Irish Hunger Strikes Chapter 4

The No-Wash Protest Begins

By the latter part of 1977, an entire prison block, H-5, was filled solely with Republican prisoners on the Blanket and it was a bit easier for the men to assess and consolidate their position -- which was bleak.

250 on the blanket

By the beginning of 1978 approximately 250 men were on the Blanket as the Diplock Courts and Interrogation/Torture Centers did their worst to ensure that more and more men would be headed to Long Kesh to be broken by the regime there. H-5 was bursting, the prisoners doubled up in the cells. The prison administration was forced to open H3 to accommodate the new "non-conforming" Republican POWs that were pouring in.

As more men came onto the protest, the physical and psychological abuse from the screws and authorities escalated in brutality. Besides the cold, the nakedness, the beatings, the lack of decent food, the absence of family visits, and the additions to their sentences for each day on the protest, they were also denied any reading material to break the monotony of being locked in their cells almost 24 hours a day. Once a day they were briefly allowed out to wash at the sinks.

Now, the screws even refused to let the men out of their cells except two-by-two to slop out and shower -- once a week! They had to shave without a mirror in the same basin of water. They refused. Soon the Blanketmen all had long beards. It would become a symbol of their resistance.

A Game of Wits and Will

In order to win, the men knew that they had to endure inhuman hardships over an indefinite period of time. They had to find ways to humanize their existence. Because they were so isolated in their cells, they began to communicate with each other and pass on whatever reading material or contraband they managed to acquire by "swinging the line". It was more of a game of wits with the screws than anything else; they didn't have anything of real value to pass along. Just connecting with each other despite their situation was a victory in itself. While the administration was trying to break their spirits, they were doing the same to the screws.

The most common form of communication was the "comm", a note written in minuscule print, mostly on cigarette paper, and folded into a tiny knob that could be passed along without being detected. Later, almost all information into and out of The Kesh was accomplished by comms passed on through a girlfriend's kiss or a mother's embrace.

Using a strip of blanket, they tied a weight of any sort, a piece of soap or toothpaste tube, on one end and swung whatever was to be passed on to the man in the next cell out the window facing the yard, who would catch it blindly with an extended, open hand. This took skill and patience, but it worked. Except that it could only connect those on one side of a wing. A more ingenious method enabled them to pass stuff from one side to the other. A button or the like was attached to 15 or so feet of thread taken from a blanket; they attached what was to be sent onto the other end of the thread and shot the button with a plastic comb under the cell door across the floor between the cells -- like knock-hockey! If it missed, it was pulled back for another try. When it got close enough to the target, the man in the opposite cell would snatch it and pull across the loot. Once on the other side of the cell block, it could be swung from cell to cell.

Screws fight back

Of course the screws did everything they could to halt communication between the men. It wasn't only against the rules and would break the isolation of the men; they took it as a personal affront. A battle of wits ensued. For the men it meant not allowing themselves to be dehumanized and isolated regardless of the situation. For the screws, it must have been a nightmare to be outsmarted by men in such dire straights and it made them into absurd puppets, acting like inhuman madmen. Men caught communicating in this way were severely beaten and sent to the punishment cells. Later horrific body search techniques would be employed to stop the transmission of information and contact between the men. But the more they were punished the better they got at the game and the more determined they became not to dehumanized.

Then the men started to teach each other Irish from cell to cell. Shouting messages in Gaeilige had the double effect of effectively communicating in the ancient tongue and infuriating the screws.

The stage is set for the "no wash, no slop out" protest

But the situation in H-5 and H-3 was stagnating. It became obvious to the men that the administration could put up with the situation indefinitely. As far as the screws were concerned, it was the men who were naked in their cells, suffering the abuse, and they could always heighten the torture or sit back and maintain the status quo. In addition, the outside world was largely apathetic to the conditions the men were facing in The Kesh. The public was slowly becoming more aware through the activities of the Relatives Action Committee, but was it enough?

In the early days of 1978, there was a marked increase in beatings and abuse, particularly when the men were out of their cells slopping out or taking a shower. Also, cell searches increased in frequency and brutality. One man, "Greek" Moran, was ripped by screws out of his cell during a search and dragged up the wing using his head as a football. He was charged with "assaulting an officer". When he complained, he was beaten and further charged with "making false accusations." This was the typical result of a cell search.

The Dark

There was also at this time an influx of new men from the remand cages, most notably Brendan Hughes [the Dark] a senior IRA man, who had a feel for the way the protest was perceived by the media and the public. The Dark thought that the protest was largely ineffective. A contentious debate ensued among the men. Many of the long term Blanketmen were offended. On the other hand, the patience of the men was wearing thin and they were anxious to escalate the protest. Outside the IRA was shooting screws in retaliation for what was going on inside the prisons; still, the Brits could care less.

Bobby Sands, an old friend of The Dark, helped to simulate debate. They even discussed conforming to prison rules in order to use the system to destroy it, such as doing prison work then burning down the workshops.

This idea was soundly defeated. But what were they to do? They were virtually helpless to initiate any real offensive.

From Generation to Generation

Sean Lennon, a Blanketman and Republican POW, put it like this: "At this time my ideas were based on the centuries old Republican tradition which had been handed down from generation to generation and finally our own generation whose turn had come to carry on the struggle. When I was thinking or giving views on how we should tackle the problems, the overriding factor in deciding what to do was heavily influenced by the Republicans of the past and their stance while in jail -- in every phase of struggle Republicans had to fight the jail system to maintain their identity as POWs."

Terence MacSwiney, who died on hunger strike during the Tan War, summed it all up: "It is not those who can inflict the most, but those who can endure the most who will be victorious."

"We had to confront them head on and take it on the nose," Sean Lennon said.

With their backs to the wall, they decided not to wash or slop out in protest of the beatings they received while out of their cells. It would, more importantly, bring the protest to a level that the outside world would have to notice. The "no wash, no slop out" protest began and the world would notice. In July of 1978, Archbishop Tomas O' Fiaich called conditions in The Kesh as bad as the "sewer pipes in the slums of Calcutta."

Next: The No-wash, No slop out protest gets dirty