hunger-strike (1981) 377 Defeat Snatched from the Jaws of Victory 479 The 1983 Mass Escape and the Hennessy Report 529 Erosion of Staff Control in Segregated Wings 595 Schism 623 Corruption and Murder 645 Descent into Chaos 671 Anomie 703 The Averill Escape 733 Anarchy 747
Epilogue 783
Bibliography 799
Index 803
Publisher’s note
The views and opinions expressed in this book are those of the author entirely and are not necessarily shared by the publisher. Readers should draw their own conclusions about any claims made or facts and opinions stated or reproduced, concerning which the possibility of alternative narratives, descriptions, claims, suggestions, interpretations and subtleties of terminology should be borne in mind.
About the author
Tom Murtagh OBE hails from the Republic of Ireland where he received his early education before moving to London to pursue higher education and join HM Prison Service (HMPS). He ended his almost 40 year career in prisons as an Area Manager for HMPS, having been a Governor of several establishments in both HMPS and the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS). This included being Deputy Governor of The Maze and its Head of Security during The Troubles. He is the chair of the Northern Ireland Retired Prison Officers’ Fellowship and author of The Blantyre House Prison Affair: Lessons from a Modern-day Witch-hunt (Waterside Press, 2007).
The author of the Foreword
Phillip Wheatley CB was Director General of the National Offender Management Service for England and Wales (2008 to 2010) and, immediately before this, Director General of HM Prison Service (from 2003); and is also a former Non-Executive Director of the Northern Ireland Prison Service. A pupil at Leeds Grammar School, he read law at Sheffield University then, uniquely for a future leader of the service, worked as a prison officer in several establishments before being appointed Governor of Hull Prison in 1986. He was an Area Manager for HMPS before moving to Prison Service Headquarters in 1992. Latterly he has worked as a consultant in the private prisons sector.
Acknowledgements
This narrative would not have been possible without the help of many individuals who experienced the events described in the book at first-hand while serving at different levels in The Maze Prison and at Prison Service Headquarters. I am grateful to them for agreeing to re-live their sometimes painful memories.
I have also greatly appreciated the help and courtesy of the staff at the Linen Hall Library, Belfast, the Newspaper Archive of Belfast Central Library, the Records and Information Management Team of the Northern Ireland Prison Service and the various other organizations that assisted me with information.
I am especially grateful to all the staff of the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland for their help, patience and kindness during the long months of research, especially John Rea and Noel Hutton on the issue desk.
The help of my wife Frances during the research phase was invaluable and I am grateful to her for her patience, understanding and support throughout this project.
I am particularly grateful for the sage advice of Professor Graham Towl and Patrick Maguire CBE in the final editing.
Photographs are courtesy of those credited within the book, who I must also thank for their kind permissions to them being reproduced.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to all who served in Northern Ireland’s prisons during these difficult years and especially to the memory of those who lost their lives or suffered debilitating injury or ill-health consequently.
List of Illustrations
Aerial view of the entire prison xviii
Map of The Maze Prison xix
Nissen huts 67
Interior of a compound Nissen hut 69
Staff living accommodation known as ‘Silver City’ 71
Imitation guns used by the PIRA in an attempt to escape 111
Weapons used against staff 111
Wire cutters used in an escape attempt — they were assembled from small pieces before being used 111
A gun which was smuggled in in parts concealed in a shoe 111
Weapons used against staff by Loyalist Special Category prisoners 111
Fake gun carved out of wood 111
One of many improvised stills found over the years — made from food containers and plundered heating and plumbing equipment 114
View of the perimeter wall from outside and the circular road 159
The compound prison 211
An Army watch tower 218
Main entrance to an H-Block secure compound 234
View from The Circle of an H-Block looking out through the main entrance 235
View of an H-Block from a watch tower 239
Cellular prison — view into a cell from the wing 244
Route used in the 1983 mass escape (Hennessy Report) 529
The Circle area of H-Block 7 at the time of the takeover (Hennessy Report) 533
The External Gate during the escape (Hennessy Report) 541
Roll of Honour 769
Principal Officer Patrick Mackin and his wife Violet 770
Acronyms, abbreviations and other terminology
Cage — Prisoners’ term for a compound (below).
Camp Council — A meeting of prisoners’ faction leaders within the prison (but of no formally recognised status).
Circle (‘The Circle’) — A colloquial term for the central administrative area of a block or wing. Derived from the circular areas that were a feature of the original spoke design of the Pentonville Prison model. In the H-Blocks at The Maze the The Circle was a rectangular space forming the cross-section of the H.
CHL — Compassionate home leave, i.e. a form of temporary release.
CO — Commanding officer (or OC — Officer commanding)— A term used by prisoners to refer to their leader within the prison.
Comm — Communication, a smuggled message, essentially covert.
Compound — An arrangement (initially) of Nissen huts within wire fenced areas, comparable to those of Second World War prison camps. There were eventually 22 compounds at The Maze although the actual buildings changed over time. Hence also the term ‘ compound prison ’, i.e. as opposed to cellular prison.
C&R — Control and restraint — An approved method used by prison staff to control violent/disruptive prisoners without injury.
DUP — Democratic Unionist Party (a right-leaning or ‘conservative’ NI political party).
DUS — Deputy Under-Secretary, a relatively senior civil service rank.
Establishment — Generic term for any prison related premises.
Governor/Governor grade — Any grade of Prison Governor, usually qualified to denote rank or role, e.g. Governing Governor (or No.1 Governor), Governor Class I to V, Assistant Governor.
General search — A planned, speculative full search of prison premises and people but with no specific target.
H-Block — Those constructed in the shape of an H.
HMPS — Her Majesty’s Prison Service, i.e. of England and Wales.
Home Rule — Local rule but under the British Crown.
Hooch — Illicit brewed/distilled alcoholic drink made covertly by prisoners.
HQ — Headquarters. Normally in this book that of the NIPS ; until 2010 this was a department of the NIO ( below); now Department of Justice of the NI Assembly.
ICJP — Irish Commission for Justice and Peace.
IICD — Independent International Commission on De-Commissioning (i.e. of weapons, arms, etc.).
Internee/detainee — A person detained in custody by administrative/executive order of Government, who has not been charged, convicted or sentenced by a criminal court.
IRA — Irish Republican Army.