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| Tom Dutch Holland |
I had arrived in the Crum not long before him and got to know him and his friend the late Ta Buck Bradley. As per usual the jail was not short of Ardoyne republicans. Both men would end up on the blanket protest in H3 a few years later. It had a reputation for being a particularly brutal block, with a screw known as Srón Dhearg - infamous for his violence, licenced by both prison management and the NIO - tormenting the prisoners on a daily basis. Years later when he appeared on a republican wing in H 4, Ardoyne man Paul Kane went for him. He never showed his face again. This was the type of thug Tom Dutch resisted and ultimately prevailed over.
Dutch was sentenced to Detention at the Secretary of State's Pleasure - another term for a life sentence if the recipient was younger than 18 at the time of the action for which they were convicted. They were known by prison management as SOSPs but to the rest of us they were simply lifers. Their treatment was the same and they were not spared the brutality during the blanket protest. Pleasure always seemed a strange way to describe a life sentence but I guess it is the type of thing British secretaries of state genuinely did derive pleasure from.
While serving his sentence in Magilligan, Dutch tried to escape. With all political prisoners later transferring from Magilligan to Long Kesh at the start of 1978, Dutch was among the convoy that made its penal journey from Derry to Antrim. He was not there very long when as a punishment for his earlier escape attempt, he was deprived of his political status. He left the cages one day early in 1978 to go to court for a weekly remand hearing and never came back, stripped of his own clothes and unceremoniously dumped naked in the protest blocks having refused to wear prison garb. He remained on the blanket protest until the very end. Withdrawing political status was a vindictive measure employed by the authorities for the purpose of deterring republicans from trying to escape or getting physical with abusive prison staff.
All the wings I was on with Dutch he was heavily involved in political discussion. I remember him as someone involved in drawing up and handing out position papers ranging from Life Sentence Review Boards to Sinn Fein's dropping of abstentionism. While I can't recall playing against him, he was described to me as a nifty footballer, of which Ardoyne produced a few like Leonard Ferrin and Geek O'Halloran. The same former blanketman who admired his acumen on the field told me about a crude tackle he put in against Dutch on the all weather pitch. He quipped at least he only gave out to me rather than attack me.
That was his way. When he died after being ill for a number of years I posted on Facebook "Eternal Sleep for Tom 'Dutch' Holland. Blanketman." Responses from across the republican divide were quick to follow. He was held in high esteem by many republicans whose perspective he did not share. One comment in particular summed it up for many:
Upon release from prison he reinvolved himself in the Provisional Movement. Married with two children he threw his boundless energy into a number of projects including directing and coordinating:
Dutch was sentenced to Detention at the Secretary of State's Pleasure - another term for a life sentence if the recipient was younger than 18 at the time of the action for which they were convicted. They were known by prison management as SOSPs but to the rest of us they were simply lifers. Their treatment was the same and they were not spared the brutality during the blanket protest. Pleasure always seemed a strange way to describe a life sentence but I guess it is the type of thing British secretaries of state genuinely did derive pleasure from.
While serving his sentence in Magilligan, Dutch tried to escape. With all political prisoners later transferring from Magilligan to Long Kesh at the start of 1978, Dutch was among the convoy that made its penal journey from Derry to Antrim. He was not there very long when as a punishment for his earlier escape attempt, he was deprived of his political status. He left the cages one day early in 1978 to go to court for a weekly remand hearing and never came back, stripped of his own clothes and unceremoniously dumped naked in the protest blocks having refused to wear prison garb. He remained on the blanket protest until the very end. Withdrawing political status was a vindictive measure employed by the authorities for the purpose of deterring republicans from trying to escape or getting physical with abusive prison staff.
All the wings I was on with Dutch he was heavily involved in political discussion. I remember him as someone involved in drawing up and handing out position papers ranging from Life Sentence Review Boards to Sinn Fein's dropping of abstentionism. While I can't recall playing against him, he was described to me as a nifty footballer, of which Ardoyne produced a few like Leonard Ferrin and Geek O'Halloran. The same former blanketman who admired his acumen on the field told me about a crude tackle he put in against Dutch on the all weather pitch. He quipped at least he only gave out to me rather than attack me.
That was his way. When he died after being ill for a number of years I posted on Facebook "Eternal Sleep for Tom 'Dutch' Holland. Blanketman." Responses from across the republican divide were quick to follow. He was held in high esteem by many republicans whose perspective he did not share. One comment in particular summed it up for many:
Very sad news about Dutch - I certainly remember him with fondness, a good laugh and a smile. Ar dheis go raibh an annam
the publishing of the book Ardoyne - The Untold Truth detailing the true circumstances of the conflict related deaths on every Ardoyne citizen post 1969, a tremendous task given the fact that this small district suffered over 100 fatalities.
Occasionally I would see him at events but my abiding memory of Tom Dutch is of endlessly seeing him trudge up the Falls Road to where he seemed to travel every day on his way to the Sinn Fein office in Sevastopol Street. He would catch a black taxi down from Ardoyne and then walk the remainder of the journey.
His final journey, was in the words of his friend Jackie Donnelly ''the first Republican funeral ever to travel down Alliance Avenue.''
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