Irish POWs/Ex-POWs

The Lives, Hopes, & Struggles of 15,000 Irish Republican Ex-Prisoners and their Families

Introduction

Since the first IRA ceasefire in the early 1990's, and well before that as Irish Republicans began to work towards an historic peace process to bring to a halt over 30 years of war and to establish the political terrain whereby political ends could be achieved through political means, there was a realization of the need to deal positively with those imprisoned as a result of the conflict.

Republican prisoners played a vital role in the military struggle and in the peace process. They were, in fact, indispensable. It could be argued that the conflict inside the prisons was emotionally and politically even more important than the conflict outside.

From time immemorial, Irish men and women defied British attempts to break their spirit in prison. Armed with only their bodies, will and contempt for their captors, Republicans carried the war into the jails and prevailed.

Imprisonment for Irish Republicans is another means by which to wage political struggle, best exemplified recently by resistance to Britain's criminalization strategy. The H-Block protests of the 1970s and Hunger Strikes of 1980 and 1981 [see were the battle ground upon which criminalization as a policy was defeated and the politics of struggle gained a foothold in the prisoner election campaigns, north and south, of 1981.

The ex-prisoners were the heart and soul of the conflict and need to be the heart and soul of the peace process and the continuing struggle for Irish freedom, national self-determination and democracy.

1. Ex-prisoner support
The need to provide a framework of services for those who had been disadvantaged through involvement in the struggle became paramount after the Good Friday Agreement prisoner releases. That concern included of a wide circle emanating from the ex-prisoners themselves outward towards parents, spouses and partners, children, and friends.

Their loved ones in many cases had nothing or little to do with decisions to take an active role in the political and/or military conflict. Certainly their young children didn't. Yet they were all in it together whether they wanted to or not. They all needed to be looked after.

2. The extent of the problem
An estimated 15,000 Irish republicans have been through the jails during the conflict in the north and south of Ireland, in England, Germany, France and the USA. Approximately 400 were serving life sentences and the rest served anything between 4 and 23 years in prison.

Republicans have served approximately 108,200 years in prison during the course of the conflict. Almost all nationalists suffered as a result of the conflict.
In some areas such as the Upper Springfield Rd. in West Belfast, over 11% of the adult population (one in nine) have experienced imprisonment, with 20% of these having first been jailed when they were teenagers. Research in the New Lodge area of North Belfast shows 75% of prisoners have either themselves or close family members experienced violent victimization either by Loyalists or RUC/British army attacks. Long term unemployment among Republican ex-prisoners show levels of 75% to 87%

3. The role of Irish Northern Aid
The most important part of INA's work since its inception has been humanitarian. On behalf of Republican POWs and their families, INA provided practical and financial support and resisted at an international level Britain's attempts to criminalize Republican political prisoners and the freedom struggle.

We helped by letters to them in jail and by our existence as a pro-Irish Republican prisoner organization in America.

Since 1999, as more and more prisoners became ex-prisoners and as Republican ex-prisoner support groups became established, we shifted our emphasis to them and their families through Coiste.

4. Coiste na n-Iarchimi
Coiste na n-Iarchimi (ex POWs committee) was established in 1998 by the Republican leadership to secure the full integration of Republican ex POWs and their families by securing recognition of the contributions they made and can make in the future; and to facilitate IPOWs in the pursuit of freedom on the outside.

Coiste is the national co-ordinating umbrella for all Republican ex-prisoner groups in Ireland and it has the responsibility on behalf of Sinn Fein for promoting the case for amnesty; directing campaigns and programs; supporting local groups in their job training, health, and social welfare work; and acting as the central channel for much of INA fund-raising. A portion of INA's contributions also go to the families of volunteers on the run, husbands or wives of volunteers killed in action who need our aid, and prisoners still incarcerated for their role in the Republican struggle.

5. Political raids/attacks on Coiste
A series of violent raids were carried out by the so called Police Service N. Ireland on homes of Coiste officers and against Coiste premises at the end of March and the beginning of April 2002. These politically motivated actions were further evidence that Britain's
criminalization policy is very much alive today. [see VI. Coiste raids]

6. How to help
In reality, our work has never changed. We followed the prisoners and their families into the next phase of struggle and we will be with them when they enter the next and on into an Ireland, United, Independent, and Free.

Gerry Coleman, director
Irish Northern Aid
Political Education Department
For more information, or how you can help, contact: PoliticalEducation@inac.org