Date: 2021
Type: Article
The fight for political status in Portlaoise prison, 1973–7 : prologue to the H-Blocks struggle
War and society, 2021, Vol. 40, No. 2, pp. 134-154
REINISCH, Dieter, The fight for political status in Portlaoise prison, 1973–7 : prologue to the H-Blocks struggle, War and society, 2021, Vol. 40, No. 2, pp. 134-154
- https://hdl.handle.net/1814/70800
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
Between 1973 and 1977, about 100 Provisional republican prisoners staged a series of violent prison protests and hunger strikes in the Republic of Ireland’s high-security prison, Portlaoise. Research on political imprisonment during the Northern Ireland conflict overwhelmingly focuses on the H-Blocks struggle. The Portlaoise Prison protests, thus, remain an under-researched area, largely ignored by academics, commentators, and the public. This article tells the story of these protests in Portlaoise by focussing on three periods: winter 1974/5, winter 1975/6, and spring 1977. The Portlaoise protests ended almost simultaneously with the start of the blanket- and no-wash-protests in the H-Blocks. This article is based on the testimonials of former Irish republican prisoners, statements of the republican movement, and interviews with former Portlaoise inmates.
Additional information:
First published online: 29 March 2021
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/70800
Full-text via DOI: 10.1080/07292473.2021.1906452
ISSN: 0729-2473; 2042-4345
Publisher: Routledge