Blanketmen: An Untold Story of the H-block Hunger Strike

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Nugent was given a blanket on the second day of his imprisonment, which he wore during an exercise period. He explains the events that led to the dirty protest - where prisoners smeared excrement over their cell walls - and on ultimately to the hunger strike.

Not long after his funeral, I set about keeping my pledge to Gerry and, three years later, my book on his life, In the Name of the Son: The Gerry Conlon Story, was published to critical acclaim. Fresh insights are given into the machinations of the republican leadership for which the author is refreshingly open and critical. A 50% remission scheme was introduced to accommodate the release of sentenced prisoners and the internees were released. Over 80 prisoners were assaulted, beaten in wing shifts, left overnight without bedding or blankets or drinking water, refused toilet facilities and had meals interfered with or withdrawn altogether.

They were refused from the beginning of their sentences all exercise facilities, reading or writing material, and access to radio or newspapers. The H-Blocks, designed to maximise the control of prisoners in four small wings of 25 single cells (instead of the traditional large huts), were born. They are locked in their cells for almost the whole of every day and some of them have been in this condition for more than a year and a half. As a result of their refusal, they would receive three days "on the boards" where all furniture was removed from their cell, and they were served the "number one diet" consisting of tea without milk, watery soup and dry bread.

The prison administration tried to force the men to unconditionally end their protest but at a further meeting between all the H-Block O/Cs on January 11th it was decided to attempt in a step-by-step process the de-escalation of the protests in a principled fashion. Now instead of internment the British had a legal-looking process of arrest, charge, remand, trial and sentence. O'Rawes book shines with a masculine humanity and camaradarie, without a trace of self pity, that cannot be beaten even in the most desperate of circumstances.In Armagh Jail, where women are allowed to wear their own clothes, George Scott the governor refused even to discuss with prisoners the question of self-education classes as outlined in the document. O'Rawe, on the other hand, is an uncensored version of events that did happen and that are still being swept under the carpet by those guilty of murdering 6 of the 10. The "deal or no deal" is still raw in the minds and hearts of Irish Republicanis and since the publishing of this book more and more ex-POWs, who were in Long Kesh at the time, have come out in support of O'Rawe and his claims. The second is O'Rawe placing you in his mind both in real time and with the benefit of hindsight as a defining era in the history of the troubles played out. One of the ‘Blanketmen’, he took part in the dirty protests that led to the hunger strikes of the early 1980s.

Biography: A former IRA prisoner and author of Blanketmen, Afterlives: The Hunger Strike and the Secret Offer that Changed Irish History, and In the Name of the Son: The Gerry Conion Story.

Having met Richard and interviewed him he is absolutely genuine about life on the inside and how iRA leadership could have prevented some of the hunger strikers deaths. After ten years, and the release of historical state and personal papers, Richard O'Rawe's explosive assertions in Blanketmen have been vindicated.