Maze (HM Prison)
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The personnel gate to the main guard office. |
HM Prison Maze (known colloqually as
The H Blocks,
Long Kesh or
The Maze) is a disused
prison sited at the former
RAF station at
Long Kesh (it is still called Long Kesh by most
Irish republicans) near
Lisburn, nine miles outside
Belfast, in
County Antrim,
Northern Ireland. The name "Maze" is taken from the village of the same name near the prison. The prison and its inmates have played a prominent role in recent
Irish history, notably in the
1981 Irish Hunger Strike. The prison was closed in 2000.
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The entrance to Compound 19, which during internment, was commanded by Gusty Spence-a UDA commander. |
Following the introduction of
internment in
1971 "
Operation Demetrius" was implemented by the
RUC and
British Army with raids for 452 suspects on
August 9,
1971. The police and army arrested 342 republicans, but key
Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) members had been tipped off and 104 of those arrested were released when it emerged they had no
paramilitary connections.
[Coogan, Tim Pat. (1995) The Troubles: Ireland's ordeal 1966-1996 and the search for peace. London: Hutchinson. (Page 126)] Those behind Operation Demetrius were accused of bungling, by arresting many of the wrong people and using out of date information. later, some
loyalists were also arrested. By
1972 there were 924 internees and by the end of internment on
5th December 1975 1,981 people had been detained; 1,874 of whom were Catholic and 107 Protestants
[Univeristy of Ulster's CAIN archive].
Initially the internees were housed, with different paramilitary groups separated from each other, in
Nissen huts at a disused airfield that became the Long Kesh Detention Centre. The internees and their supporters agitated for improvements in their conditions and status; they saw themselves as
political prisoners rather than common criminals. In
1974 William Whitelaw introduced
Special Category Status for those sentenced for crimes relating to the civil violence. There were 1,100 Special Category prisoners at that time.
"Special Category" status for convicted paramilitary-linked criminals gave them the same privileges previously available only to internees. These privileges included free association between prisoners, extra visits, food parcels and the right to wear their own clothes rather than prison uniforms (Crawford 1979).
However, Special Category Status was short-lived. As part of the government's policy of "criminalisation", and coinciding with the end of internment, the new Secretary of State,
Merlyn Rees, ended Special Category Status from
March 1,
1976. Those convicted of terrorist offences after that date were housed in the eight new "H-Blocks" that had been constructed at Long Kesh, now officially HM Prison Maze. Older prisoners remained in separate compounds and retained their Special Category status with the last prisoner to hold this status released in
1986. Some prisoners changed from being Special Category prisoners to being common criminals within the space of several hours; Brendan Hughes, a Republican prisoner, had been imprisoned as a Political Prisoner in Cage 11 but was alleged to have been involved in a fight with warders. He was taken to court and convicted then returned to the jail as a common prisoner and incarcerated in the H-Blocks as an ordainary prisoner-all within the space of several hours.
[Bobby Sands:Nothing but An Unfinished Song, Denis O'Hearn (2006), Pluto Books. ISBN 0745325726] |
A view along the corridor of one of the wings of H4. |
Prisoners convicted of "terrorist" offences after
March 1,
1976 were housed in the eight new "H-Blocks" that had been constructed at Long Kesh, now officially HM Prison Maze. The new Special Category status took away all of the rights that prisoners had received prior to 1976 such as civilian clothing and visitation. Prisoners began protesting these chages immediately after they were transeferred to the H-Blocks. Their first act of defiance was to refuse to wear the prison uniforms, stating that convicted criminals wear uniforms, not political prisoners. Not allowed their own clothes, they wrapped themselves in bedsheets. Prisoners participating in the protest were "
on the blanket". By
1978 more than 300 men had joined the protest. The
British government refused to yield. Prison guards soon refused to let the blanket protestors use the toilets without proper uniforms. The prisoners refused, and instead began to defecate within their own cells, smearing excrement on the walls. This began the "Dirty Blanket Protest." But again the new
1979 government of
Margaret Thatcher stood firm.
