Yesterday [3rd Aug 2019] members of Lasair Dhearg took part in the Annual Anti-Internment march in Glasgow hosted by the West of Scotland Band Alliance. Several hundred gathered in support of all Republican prisoners and marched through the city centre to the Barrowland.
Lasair Dhearg spokesperson Padraic MacCoitir was invited to be the main speaker at the event and gave the following speech:
“Go raibh maith agaibh. Tá onoir domh ag caint ag an mairseil seo sa chathair seo. I have been to Glasgow a few times and over the years I have met many people involved in politics and it is an honour for me to be here once again.
“Although I was young I remember the morning of August the 9th 1971 when the British army raided many houses in Lenadoon and other parts of the 6 counties and a large number of men were lifted, beaten and taken to interrogation centres where some were tortured. The vast majority ended up in Crumlin Road gaol and later the Maidstone prison ship and Long Kesh.
“The British were one of the first governments to open internment camps, the most infamous being in South Africa when thousands of men, women and children were locked up in atrocious conditions during the Boer War which took place between 1899 and 1902. Thousands perished due to starvation and disease.
“The British empire was at its height during this period and as we have seen in Ireland thousands of Republicans took on that very empire in Dublin leading to the Easter Rising of 1916. After a week the Rebels surrendered and apart from the 16 executed most were imprisoned in gaols throughout Ireland, England and Wales. The prison camp in Frongoch in Wales gave many there the opportunity to meet men from other parts of the country and a lot of them got re-involved in the struggle upon their release.
“Every decade since then the British -and indeed the Free Staters- interned men and women so Irish Republicans knew it was a weapon they could use at any time to imprison anyone they deemed a risk to their security. Prison ships, gaols and concentration camps were used and many of those behind the barbed wire and walls made countless attempts to escape with many succeeding. The enemies of Republicanism could never break those prepared to take them on.
“In August 1971 the British army swamped the streets of Belfast and other towns and this led to resistance on those very streets. As I walked about Lenadoon people were standing in groups and there was an eerie silence because we were unsure of what to do. Within a number of hours the British army drove up from a unionist part of the estate and this led to rioting. As the day wore on more people came from surrounding estates and in the late afternoon the Brits fired live rounds shooting 14 year old Desy Healy. Although I saw him being shot and being dragged down the street over broken glass and bricks and stones by the Brits I didn’t know until a few hours after that he was killed.
“Desy Healy wasn’t the only one killed that day. Frank McGuinness was shot dead by the same regiment -the Paras – just a short distance away in Andersonstown. Word then started to come of more being killed in Ballymurphy and we would see a lot of adults come out looking for their sons and daughters and warning us that things would get worse. Things did indeed get worse over the next few days with 11 civilians cut down in Ballymurphy in what later became known as The Ballymurphy Massacre.
“Hundreds of men and women were interned form 1971 until it was phased out in 1975. Unknown to us the British had even more drastic plans devised in their fight against a popular resistance. Under the British Labour party they built the infamous H-Blocks at Long Kesh camp and in March 1976 they done away with political status as they enforced their policy of Normalisation. As more men and women ended up in prison on remand -many of them forced to make statements – there was a determination to fight the policy of criminalisation. Kieran Nugent was sentenced in September and immediately went on protest by refusing to wear a prison uniform or do prison work and this led to the start of the blanket protest. When I was sentenced in January 1977 I too went on the blanket protest. Hundreds of men were to join the protest in the H-Blocks whilst dozens of women embarked on a protest in Armagh gaol. The protest escalated with us refusing to slop out or wash and this led to the no-wash protest. Conditions got worse and with no sign of it ending 7 men went on hunger strike in October 1980. three women in Armagh gaol later joined it but it ended in December.
“On March 1st 1981 Bobby Sands started another hunger strike and he died on the 5th May. Another nine of his comrades were die – Frank Hughes, Raymond McCreesh, Patsy O’Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Tom McIlwee and Micky Devine. During the hunger strike I was remanded in Crumlin road gaol and I met other men who were there with no evidence against them and we knew this was another from of internment. After 16 months and a 3 day trial in a Diplock court I was back on the streets. In 1984 I was again remanded, this time for 8 months. The British government came under a lot of criticism for internment in the 1970’s and they knew that to take republican activists off the streets was either to kill them or imprison them on trumped up charges.
“At the end of 1981 supergrasses were used when men and women were imprisoned on the word of former comrades who turned against them. It became such widely used it was a major concern for Republicans but after years of campaigning and trials which were overturned on appeal it ended. Although most of those imprisoned on the word of the supergrasses were released it had an effect on the republican movement when morale was low. Republican activists were always conscious that the British would come up with an alternative to the policy of internment introduced in 1971.
“Today there are dozens of Republicans imprisoned in different gaols in Ireland and many are there on dubious ‘evidence’. The British judiciary may claim they are open and transparent and people get a fair trial. However, despite their claims a judge sits on his/her own without a jury which is the same as the infamous Diplock courts which were brought in in the early 1970’s. Law firms are constantly taking cases against the state in their pursuit for justice for their clients. Ex-prisoners are subjected to stringent measures such as travelling abroad and finding meaningful jobs. Just this month more draconian laws were introduced which are going to affect those who have to travel from the Occupied 6 counties to the Free State. They are required to notify the PSNI of their intentions to travel and failure to do so will mean immediate imprisonment. The constitutional nationalist parties are very silent on these human rights abuses but that is to be expected as they cosy up to the British establishment.
“As we leave here today it is important for us to remember that when the British government introduces new draconian laws they aren’t just targeting republicans but anyone who stands up to injustice whether it be here in Glasgow or my hometown of Belfast.
Go raibh maith agaibh.”
