It says the person who wrote this book knows more than you do. This book is an exception to that. It attempts to tell the story of the first blanket man, Kieran Nugent in a few easy pages. Nugent born in 1957, the same year as the raid in Brookeborough RUC station. This attack opens the book, then it's simply left. However Kieran's father hailed from Armagh, so too was Vincent Conlon, the driver of the lorry that got the team away saving the lives of most of the crew.
On the back of this pamphlet, hardly a book as it has less than one hundred pages and costs ten pound, is a picture of Joe Cahill. Joe was responsible for the capture of the arms shipment discovered in Cohn in county Cork as he'd failed to organise the pick up. The cheques that came from Clan na Gael and Noraid were signed to Joe Cahill, although most of the money came in cash. That way the U.S. government couldn't keep tabs on it. This was the brain child of Michael Flannery. This money was to be used to feed and clothe the people of the north, as it was recognised that the men would be either imprisoned or dead. For families like the Nugents, but the money was skimmed off to buy guns. In particular the Armalite AR-180: the semi automatic commercial version that was light transportable and magazine fed. Instead of explaining this the author/editor merely touches on the poverty of the time and writes instead of things in current affairs such as happenings in Ghana and Malaysia.
This tells the reader two things: firstly, that Kieran is unknown to Morrison and, secondly, that this pamphlet has been cobbled together for publication to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the blanket protest. For all of Sinn FΓ©in's publicly of this "book launch" around seventy people attended.
Eventually we read about Kieran. Growing up in West Belfast and going to Slate Street school where Morrison tells us another blanket man Jaz McCann is head master there. Kieran is one of eleven children and the family insights appear to come from the youngest, his sister Eileen. At 15 Kieran survived an assassination attempt where he was shot by loyalists in a drive by shooting on the corner of Merrion Street and the Grosvenor Road, his friend was fatally wounded. After this Kieran joined the IRA. D company at this stage was down to eight or nine volunteers and others came from Clonard to strengthen it, namely Jimmy T Pot and Finbarr McKenna who was later killed on the Springfield Road.
Kiran had been on remand for five months in 1974, suspected of being involved in a shooting, but the case was thrown out. He was then billeting around various homes. He'd been staying in Frank Gillen's flat, and when Cullingtree was being raided he jumped fourteen feet on to concrete smashing his ankles. He lay undiscovered all night until a postman came across him and went for help. He was then taken south but soon returned to Belfast and reported to the IRA.
He was arrested again in 1976 in a Bedford van moving guns from one dump to another. On remand in Crumlin Road there were discussions on how to fight the criminalisation policy. In the book/pamphlet this information is taken from other more knowledgeable writers such as Laurence McKeown and Jaz McCann. After being sentenced to three years he was taken to reception at Long Kesh where they asked him what size of clothes he took. He told them I'm not wearing your monkey suit. So they gave him a parcel but he refused to carry it, so the screw carried it, and when they reached the cell about ten of them forcibly stripped and beat him. They then threw him into an empty cell where they even refused to allow him to sit. Eventually one of the screws threw a blanket at him and Kieran is quoted as saying "so, in fact he ( the screw) started the protest". He was then held incommunicado.
His elderly parents showed up at the republican press centre where neither Morrison nor Tombstone Tom Hartley knew who they were or the whereabouts of their boy. They got no help from there and were forced to engage a solicitor.
After release Sinn Fein took him on the campaign trail, presenting him in front of audiences in Mexico and the U.S. He was arrested by the Feds in New York obviously due to someone dropping a dime to the Feds. Hardly surprising due to what has subsequently unfolded as regards informants. Kieran was also interviewed by Tim Pat Coogan for his book On The Blanket and spoke of his time on the protestt. The rest of the book is press releases from . . . you know . . . the author/editor.
His elderly parents showed up at the republican press centre where neither Morrison nor Tombstone Tom Hartley knew who they were or the whereabouts of their boy. They got no help from there and were forced to engage a solicitor.
After release Sinn Fein took him on the campaign trail, presenting him in front of audiences in Mexico and the U.S. He was arrested by the Feds in New York obviously due to someone dropping a dime to the Feds. Hardly surprising due to what has subsequently unfolded as regards informants. Kieran was also interviewed by Tim Pat Coogan for his book On The Blanket and spoke of his time on the protestt. The rest of the book is press releases from . . . you know . . . the author/editor.
Kieran's addiction and subsequent death gets a very small mention. The foreword of the book is by Morrison himself rather than another author as that is the usual format. Gerry Adams has a paragraph at the front where he invites readers to imagine being the first on the blanket.
Imagine?
Imagine being through all that and then being abandoned by your comrades in the movement. As The Dark is quoted as saying:
Kieran Nugent the first IRA man on the blanket protest. Kieran died in 2000. They called him a river rat as he spent his last days drinking by the river in Poleglass. Why didn't somebody in the movement not see he'd problems and help him. He was the bravest of the brave.
According to Morrison's book there were those in the movement who knew he had problems. Richard McAuley who lived in Sevastopol Street had been awakened one night by loud banging on his door. It was Kieran in a bad way. Kieran had been doing an all nighter in the press centre which didn't close. He was surrounded there by pictures of the hunger strike and his dead comrades. McAuley sent him home.
They all knew.
The book ends quote "Kieran Nugent . . . the first blanket man."
I'd suggest, Kieran Nugent the first blanket man abandoned by his comrades, haunted by his memories, self medicated on alcohol and dead of a heart attack at 42.
May he rest in peace.
⏩Kate Yo is a Belfast book lover.