Hunger strike
Republicans outside the prison took the battle to the media and both sides fought for public support. Inside the prison the prisoners took another step and organized a
hunger strike.
On
October 27,
1980, seven Republican prisoners refused food and demanded political status. In December they called off the hunger strike when the government appeared to concede their demands. However, the government immediately reverted to their previous stance, confident the prisoners would not start another strike.
Bobby Sands, the leader of the
Provisional IRA prisoners, and members of the
INLA began a second action on
March 1,
1981. Outside the prison in a major publicity coup, Sands was nominated for Parliament and won the
Fermanagh & South Tyrone by-election, 1981 (April). But the British government was still resisting and on
May 5, after 66 days on hunger strike, Sands died. More than 100,000 people attended Bobby Sands's funeral in
Belfast. Another nine hunger strikers died by the end of August. The British government effectively conceded to the prisoners demands over the next few months, granting them Political Status in everything but name.
Breakout
On
September 23,
1983, the Maze suffered the largest break-out by prisoners from a British prison. 38 prisoners hijacked a prison meals lorry and smashed their way out. One prison officer, James Ferris, died of a heart attack while being held captive at knifepoint, and another five were injured. Nineteen of the prisoners were soon recaptured, but the remainder escaped. One of the escapees was later involved in the
1984 Brighton hotel bombing.
In March
1997, an IRA escape attempt was foiled when a 40ft underground tunnel was found. The tunnel, which was fitted with electric lighting, led from H-block 7 and was only 80ft short of the perimeter wall.
Organisation
Over the
1980s the British government slowly introduced changes, granting what some would see as political status in all but name. Republican and
loyalist prisoners were housed according to group. They organised themselves along military lines and exercised wide control over their respective H-Blocks. The Loyalist Volunteer Force (
LVF) leader
Billy Wright was killed in December
1997 by Irish National Liberation Army (
INLA) prisoners. The LVF wing also saw the only known rape in the prison's history.
The prisoners also played a significant role in the
Northern Ireland peace process. On
January 9,
1998, the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland,
Mo Mowlam, paid a surprise visit to the prison to talk to members of the Ulster Defense Association/Ulster Freedom Fighters (
UDA/UFF) including
Johnny Adair and
Michael Stone. They had voted for their political representatives to pull out of talks. Shortly after Mowlam's visit, they changed their minds, allowing their representatives to continue talks that would lead to the
Good Friday Agreement of
April 10,
1998. Afterwards, the prison was emptied of its paramilitary prisoners as the groups they represented agreed to the ceasefire. In the two years following the agreement, 428 prisoners were released. On
September 29, 2000, the remaining 4 prisoners at Maze were transferred to other establishments in Northern Ireland and the Maze prison was closed.
A monitoring group was set up on 14th January 2003 to debate the future of the 360 acre site. With close motorway and rail links, there are many proposals including a museum; a multi-purpose sports stadium and an office, hotel and leisure village. At the time of writing in late 2005[
1], a feasibility study is currently underway for a national multi-sport stadium for football, rugby and Gaelic Games. This proposal has raised concerns among sports fans, particularly Rugby and Football fans and online petitions such as the one at
Stadium For Belfast have been created to run alongside fan surveys. More detailed information can be found on the official
website. A conceptual plan of the proposed development is available
here.
*
1981 Irish Hunger Strike* Crawford, Colin. 1979. "Long Kesh: an alternative perspective."
*
Flickr: The Maze Prison - A group of photographers visited Maze Prison, here are their photos.
*
BBC: Inside the Maze, a history* Jonathan Glancey ,
New Statesman,
May 31, 2004
Hell on earth*
Site photographs*
CNN Special on the Maze*
Luxury hotel, equestrian centre, cinema complex - welcome to the new Maze —
The Guardian newspaper article,
31 May 2006
