The Special Powers Act from 1922, one of the issues fought against by the Civil Rights Movement, gave the authorities of Northern Ireland far-reaching powers for persevering the peace and maintaining order. Faulkner activated the Special Powers Act on 9 August 1971.

Operation Demetrius

Earlier that year Faulkner had ordered the Special Branch of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and the British Military Intelligence to compose a list of people who should be interned. The British found out-of-date and incomplete files. There were, for example, no files at all concerning members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). The British Military Intelligence deemed that the information was unreliable and strongly advised against internment.
Nevertheless 342 Catholics, none of them prominent members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (pIRA), were arrested immediately after the effectuation of the Special Powers Act in what was called Operation Demetrius.

The arrested men were transported to Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast or to makeshift internment camps, such as the Long Kesh Detention Centre, which belongs to Her Majesty's Prison Maze, where they could be kept without trial.
There are several songs in which the Crumlin Road Jail is the subject, for example Ireland's Fight For Freedom, Over the Wall and the Irish Republican Jail Song. Long Kesh Detention Centre is subject of the song Long Kesh.

The partial arrest and imprisonment resulted in terrible violence: 17 people were killed in the 48 hours after the start of Operation Demetrius. Amongst the slain were 10 Catholics killed by British soldiers. One of the killed Catholics was Hugh Mullan, a 38 year old priest, who was killed while saying the last rites over a dying man.

European Court of Human Rights

The methods used in the interrogations of the detainees were inhumane and perhaps the Republic of Ireland had a solid case when they brought the security forces of Northern Ireland to the European Court of Human Rights. Food and sleep deprivation and deliberately causing disorientation were, even in the 1970's, interrogation methods not common to use in a modern and civilised nation. Also in those times the European machine moved sluggish and Internment ended before the meeting of the court.

The conditions in Billy Faulkner's Little Holiday Camp Long Kesh were degrading according to a group of Westminster Members of Parliament, the Red Cross and Amnesty International. The overcrowded huts, insufficient sanitary facilities and inadequate medical care led to insurmountable health problems.
The song Men Behind the Wire is an appeal for solidarity with the detainees.
To tackle the overcrowding the HMS Maidstone, initially an emergency billet, was transformed in a prison ship. The conditions on the HMS Maidstone were horrible and the prison ship was closed immediately after the dismissal of the Stormont Government.

Just as predicted by the British Military Intelligence Internment was far from efficient. Six months after the effectuation of the Special Powers Act a dizzying number of 2,357 people where arrested of whom a staggering 67% (1,600 internees) was completely innocent, even by the standards of the Stormont Government.

John McGuffin describes in his book Internment some bizarre experiences from fellow-detainees. Experiences that could be humorous under less serious circumstances.
The arrest and interrogation of the 11 months (sic) old son of Harry McKeown is one example. An other example is the release and re-arrest of Billy McBurney. His second Internment term lasted two minutes, the shortest ever recorded. An example of capriciousness is provided by an internee who was arrested because he had a copy of the Republican News in his pocket. Strangely the Republican News was one of the three allowed newspapers in Long Kesh.

The trial of Billy Reid, not the William Billy Reid who is commemorated in The Ballad Of Billy Reid, is illustrative for the course of justice those days. Billy Reid was charged with being an IRA man and with having firearms and disguise coats in his house. None of these items was produced, but an anonymously witness stated that Reid was seen in a house were arms had been stored. Harry Taylor, officer from the Special Branch, confirmed this statement and said that Reid's home in Little Distillery Street had been under observation for some time. When it was pointed out that Reid did not live in that street, Taylor commented I don't know why he has been arrested at all. Billy Reid was released immediately, but had already served sixteen months in custody.

The situation reached rock bottom at Sunday 30 January 1972 when an anti-Internment march ended in the massacre known as Bloody Sunday.

Prison Protests

The status of the internees was ambiguous and a judicial split. In the daily prison routine the internees were treated as normal inmates, while appeals for parole were rejected because they were political prisoners.
What seems impossible outside the prison walls became reality in Crumlin Road Jail in May 1972: Interned Loyalists and Republicans closed ranks and fought for the status of political prisoner. A political status means more privileges, such as more letters and visits and not wearing prison uniforms.

The detainees protested for political status either by wearing plain clothes or by living on a blanket, meaning wearing nothing but a blanket, or by strip strike, wearing nothing at all. Other ways of protest were the hunger strike or the so-called Lewes Tactic, which is basically wrecking the jail.

Hunger strike as method to embarrass someone originates from the old Irish Brehon Law. As protest method the hunger strike was tried and tested in Irish prisons, with varying successes in the Republic of Ireland, but it always has failed in Northern Ireland. That is until June 1972 when, after refusing food for 35 days, several Republican and Loyalist prisoners gained more privileges in the Crumlin Road Jail. They also got accommodated in a separate wing. William Whitelaw denied however the existence of something as a political status. Abolition of this Special Category Status in 1976 by the British government led to fierce protests.

