Guest writer Tony O'Hara with a piece about a poem he wrote while on the blanket protest in the H Blocks.





I joined the H Block blanket protest in April 1977. It had been started by Ciaran Nugent the previous September, when he refused to wear a prison uniform stating 'you will have to nail it to my back.' Our refusal was simply that we were freedom fighters not criminals and therefore would not demean ourselves or our struggle by wearing prison garb.

The punishment for refusal was to be thrown naked into a cell and deprived of books, magazines, newspapers, radio and TV. Months later we were to be allowed a bible and some religious mags. We only got monthly visits. Miriam Daly (Chairperson of the IRSP) was a regular visitor as she wanted to be kept updated about our protest. She was one of founders of the Relatives action Committee (RAC). The campaign to highlight our condition and the fight for political status had begun. Sinn Fein ignored this, citing it was a side issue to the overall struggle. They refused to send speakers to meetings. And it was only at a meeting in Dublin in 1979 attended by 5000 people that they actually sent a speaker. (Miriam Daly told me all these facts).

Around 1978, word came in that the RAC had a newsletter and wanted poetry or articles from us Blanketmen (and women in Armagh Gaol).

I am no Eithne Carberry or Seamus Heaney. But I wrote a few poems on prison issue toilet paper (at night time when the Screws had left for home, and with a refil from a biro that had been smuggled in) that week and sent them up through the pipes to Gino Mc Cormack from Derry, who was to edit stuff and decide what to send out etc. I didn't rate my poems, so expected them to be binned.

That was the last I heard of them in prison.

At the end of August 1981 I had completed my 5 year sentence, without remission due to having taken part in the Blanket Protest. I was released 12 days after my Friend and Comrade Mickey Devine died on hunger strike.

When I got home to Derry, I met Ray Collins (the singer/songwriter) and we had a discussion about music as he heard I had played the Guitar before I went to Gaol. He had a cassette player (never seen one before) and amazingly plugged head phones into it and let me listen to the H Block Album. I was in heaven.

After a while, on came the voice of Stephen Rea, who I had never heard of, and who was later to marry Dolours Price. Reciting a Poem called A Bright Star - My Poem. Knock me down with a feather. I don't know how many emotions I experienced during those few minutes. I couldn't speak and remember mumbling something to Ray. I didn't think the poem was any good. And suddenly it was being used in a recording. After walking around for about an hour. I shyly told Ray that it was my poem, thinking that he wouldn't believe me. He was elated and did a wee dance saying that was his favourite poem. I was happy  as my head grew bigger and bigger and bigger!

For those next few months I went to Dublin to work out of the National H Block Office as a speaker. If groups around the country had a function or march and needed a speaker I along with other relatives of the Hunger Strikers and ex-blankemen were sent along to the different ones.

A year or so later, I was walking down Parnell Street to the SF office where I used to drop in now and again and have a bit of craic with the girls that worked upstairs. I was trying to pluck up the courage to ask one out - but shy me never did.

As I was leaving I looked into the SF siopa (being a bookaholic). A framed poem caught my attention - A Bright Star by Bobby Sands.

I was deeply saddened to say the least. I was Bobby's first cell mate when he came on the Blanket. And never in my dreams could I hope to be such a magnificent poet that Roibeard was. He left a legacy of work to Irish History that will be read and enjoyed as much as Pearse and Connolly. But the wee bit of a poem that I did was stolen from me by someone outside the jail. I was really amazed to think of the mentality behind a person that would allow them to do that. I was going to go in and quietly tell them in the place that it was my poem and how unfair it was etc etc. I didn't. Instead I summoned up a quiet dignity and walked away knowing that people who will buy those framed copies like my poem.

Years later the poem was rerecorded with a harmonica backing track of Mise Eire. That can be heard here.

