Ulster (1)
Threading the Maze
Lord Beaumontof Whitley:
On the night of Tuesday October 15, Long Kesh — beg its pardon, The Maze — prison was razed to the ground and this may well have posed the worst threat yet to the stability of Northern Ireland. Neither part of this statement is an exaggeration. When I went into the camp five days after the riots I was irresistibly reminded of C. R. W. Nevinson's paintings of the Somme and Passchendaele, complete with mud and barbed wire and only, thank God, missing the corpses.
Not that the pnson was palatial before the riots. Looking at it, it resembled one of those rather derelict ordnance depots still left over from the war, all concrete paths, Nissen huts, barbed wire and standing water.
In addition it was divided into twenty-odd compounds by high wire fences, each compound containing four or more huts, three of them sleeping and the fourth for eating. There were other huts containing the hospital, the library, educational facilities and all the other resources provided by hard work and lobbying to make life less soul-destroying.
With the exception of two of the compounds occupied by the 'loyalists,' all has been destroyed — all! The huts for eating still retain their basic structure since there was not much in them that was inflammable. They are merelY gutted. So are the hospital huts where all medical and dental equipment was completelY destroyed. The rest are burned down often with no more than a few struts sticking up. All this was not the result of protests against conditions, or a spontaneous incident badlY handled. It was a deliberate act of war which those who took a leading part say will be repeated.
Acts of war are not usually committed without some eye to the advantages to. be gained by this action rather than that action, , and in this case the choice has been shrewd.. , The insurgents were the Republican 'Special Category' (i.e. political) convicted prisoners. The ultimate command was probably outside the prison but the immediate command Wa.5 almost certainly situated among the Republican detainees. The Provisional and Official IRA collaborated and the 'loyalists' were undoub: tedly in collusion with them, although the actual part the latter took is still open to doubt. In this prison are the worst thugs, convicted and unconvicted, that the authorities of the province have been able to lay their hands on: Many of them are undoubtedly mult murderers. The law has done the best that is capable of. They are in prison. Yet they con wage acts of war. And it is because the law and the administration are shown to be powerless even with these men behind bars that this is such a dangerous situation. Because nothing can be done to stop this action if the IRA should wish to repeat it. YolUç can stop it in a few years' time at the cost ol millions of pounds by building a special prison with little access between prisoners but that will be too late. You can stop it by putting 3 bullet through the head of the first prisoners who makes any trouble, but apart from th4 politically unacceptability of this it wou.1 merely provide the IRA with the martyrs which the discipline, courage and good sense of the soldiers and the police officers have delved them. Apart from that, you cannot stop prisoners from running their own lives and ir they are sufficiently determined you cannot without shooting, or threatening to shoot them, stop them from doing anything they please
Within the perimeter walls. , So whether or not there is a repetition of the !lots will depend upon whether the IRA think it is politically worthwhile.
The results this time were mixed. There were undoubtedly much fewer protests on the streets of Northern Ireland than the IRA had hoped for. Civilians can of course still be jptimidated into supporting IRA actions but !ewer and fewer people are enthusiastic about On the other side of the coin there is only so Much that the prison service can stand. Many 21 the prison officers have been brought over Ironi the rest of the United Kingdom and are away from their families. The conditions, although the authorities do their best, cannot doing be ideal; there is the constant strain of uoing a job which they were not trained for, that of guarding people who regard themselves ,a,S Prisoners of war. Now they are subjected to 'fie intense interest of the media, not on how any of them have been injured by the thugs, out on how many of the thugs are, or are not, hurt and why they have not managed to reassure the relatives of little Johnny Thug that he is not hurt when they have the job of sorting inm out from fifteen hundred others who all, ,when asked, give their names as "Fuck Off". Lney are bruised, they are edgy, they are ,rueginning to dictate to the governor as well as ine prisoners what they will and will not do. NoThe breakdown of the penal system in rthern Ireland would be a victory indeed for ,''ne IRA. I think on balance that it will not t!aPPen, even if there is a repetition of the riots, out it is a danger and a real one and It underlines the urgency of the main challenge. A solution has got to be found; it must be a Political one and it must be found soon.
Beaumont, formerly the Revd Timothy ',,emonont, is a past Chairman and President of L'Ie Liberal Party.
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