Despite national and international protests and pressure the Internment continued until December 1975. Suggestions are that Internment was preserved during Direct Rule in order to enforce a truce, meaning that the detainees were in fact hostages.
During the Internment a total of 1,981 people were detained in camps. Because the majority of the detainees was Catholic (1,874 against 107 Protestants) the activation of the Special Powers Act led to a higher level of violence and more support for the Provisional Irish Republican Army (pIRA).
An estimated 7,000 Northern Irish Catholics, amongst them without a doubt several members and sympathisers of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (pIRA), fled to the Republic of Ireland.

March 2nd, 2008

A Chairde,

After a meeting today with Eddie McGarrigle, John Mc Crossan and Neil Myles in Portlaoise internment camp, Eddie has asked us to express the following

Sentiments, " Do not be influenced by the tripe you read in the right wing media regarding our recent arrest and subsequent charge of membership. In all the hours of questioning that we endured never once was it mentioned to us about tiger kidnapping, weapons etc. This tripe reported in the media should be viewed for what it is, an attempt by securicrats working to a political agenda to demonize, criminalize and demoralize the membership of the IRSM. No charges have been laid against any of us which includes the two Dublin lads (who were released on bail), in connection to the lies planted in the media.

I want to put on record that the treatment that we all received whilst in custody was nothing short of torture. The Irish Government speak out and condemn human rights abuses in faraway places such as China and Iran, whilst there political police in the free state can carry out such acts without impunity, such hypocrisy. I myself was thrown out of my wheel chair onto the ground a number of times by a number of special branch interrogators, who took great delight in stamping, punching and slapping me in the head and body, whilst making sure that they had the camera turned off in the interrogation room. All the other lads suffered the same and more at the fists and boots of our torturers.

Eventually we were charged with membership of an illegal organization namely the INLA and remanded to Portlaoise Internment camp ( The Irish Free States, Guantanamo Bay) . A charge frequently used by the free state to intern Republicans-Republican Socialists. At our bail hearing in the diplock special criminal court, the state fiercely opposed bail to all of us. Superintendent Dermot O'Sullivan was the main objector to bail, swearing under oath that the accused were involved in a conspiracy to extort money for the INLA from a businessman in Cork. When our legal team objected to O'Sullivan's evidence on the basis that none of us before the court were charged with any offence connected to evidence submitted by O Sullivan, one of the three judges quipped that he would allow the superintendent to continue with his evidence solely because " The state was alledging that the accused were members of the INLA and it was reasonable to ascertain that you don't join the INLA and do nothing. I like many others have read the newspapers in regards to reports of tiger kidnappings and seisure of weapons". How can anyone one of us expect any kind of justice when one of the judges on the bench comes out with such tripe?.

Thankfully after a number of legal objections and arguments by our legal team, the three Judges in the diplock court set bail with stringent conditions and hopefully myself, John and Neil will be released in a week or so.

Eddie and the Lads would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who highlighted and continue to highlight the injustice of their internment, and treatment endured at the fists and feet of the free states political police, particularly, Teach Na Failte (Strabane, Derry, Belfast) , The Ard Comhairle of the IRSP, IRSCNA, members of the IRSM and concerned individuals who sent messages of support and solidarity. They would especially like to thank the Staff and Volunteers of the RIRA within Portlaoise internment camp particularly Aidan O"Driscoll and Aidan Hulme for the support, comradeship and practical support they bestowed on them, they also wish to thank the 32CSM, Eirigi, United Republicans, Other Republicans for there solidarity. Last but not least they would like to thank W Gallagher for all the campaigning work he has done on there behalf and wish him a happy 50th birthday tomorrow.

Is Mise

John Murtagh and John Farrell ( On behalf of Eddie, Neil, and Johnny}

At a well attended Protest over 2000 leaflets highlighting the internment of four Derry republican were handed out to the public. The protest attracted interest from passing tourist and the media was present.

The 32 County Sovereignty Movement is calling for the release of four Derry republicans and other republican activists from across the 32 counties who remain interned by remand in Portlaoise Prison in the Free State. The men were arrested at a border filling station in March and have been held on remand ever since on IRA membership charges. Since then the Gardai has failed to produce any evidence, asking the court of three occasions for more time to produce the evidence. Surly in a free fair democratic state the evidence is produced to the PPS shortly after the person is charged. Gardai have charged, and interned these men and then sought to obtain the evidence, scraping the barrel for anything they can get their hands on in an obvious attempt to disrupt republicanism in Derry City. The Free State having been pressurized by the British are holding these men because of their republican position and their resistance to British Parliamentary activity in Ireland and the Mi5 controlled RUC/PSNI. 

The four men have been offered bail but at as a surety they have been asked to produce 90,000 Euro cash for the four of them. There have been cases in the past were republicans have lost their bail due to Gardai harassment and these working class men do not have 90,000 euro to put to risk. The Free State establishment now obtains the most draconian laws in Western Europe where men like Gary Donnelly, Mickey Gallagher, Paddy Mc Daid and Marty O? Neill have been held for five months without any evidence being forwarded to the PPS. In the past few months establishment politicians in the North have indicated their support for these practices. Moreover, former republicans have openly called for such practices to be brought into the occupied six counties to quell the recent upsurge of republican activity.

This is a human rights issue and we would ask for your support for these four men and their families and the countless other men from across the island who are being interned by remand in the 26 county state.