to main Dispersal System prison in England and Wales
An Cumann Cabhrach: Republican prisoners charity organization
Angry Brigade: Term applied to coterie of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh anarchists in 1970s’ Britain
Anti-Internment League: Coalition of non-violent political organizations opposed to internment without trial in Ireland from August 1971
Ard Chomhairle: Ruling body of Sinn Féin
Ard Fheis: Convention of Sinn Féin
Armley: Prison in Leeds
Army Council: Seven-person ruling body of the IRA
Army Executive: Twelve-person committee of the IRA under the Army Council
Association: Time permitted daily to prisoners for social and educational purposes
Association for Legal Justice: Civilian watchdog organization focussing on abuses of civil liberties in Ireland and the UK
Banged Up: Locked in a cell
Belfast Ten: Persons tried for March 1973 IRA attacks in London. Supported by the Belfast Ten Defence Committee, a legal and non-violent group with links to the Republican Movement
Birmingham Six: Persons wrongly convicted of November 1974 IRA attacks in Birmingham
Blanked: A prisoner ostracized by others
Blanket Protest: Wearing blankets or towels instead of prison uniform
Block: Section of a prison
Board of Visitors (BV): Prison committee dealing with disciplinary and general matters (aka Visiting Committee)
Bomb Squad: Police section dealing with subversive offences
Cabhair: Republican prisoners charity
Category A: Prisoners bearing the highest level of security rating in England and Wales.
CCDC: Central Citizens Defence Committee
Chief of Staff: Head of the IRA
Chiv: Improvised bladed or pointed weapon
Circle: Part of prison offering access between wings
Circuit: Frequent prison moves
Citizen Defence Committee: Unaligned civilian grouping in Belfast
and Derry which organized local defence of nationalist communities from 1969
Clann na hÉireann: Legal political organization representing the official republican movement in Britain
Clan na Gael: North American pro-republican organization
Closed Visit: A prison meeting in which family and friends are denied physical contact with the prisoner
Colour Party: Organized flag-carrying element of a republican march
Comm/ Communication: Slang for smuggled written information passed between republicans
Con/ Convict: Sentenced prisoner
Control Unit: Experimental segregation wings in Wakefield and Wormwood Scrubs
Connolly Association: Legal, non-violent, left wing, political organization of the Irish in Britain and their local allies
Cooler: Twenty-eight day period in segregation, generally involving prison shift
Coventry Six: Persons charged in connection with IRA activities in the British Midlands
CPGB: Communist Party of Great Britain
CPI: Communist Party of Ireland
Cumann/ Cumainn: Organized unit/s of Sinn Féin
Cumann na mBan: Illegal female IRA auxiliary organization
Dáil Éireann: Irish parliament in Dublin; the Dáil/Seanad (Leinster House)
Democratic Unionist Party: A unionist political party in the Six Counties from 1971
Department of Foreign Affairs: Irish civil service department dealing with Anglo-Irish relations et al
Diplock Court: Jury-less court in Belfast used to try political offences
Director of Engineering: IRA GHQ position responsible for explosives and heavy weaponry
Director of Intelligence: IRA GHQ position regarding intelligence and counter-intelligence
‘Dirty Protest’: Pejorative British term for an IRA/ INLA prisoner’s non-cooperation with maintenance of cell sanitation, termed ‘no wash protest’ by republicans
Dispersal System: Network of maximum-security prisons in England where Category A inmates were accommodated under the Mountbatten Report recommendations
DPP: Director of Public Prosecutions
ECHR: European Convention on Human Rights (Strasbourg)
E(scape) List: Term for prisoners subjected to additional security practices owing to their perceived potential for success
Fenian: Member of Irish Republican Brotherhood (Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Australasia) or Fenian Brotherhood (aka Clan na Gael: United States of America/ Canada); illegal, republican, revolutionary organization superseded by the IRA
Fianna Fáil: Political party in the Republic of Ireland
Fitted up: Framed
FCA: Forsa Cosanta Áitiúil, part time and reserve element of Irish Defence Forces (Army); later ‘Reserves’
FCO: Foreign and Commonwealth Office (United Kingdom)
Fine Gael: Political party in the Republic of Ireland
Free State: Pejorative term for post-partition Republic of Ireland
F Wing: Former Control Unit of Wakefield prison
Gardaí: An Garda Síochana; Irish police
GHQ: IRA term for General Headquarters (Dublin) comprising various specialised Departments of the Republican Movement
Ghosting: Unexpected prison move; also ‘ghosted’, ‘Shanghaied’
Going behind the door: Voluntary segregation under Rule 43
Good Order and Discipline: Rationale for a governor imposing Rule 43
Governor: Chief administrator of a prison
Grass: Informer
Green Cross: Republican prisoners charity
Guildford Four: Persons wrongly
