Brendan, Bobby & Ethna

Dixie Elliot with one of his inimitable stories from life on the blanket protest in the H Blocks of Long Kesh.

I posted a memory of Brendan The Dark Hughes which included a verse from a poem by Ethna Carbery.

Here is a story about The Dark, Bobby Sands and Ethna Carbery.

While we were in H6 in 1979 Bobby got a collection of poems smuggled in which had been written by a nationalist poet from near Ballymena called Ethna Carbery.

Bobby instantly fell in love with her poetry which later inspired many of his own poems.

However, after his first reading of her poetry he sat down and wrote her a letter. Later that night he called The Dark up to his cell door and told him that he had written a letter to Ethna Carbery to let her know how brilliant her poetry was.

The Dark shouted back to him, "You need to get an Ouija board out Bobby, she died 70 years ago."

The whole wing erupted with howls of laugher.

Two legends.

Thomas Dixie Elliot is a Derry artist and a former H Block Blanketman.

Follow Dixie Elliot on Twitter @IsMise_Dixie