 A Bright Star 


A Bright star shines through my window each night
bringing me comfort in my trial and plight
high in the sky so far away and free
shining so bright, bringing comfort to me

My feeble exisistance is punishment for revolt
beatings, endless confinement, hunger and cold
for refusing to play along with there propaganda and lies
to forsake my cause and be criminalised

I have fought for my country and her liberation
for the people to decide thier own determination
to break the shackles that invaders have enforced
and destroy the monster that kills without remorse

So on the blanket my struggle goes on
I never will yield for my spirit is strong
for a cause I am proud to have played up my part
serving my land with body and heart

So come bright star tonight you must stay
but soon disappear when dawns a new day
for your people that slept are now awaken
to join in the fight to take back what was taken


  •  By Tony O Hara H Block, Long Kesh, 1978

Story of a Poem

Guest writer Tony O'Hara with a piece about a poem he wrote while on the blanket protest in the H Blocks.





I joined the H Block blanket protest in April 1977. It had been started by Ciaran Nugent the previous September, when he refused to wear a prison uniform stating 'you will have to nail it to my back.' Our refusal was simply that we were freedom fighters not criminals and therefore would not demean ourselves or our struggle by wearing prison garb.

The punishment for refusal was to be thrown naked into a cell and deprived of books, magazines, newspapers, radio and TV. Months later we were to be allowed a bible and some religious mags. We only got monthly visits. Miriam Daly (Chairperson of the IRSP) was a regular visitor as she wanted to be kept updated about our protest. She was one of founders of the Relatives action Committee (RAC). The campaign to highlight our condition and the fight for political status had begun. Sinn Fein ignored this, citing it was a side issue to the overall struggle. They refused to send speakers to meetings. And it was only at a meeting in Dublin in 1979 attended by 5000 people that they actually sent a speaker. (Miriam Daly told me all these facts).

Around 1978, word came in that the RAC had a newsletter and wanted poetry or articles from us Blanketmen (and women in Armagh Gaol).

I am no Eithne Carberry or Seamus Heaney. But I wrote a few poems on prison issue toilet paper (at night time when the Screws had left for home, and with a refil from a biro that had been smuggled in) that week and sent them up through the pipes to Gino Mc Cormack from Derry, who was to edit stuff and decide what to send out etc. I didn't rate my poems, so expected them to be binned.

That was the last I heard of them in prison.

At the end of August 1981 I had completed my 5 year sentence, without remission due to having taken part in the Blanket Protest. I was released 12 days after my Friend and Comrade Mickey Devine died on hunger strike.

When I got home to Derry, I met Ray Collins (the singer/songwriter) and we had a discussion about music as he heard I had played the Guitar before I went to Gaol. He had a cassette player (never seen one before) and amazingly plugged head phones into it and let me listen to the H Block Album. I was in heaven.

After a while, on came the voice of Stephen Rea, who I had never heard of, and who was later to marry Dolours Price. Reciting a Poem called A Bright Star - My Poem. Knock me down with a feather. I don't know how many emotions I experienced during those few minutes. I couldn't speak and remember mumbling something to Ray. I didn't think the poem was any good. And suddenly it was being used in a recording. After walking around for about an hour. I shyly told Ray that it was my poem, thinking that he wouldn't believe me. He was elated and did a wee dance saying that was his favourite poem. I was happy  as my head grew bigger and bigger and bigger!

For those next few months I went to Dublin to work out of the National H Block Office as a speaker. If groups around the country had a function or march and needed a speaker I along with other relatives of the Hunger Strikers and ex-blankemen were sent along to the different ones.

A year or so later, I was walking down Parnell Street to the SF office where I used to drop in now and again and have a bit of craic with the girls that worked upstairs. I was trying to pluck up the courage to ask one out - but shy me never did.

As I was leaving I looked into the SF siopa (being a bookaholic). A framed poem caught my attention - A Bright Star by Bobby Sands.

I was deeply saddened to say the least. I was Bobby's first cell mate when he came on the Blanket. And never in my dreams could I hope to be such a magnificent poet that Roibeard was. He left a legacy of work to Irish History that will be read and enjoyed as much as Pearse and Connolly. But the wee bit of a poem that I did was stolen from me by someone outside the jail. I was really amazed to think of the mentality behind a person that would allow them to do that. I was going to go in and quietly tell them in the place that it was my poem and how unfair it was etc etc. I didn't. Instead I summoned up a quiet dignity and walked away knowing that people who will buy those framed copies like my poem.

