Alex McCrory recalls a strange visit to Maghaberry.

I want to tell a story, short but to the point.

When I was in Long Kesh many years ago, we would be visited by the BOV: Board Of Vistors.
This body consisted of respected members of society, mostly professional people and do-gooders. Their job was to visit the jails to ensure that prisoners were being treated with respect and dignity.

Fast forward twenty years, when I found myself in very similar circumstances in Maghaberry. I received news that Sinn Fein were coming into the prison to meet with Republican prisoners. How would this transpire? Well, I soon found out.

What I witnessed made me feel sick to my stomach. I watched as three Sinn Fein members approached Roe House accompanied by the worst abusers of republican prisoners. All three had served time in the H-Blocks for many years. Particularly galling was that one had been the OC of republican prisoners in Long Kesh, and the other two were well respected ex-prisoners

Needless to say, I declined to meet with them in the circumstances. The contradiction was too painful for me to process. To be sitting at the opposite end of the table with former comrades would have been a totally demoralising experience. I choose not to subject myself to such indignity. Rather
that I would sit in the cell than acknowledge their hypocrisy.

Alec McCrory is a former republican prisoner and blanketman.




Strange Visit

Alex McCrory recalls a strange visit to Maghaberry.

I want to tell a story, short but to the point.

When I was in Long Kesh many years ago, we would be visited by the BOV: Board Of Vistors.
This body consisted of respected members of society, mostly professional people and do-gooders. Their job was to visit the jails to ensure that prisoners were being treated with respect and dignity.

Fast forward twenty years, when I found myself in very similar circumstances in Maghaberry. I received news that Sinn Fein were coming into the prison to meet with Republican prisoners. How would this transpire? Well, I soon found out.

What I witnessed made me feel sick to my stomach. I watched as three Sinn Fein members approached Roe House accompanied by the worst abusers of republican prisoners. All three had served time in the H-Blocks for many years. Particularly galling was that one had been the OC of republican prisoners in Long Kesh, and the other two were well respected ex-prisoners

Needless to say, I declined to meet with them in the circumstances. The contradiction was too painful for me to process. To be sitting at the opposite end of the table with former comrades would have been a totally demoralising experience. I choose not to subject myself to such indignity. Rather
that I would sit in the cell than acknowledge their hypocrisy.

Alec McCrory is a former republican prisoner and blanketman.




7 comments:

  1. What I personally like about Alex McCrory's pieces/articles is the bluntness..

    "I choose not to subject myself to such indignity. Rather that I would sit in the cell than acknowledge their hypocrisy."

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  2. Frankie - he would always use an economy of words to get it across. We spent quite a bit of time together on the wings. They even let me move block before I was leaving the jail to spend the last couple of months with him

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    Replies
    1. AM,

      'They even let me move block before I was leaving the jail to spend the last couple of months with him'

      Who did, the screws or your OC?

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    2. prison management Steve

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    3. Thanks, I'm trying to wrap my head around the alledged brutality of the prison system and then the acts of seeming compassion?

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    4. Steve - this was in the 90s when the regime had become very relaxed.

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    5. It is easy to understand not only the anger Alec has but other republicans who came through the dirty protest/hunger strikes to be confronted by a former Blanketman (who was on hunger strike in 1980) having tea and sandwiches with the same regime that brutalized former comrades and friends.

      I can't understand why SF are not more vocal about what actually happens in Roe House. Outside of TPQ, I read very little about what republican prisoners have to face on a daily basis.

      Part of my problem is I grew up in Ardoyne and the walls painted with slogans such as 'Smash Stormont', then in 1998 the same people who vowed 'no return to Stormont' sit in various administrations enforcing British rule.. Makes no sense to me.

      Going back to posters who are as blunt as Alec is Marty Flynn.. He also cuts through all the bullshit and shoots from both hips.

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