Deb 21 June 1978 vol 952 cc205–6W.
207.HC Deb 21 June 1978 vol 952 cc205–6W. Rees noted: ‘Prisoners and their visitors [in Wakefield] are allowed to embrace at the beginning and end of visits held under these conditions’. Ibid.
208.Irish News, 5 July 1995.
209.HC Deb 11 July 1978 vol 953 cc494–5W.
210.Lord Harris to Joan Maynard, 22 June 1978, Clarke Papers (COFLA).
211.Martin Wright to Fenner Brockway, 16 May 1978, Clarke Papers (COFLA).
212.Wright to Brockway, 16 May 1978, Clarke Papers (COFLA). See also Lord Harris to Fenner Brockway, 12 July 1978, Clarke Papers (COFLA). Brockway had a long history of intercession for political prisoners in England. At the height of the IRA ‘Border Campaign’ of 1956–62 he sought compassionate parole for EOKA prisoner George Ioannou, a comrade of republican prisoners in Wakefield who planned a joint escape. See Fenner Brockway to RA Butler, 25 July 1958 in Vias Livadas, Cypriot and Irish political prisoners held in British prisons, 1956–1959 (Nicosia, 2008), p. 219.
213.Martin Wright to Sr. Sarah Clarke, 27 February 1980, Clarke Papers (COFLA). Wright recommended the services of Offenbach & Co; George E Baker & Co (Alastair Logan) and BM Birnberg & Co (Gareth Pierce). Wright reminded Sr. Clarke that prisoners were obliged to use all ‘internal procedures’ before contacting a private solicitor. Ibid.
214.For Kelly and Feeney see Andersonstown News, 14 April 1975.
215.Republican News, 10 June 1978.
216.Republican News, 22 July 1978 and Irish World, 15 July 1978.
217.Republican News, 22 July 1978. Donnelly began fasting in Long Lartin due to the refusal of the staff to authorize an exploratory x-ray. This rebuff, and simultaneous axing of a milk supplement he needed for his health provoked the hunger strike. The move to Wakefield aroused suspicions that the ‘same regime’ which ‘murdered’ Stagg was threatening Donnelly. Ibid. Stagg and Gaughan were commemorated in Leigue Cemetery, Mayo, on 16 July 1978. Daithi O Conaill gave the oration. Irish Times, 17 July 1978.
218.McLaughlin, Inside an English jail, pp. 42–3. Duffy was sent on a ‘lie down’ from Wormwood Scrubs to Wandsworth on 29 December. On completion of the twenty-eight days he was moved to Wakefield and a further ‘lie down’ in Bristol. Republican News, 22 March 1978. When in Wormwood Scrubs Duffy attacked a prison officer who had assaulted him previously. Sr. Clarke, ‘Joe Duffy/ Mooney’, Clarke Papers (COFLA). ‘Joe Duffy’ was the name used by Dubliner Michael J Mooney when convicted in England. Irish People, 5 February 1983. See PAC News, February 1978, p. 1.
219.FRFI, March 1984, p. 12.
220.Irish Times, 4 August 1978.
221.Republican News, 5 August 1978. Armstrong met Eddie Butler in Manchester. Butler had been in the block for seventeen weeks. They were denied normal outdoor exercise rights as the authorities had commenced building a ‘wire cage’ to prevent helicopter escapes. Armstrong to Wilson, 25 July 1978, Private Collection (Wilson). Butler received just an hour long ‘closed’ visit from his mother and a sister who had traveled from America. Republican News, 5 August and 30 September 1978. Armstrong claimed that the Wakefield move occurred on 3 July, although McLaughlin indicted 5 July. McLaughlin, Inside an English jail, p. 43.
222.Republican News, 29 July 1978. In 1978 F Wing retained its Control Unit style regime of cold meals, a rule of silence, minimum communication with staff, isolation from other prisoners and dim lighting. Ibid. Ray McLaughlin recalled: ‘When you’re let out, you’re unable to speak. All your reactions slow down and it takes a little while to understand what anybody says to you. It probably takes at least a month to be able to cope again with a conversation and all the normal prison things’. Cited in AP/RN, 13 December 1984.
223.Republican News, 5 August 1978.
224.McLaughlin, Inside an English jail, p. 44.
225.See PRO Gartree in Republican News, 5 August 1978.
226.Republican News, 29 July 1978.
227.Irish Times, 7 July 1978. See also Sr. Clarke, ‘JJ Coughlan’, Clarke Papers (COFLA).
228.Times, 8 July 1978.
229.The Irish Prisoner, No. 5, June 1979, p. 3 and Sr. Clarke, ‘Albany’, Clarke Papers (COFLA).
230.Sr. Clarke, ‘Albany’, Clarke Papers (COFLA).
231.Gange to Blunt, 21 November 1978, NAE, FCO 87/ 763.
232.Republican News, 22 July 1978.
233.IRIS, 7 July 1978, p. 5. See also Times, 21 October 1978.
234.Ronnie McCartney, 12 April 2008.
235.Republican News, 22 July 1978. For Brian McLaughlin see AP/RN, 29 July 1982.
236.Ronnie McCartney, 12 April 2008.
237.Martin Brady, 10 April 2008.
238.John McCluskey, 2 August 2007. McCluskey claimed: ‘When you’re in solitary, the Screws have got total control over almost every aspect of your life, your food, books. For reading material they give you comic books. They’re supposed to give you an hour’s exercise but most times they cut it down to half an hour. You always lose weight in solitary’. Quoted in AP/RN, 13 December 1984. Gartree’s dog handlers were apparently more successful on 2