Years later the poem was rerecorded with a harmonica backing track of Mise Eire. That can be heard here.

 A Bright Star 


A Bright star shines through my window each night
bringing me comfort in my trial and plight
high in the sky so far away and free
shining so bright, bringing comfort to me

My feeble exisistance is punishment for revolt
beatings, endless confinement, hunger and cold
for refusing to play along with there propaganda and lies
to forsake my cause and be criminalised

I have fought for my country and her liberation
for the people to decide thier own determination
to break the shackles that invaders have enforced
and destroy the monster that kills without remorse

So on the blanket my struggle goes on
I never will yield for my spirit is strong
for a cause I am proud to have played up my part
serving my land with body and heart

So come bright star tonight you must stay
but soon disappear when dawns a new day
for your people that slept are now awaken
to join in the fight to take back what was taken


  •  By Tony O Hara H Block, Long Kesh, 1978

19 comments:

  1. Thanks Tony

    An interesting vignette of shared youthful idealism and enthusiasm for truth, justice and self-determination.

    Alas tinged with sadness, despite such sacrifice, small and grand misrepresentations and betrayal abound.

    "refusing to play along with their propaganda and lies"


    Same old tune, new organ grinder(s) and no shortage of monkeys!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tony,

    We shared that old flat in Crostwaithe Park, Dun Laoire with Seamie Ruddie and Rochie.
    Never did I realise that you had such depth of feeling.
    Thanks for reminding me of those days. Days of hope and betrayal.

    Your conrade,
    Mick Ahern

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mick,

    Seamy was in the Crum and Magilligan with me in 1974 and 1975. He was the first guy I met who was unfraid to say he was a communist. A very intelligent man and a good friend.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tony,

    thanks for throwing that piece our way. As always you give us fresh nuggets.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The story about the poem is as interesting and unique as the poem itself.

    Both invite people to step back into a time when there was so much hope, so much promise and determination that even in the coldest and starkests of places ,that resistence like the star would shine through.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tony-

    That was a good read and a good poem at the end-

    I think that everything that got sent out to the movement belongs to the movement or to which every group that was set up to cover those history relics from the prison struggles-

    Can it be argued has plagiarism-cant see it myself but you must have felt hard done by-

    Are the prison poems going to be argued over next-

    ReplyDelete
  7. Tony:

    I didn't know you wrote this poem, I'm glad you have stated that someone outside had stolen it from you. Its a poem of ind epth hope and suffering, I think you done the right thing by not confronting anyone about it being your poem at the time , to many would have crawled out of the woodwork to demonize you. You are an Inspiration to everyone.

    ReplyDelete
  8. MH.every thing belongs to the movement.as long as theres a profit in it.ffs do you ever take a reddner.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Billy

    Please do not feed the monkey!

    However If you decide to 'play' the monkey please be advised that it's as futile as wresting with pigs, it's the pig's terrain, muddy and dirty. And s/he generally enjoys it.
    The pig has the odds in hir favour, s/he's dictating the terms of engagement (terrain and time) therefore due to the control advantage and resulting 'stacked' odds I advise restraint.
    Ignore the monkey/pig until you've the pot boiled; we'll have monkey/pig stew yet!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I remember the first time I listened to that poem a friend of mine lent me the album. I had the luxury of a wee old record player which I rigged a pair of headphones to. That way I could listen to music at night without disturbing anyone.
    I often wondered who penned the poem as I had listened to it so much it was easy for me to recite in my mind that along with Guest of the Queen along with the other songs as it was a very powerful collection of protest in words.

    Mickey only you would invent such nonsense it only belongs to the movement if they can turn a penny on it.
    Credit is due where it is deserved obviously the man would know his own words plus the style and tone of the poem differ from Vol. Bobby Sands.

    If anything it belongs to the people you seem to believe that the movement is the sole heir to all things republican and their shameless marketing for profit.

