esult of a trip | made to
Republican supporter”
of sympathy for Irish
aake positive changes
ind struggle against

Helene Wisotzki

 

’

the peasants’ revo

very secular and conservative, in fact, the
anti-IRA laws in the Republic are much stricter
than in Northern Ireland. But, there are just as
many demonstrations in Dublin as there are in
Belfast, and they are quite well-attended.

It is important to understand that the
demonstrations were not necessarily pro-IRA,
very few are, but rather anti-British occupation
and anti-H-Block. The H-Blocks are the sections
in Long Kesh (often called Maze) prison where
{RA prisoners are kept, often without proper
trials. The trials which -determine guilt are
called Diplock Courts, named after the British
Lord who devised them. Conviction could be
made on confessions, although the confessions
were often extracted through torture and
blackmail -- the process was, and still is, quite
fully supported by the British government.

The prisoners, prior to September, 1976, had
‘‘political prisoner status,’’ which gave them
different rights than ordinary criminals. This
status has been revoked, and the prisoners in
H-Block organised various protests in response
to the change in policy, as denial of that status
was an indication that their struggle in Ulster
was not taken seriously. The prisoners would
not wear uniforms, only blankets (hence the
name ‘‘Blanketmen’’) would not participate in
manual labour, and would not comply with the
sanitation rules in their cells (The ‘‘Dirty
Protest’’). There was a short hunger strike last
year which was settled in December, but the
Blanketmen and the Dirty Protest are still
active. The settlement for the latest hunger

strike recognises some of the. prisoners’.

demands: free association (allowed for limited
periods of time only), no work (recreation and

‘education facilities are being incorporated), no

juniforms (street clothes are permitted), al-

though actual political prisoner status is still
revoked. |

. Like most civil wars, the ‘‘troubles’’ have been
absorbed into the lives of all Irish people. As a
woman from Belfast told me, ‘‘The disturbances
caused by bomb scares mean that a few buses
will be re-routed or late, and that’s the
immediate reality. Oh, sure, you’re out shop-
ping and suddenly the Brits are there, and you
know that there’s real bullets in their guns, and
that they may be pointed-at you.”’

The hunger strike helped to revive interest in
Ireland, although the protest was also a
desperate bid for attention for the prisoners
themselves. Moments of recognition for “com-
mon criminals’’, who believe themselves prison-
ers of war.

Before his imprisonment, Bobby Sands was an
apprentice auto-mechanic. Many of the other
strikers were, prior to their convictions,
unemployed. Unemployed people are generally
considered failures in some sense, regardless of
their efforts at securing work. Those young men
who join the IRA are often very poor and/or not
well-educated. The same could be said, perhaps
to a lesser degree of the young men who join
the British Army (opportunities are relatively
better in Britain than in Ireland, because of the
living conditions). Even if all those young men
die in battle, nobody can ever say that they

were. failures. They have completed their -

missions a little earlier than they planned, but
they will be heroes in their own right, and each
will own a place in history.

There is very little doubt, however, that
should Britain withdraw its troops, the IRA and
the more radical Irish National Liberation Army

(INLA), would do incredible amounts of
damage. The fact that the IRA has existed tor

It.

so long with few significant gains seems to
suggest that perhaps they have some need to
fight, to antagonise the British. But, bombing
discos and restaurants in English cities is
inexcusable killing, and politically suicidal.

The IRA are a very small handful of active
guerrillas, although they gain a great deal of
financial and supplementary support from
citizens. The Irish Republican Army is certainly
no solution, but neither is the Loyalist
damnation of the Catholic minority. The British
are still intruders and the Irish are theoretically
justified in defending their homeland, and
during the H-Block demonstration after Micky _
Devine’s death, I felt relieved that it took place
in Dublin and not Belfast. The tension in the
South is quite enough for any foreigner to
handle, and to perhaps get some small glimpse
of the seriousness of ‘‘the troubles.”’