communications between the prisons and supporters ensured that the protests were backed up by the largest pro-Irish street demonstrations in several years. A sit down by a small group outside Buckingham Palace on 6 July led to four arrests when the women involved disrupted the ceremonies of the Household Cavalry.243 Other actions briefly impeded the first day of the hyped summer sales in Oxford Street, London while students protested in Edinburgh. The appearance of the four women in Bow Street Court on 7 July on charges relating to the Household Cavalry incident preceded an evening press conference in the House of Commons, convened by the new Irish Political Prisoners Support Group. Joan Maynard MP explained that the men were protesting their right to humane visiting conditions, political status and repatriation. She was assisted by Tom Litterick, MP for Birmingham (Selly Oak), one of several British parliamentarians refused permission to visit the H-Blocks.244 Alastair Logan supported Maynard’s accusation of the ill-treatment of Irish prisoners by reminding the audience that forty cases were pending at the European Commission on Human Rights. He specified the harassment endured by relatives of prisoners who travelled to England.245 Pro-Irish republicans in the US avidly followed such developments.246
The Gartree incident and subsequent discussion in the Commons attracted rare front page coverage from the Times. It was accepted that the complaints of the ‘Irish republican prisoners’ extended to ‘assault and prolonged solitary confinement’, although the published account did not allude to the MPs who had advocated redress. Instead, the conservative orientated daily restated the position Home Secretary Rees had outlined the previous year which they summarized as meaning: ‘There would be neither an amnesty nor the granting of political status for Irish prisoners’.247 Rees was in much closer contact with republicans than was desirable for a prime IRA target, and on one occasion unwittingly procured the plastering services of Cork man Tom Goodchild, mainstay of Harrow Sinn Féin and An Cumann Cabhrach.248
When a major PAC - sponsored rally met at Marble Arch on 9 July, it did so under the banner of ‘End silence on torture of Irish Prisoners of War’. This was boosted in terms of credibility by an Amnesty International report which accused the British authorities of standing over numerous acts of maltreatment in the North of Ireland. The damning text was read in its entirety into the Congressional Record in Washington DC.249 The PAC echoed what Maynard and Logan had asserted in the House of Commons in relation to excesses taking place within England’s Dispersal System.250 Around 5,000 marched in London, including contingents of the RCG, IMG, Big Flame, Workers Revolutionary Party, UTOM and IRSP, as well as leading elements of Sinn Féin and the PAC. Several trade unions were represented, notably branches of the ASTMS and TGWU.251 Deep ideological divisions within various far left organizations remained, but the display of unity on the prison question produced the largest republican march in London since 1972.252
Most of the Hyde Park speakers addressed the deepening H-Block crisis, although the English dimension to the wider prison struggle was well noted, and many of the placards listed the names of those held in the Dispersal System.253 Kaye claimed in an interview with Republican News that the ‘courageous stand taken by the prisoners’ in Ireland had been critical to the success of the London rally.254 Sinn Féin (Britain) was represented by Jim Reilly, who addressed the crowd.255 Vanessa Redgrave, a famous actress and leading WRP member, was widely quoted as saying on the occasion: ‘victory for the IRA in their struggle against imperialism’.256 Her comments exemplified the type of vigorous left cooperation sought by many inside Sinn Féin and the PAC in England. However, no platform was extended to the SWP in Hyde Park, owing to their visceral protest in the Commons three days earlier, which was regarded as undignified and potentially harmful.257 Despite the minor factional quibbling, Kaye was credited by sympathetic republicans with ‘unifying the fragmented left on this issue’.258 Orchestration favoured the requirements of republican propaganda. Photographers got within sufficient range of Gartree to acquire dramatic images of the prisoners on the roof. The ephemeral SWP sponsored Irish Political Prisoner Support Group noted that they had ‘cut through the media censorship for the first time since the Price Sisters nearly died’ in June 1974.259 The general public outside Gartree were sufficiently close to hear the shouted comments and rebel songs from the men on the roof. They were not well provisioned, however, and were unfortunate to be exposed to unseasonable high winds and heavy rainfall.260
Rainwater, at least, provided essential liquid which had been lightly contaminated by lead cladding. A more serious concern arose from news that the staff had acquired additional ‘E-List’ uniforms for the protesters, which indicated that those involved were to be regarded as attempted escapers with resultant diminution of privileges. It was negotiated that Ronnie McCartney, already ‘in patches’, would climb down and meet as planned with visitor Una Caughey, to whom this message could be relayed. This duly occurred, and having registered their position in very clear terms, the IRA men descended around 3.30 p.m. on 9 July.261 Numerous prisoners on exercise refused to return to their cells ‘until they knew the Irish prisoners were safe and well’.262 All eight received forty-two days solitary confinement from the Board of Visitors on 21 July. John McCluskey was given fourteen days solitary for his less obvious but still critical role in getting them into position.263 Jerry Mealy, who was moved to Wormwood Scrubs, lost thirteen months of remission, which was subsequently restored by legal action.264 The IRA in Parkhurst was reported to have continued their hunger strike until 9 July.265
Armstrong was returned to Wakefield when his punishment elapsed and found that Ray McLaughlin, who had been teaching him Irish, was ‘on the blanket’ after his stint in Durham.266 McLaughlin had started a unilateral protest in early August to strengthen his demand for repatriation and was immediately sent to F Wing.267 His refusal to wear prison uniform led to the withdrawal of exercise time and incarceration for twenty-four hours a day in a barren, drab cell.268 Albany prisoners were deprived of cell furniture following their recent destruction of prison property, and Tipp Guilfoyle invited extra punishment under Rule 43 by throwing the contents of his chamber pot over a warder. Strangely, no immediate repercussions were imposed in Long Lartin following the forty-eight hour fast of IRA prisoners.269
All such incidents were scrutinised by the Prison Department. Recommendations advanced by Chief Inspector of Prisons Gordon Fowler in the wake of the Hull Riot were addressed in July 1978 by the creation