    Then again the “movement” you speak of have risen far above the people so far they only remember them when the “movement” come looking for votes.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Michael Henry,
    The Movement i.e Sinn Fein are capitalising on historical testimonies that do not belong to them.
    Everything is a money spinner .
    That bloody escape is driving people round the twist, it has been shown more times than Colditz and that has run forever.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Tony it's hardly surprising to hear that the shinners stole your poem, sure they've stolen the complete writings of Bobby Sands as well.

    Bobby's family have asked them to return Bobby's material and to stop using his name.

    Like vultures they feed on the dead.

    I enjoyed reading your story and the poem. A haunting reminder of dark times.

    Michaelhenry the only thing that belongs to what you call a movement - I'm tempted to put bowel in front of that - are mindless sheep like yourself.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Tony a cara plagiarism is nothing knew with quisling $inn £einds and I,m sure Bobby would be the first to say that this was not his work.Mariam Daly was an exceptional lady and the brits knew that ,it was her strength and ability that was to be her downfall the brits and those in their pockets could never have bought of Mariam so they murdered her instead,that is probably the most repeated familiar story of our grubby past.

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  14. Lovely poem, tried to access the link but it took me to a dead-end. I think it shows the determination of you guys who went through the Blsnket that nothing would dampen your boyish enthusiasm for freedom

    ReplyDelete
  15. marty-

    " could never have bought of Mariam so they murdered her instead "-

    Only its cruel to say but its living people who make that claim-

    ReplyDelete
  16. michaelhenry:

    "Only its cruel to say but its living people who make that claim-"

    "The dead can't make any claims!.""

    Your leader claims he was never in the IRA, but we know different.
    and , He is still alive! , and , still a habitual liar, well trained by the British Intelligence.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Michael McDickhead
    "it's living people who make that claim". Do you mean like Martin McGuinness? A few years back he said (at a rally) that he'd no doubt that Bobby and his comrades would be behind the "peace process". Wonder if Gerry asked him did he get a Ouija board to find out? (you know, like he did with Gerry McGeough). You are beneath contempt McDickhead.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Thanks for all the wonderful comments. I had to do that article as it was like a monkey on my back all these years.And it surfaced just a few months before the BlanketMen Armagh Women reunion in Belfast last year when a friend of mine ask a person on youtube to send her a copy of 'On The Blanket by Mick Hanly also recorded on the H Block Album. So it could be played for the gathering as a lot wouldn't have heard the song due to being inside for a long time.In the converstions she said she had '' Tony O Hara's Poem - A Bright Star. The Person questioned that I had penned it. The Woman contacted me and I answered to tell him to ask Gino Mc Cormack from Derry who wrote it as he sent it out. Needless to say she never got a reply and never got the track to play at the reunion.
    The inspiration for the poem (As if my environment wasn't enough to inspire a 100 poems) actually came from A Poem by Flan Mc Carthy and printed at the start of Walter Macken's 'A Silent People'.

    Let us arise and cry then ;
    Call from the sleeping ashes of destiny A Chieftain who will be our voice.

    He will strike the Brass
    and we will erupt
    from our hidden caves
    Into the glorious light
    of a new-born day

    I dont know if you can listen to the Poem and the other track on Mobile phone - on a PC u need the flash player plugin in your browser

    http://hscom81.webs.com/

    ReplyDelete
  19. Actually a very moving and thought provoking poem. With mention to Mariam Daly and communism, I assume you were an INLA member?
    I ask as I thought INLA were placed in their own wing at Long Kesh.

    Are the feelings expressed within your poem still reflective of your thoughts now at an older age and certainly with the modern creation of life here after the GFA?

    I have many books on the blanket protests / hunger strikes. Own the movies which are very difficult to watch, even as a Unionist.
    I honestly believe that Republican prisoners who carried out these protests and hunger strikes were certainly very brave and committed to their cause. I have no idea if I could endure a blanket protest and I have endured harsh military life at times.

    Can I ask what your personal opinion on Bobby Sands was? Having read several of his writings, he seemed a very warm and caring person. I am surprised somebody as gentle as what he seems was a member of the IRA and living in such a violent world of what IRA volunteers lived.
    I had a few friends whose Uncles / Fathers had known and played with Bobby in Rathcoole.

    ReplyDelete