INTERNMENT - STORMONTS SHAME! -author Martin Galvin

INTERNMENT STORMONTS SHAME! –WHAT IT MEANS TODAY.

If a picture is proverbially worth a thousand words, then a word,” Internment,” has imprinted a thousand indelible mental pictures. British troopers breaking down small doorways, dragging half-dressed men from their homes, families and through the streets to be locked away at the crown’s pleasure on the Maidstone, or caged behind the wire of Long Kesh. Internment meant murder, the “Ballymurphy Massacre”, or torture with hand-picked victims hooded and subjected to experimental techniques of physical and mental brutality.

It would mean four years of beatings, CS Gas and arbitrary confinement. The word became inextricably linked to British cover-ups by commissions, enquiries, ministers, and judicial apologists, to names like Compton, or Widgery, or barristers who arrogantly defended torture before the European Court. Civil rights marchers protesting Internment would be silenced with bullets on Bloody Sunday in Derry in January 1972, and a dozen years later Belfast marchers remembering Internment would be shot with plastic bullets by a” reformed Royal Ulster Constabulary”, murdering John Downes and wounding scores more.

These images and hundreds more, form a collage headed by a single theme- that the crown was willing to set aside, indeed trash, legal rights and justice, then commit murder and whitewash torture to enforce British rule. Is that underlying theme of Internment relevant today? Should ,as some suggest, such bygone images be bygones, consigned to the dustbin of history and pasted over with posed photos of happy former internees bantering with the latest crown constabulary chief? Do, as Danny McBrearty contended on behalf of the Republican Network for Unity, the “iniquities of Internment persist in Ireland today” merely under new terms and shapes which are tailored to today’s British strategy?

FAULKNER

Brian Faulkner, as Stormont Home Affairs Minister, relished his role in interning suspected Republicans during the 57-62 campaign, and began urging the British to green-light Internment as soon as he became Prime Minister. Lists of suitable subjects were compiled. British troopers began to practice Internment swoops. The Paratroopers and other shock troops were deployed. New laws would not be needed. Internment was of course permanently on the British statute books under the Special Powers Act. The legal formalities of charges, trials, legal representation and defense would be abolished. A catch-all rule legalized indefinite detention for anyone the crown imagined likely to act in a manner prejudicial to British order. Those interned for what they might do in future would be held until the crown deemed it convenient to let them go

CATCH-ALL

On Monday August 9th 1971, 3000 British troopers swooped across the north at 4a.m. battering through the doors of those listed by the crown for Internment. More than three hundred were taken the first day. The phrase” once in never out,” seemed to guide Britain’s list of suspects. Many of those rounded-up had been out of politics for decades. BBC journalist Peter Taylor would recount an interview with a trooper who had detained an Easter Week 1916 veteran in his 80s proud to be considered a threat to the crown at his age. Some were merely related to or bore family names similar to one time activists. Others were merely at the wrong place or wrong homes. Curiously, civil rights activists were lifted. Perhaps the British wrongly believed organizations like People’s Democracy were IRA fronts, or more likely that eliminating civil rights activists would eliminate civil rights protests.

No loyalists or Protestants were listed for Internment. None would be interned until much later and then only in fractions of the number of nationalist internees.

REACTION

The reaction could have been predicted by anyone, except the British and Unionists. Those who witnessed friends and relations being brutally hauled away by troopers at gunpoint came out onto the streets. They protested and rioted. The British also reacted predictably.

Thirteen people would be shot down by British troopers in Belfast between the 9th and 11th of August and another in Armagh. The murder victims included two children 14 and 15, a Catholic priest administering last rites, and two women. The Paratroop Regiment alone killed eleven in West Belfast in what has rightly become known as the “Ballymurphy Massacre.”

In each case some cover story or claim was concocted by the British. Mrs. Sarah Worthington, a widowed mother of nine became the first woman shot dead in the conflict. Journalists printed claims scripted by the British or RUC which blamed an IRA sniper. Only at her inquest, was the shooter acknowledged as a member of the Green Howards. The British Army knew from the outset. The truth was simply buried under a cover story about a fictional sniper. Claims about riots, accidents, or invisible snipers were invented by the British then refuted and ridiculed by credible eye witnesses.

The crown’s message was clear. The British were prepared to intern without charge or trial, to shoot down those who got in the way or protested, and to lie about it afterwards.

NIGHTMARE

Even more sinister were the nightmare images of the “hooded men”. Besides the chance to lock away suspected Republican troublemakers indefinitely, Internment was expected to gift crown forces with intelligence gathering opportunities. Britain had condemned sensory deprivation techniques used as psychological and physical torture by other countries, but had no scruples about subjecting Irish suspects to such inhuman treatment or even experimenting with them as human guinea pigs in tests of these new methods.. Prisoners would be softened-up by being forced to run barefoot over broken glass or beaten as they ran gauntlets, or blindfolded and pushed out of helicopters from what they believed were deadly heights.

A number of Internees were picked to be hooded, spread-eagled with finger tips against a wall in search position for hours on end, deprived of food, sleep, even sounds by a blasting white noise, then at intervals beaten and interrogated about the IRA, before starting the routine over. It was sensory deprivation designed to break prisoners mentally and physically. It was planned and premeditated torture.

Such shocking brutality could not long be kept secret. Word spread outside and sparked outrage and an international outcry. Across the north there were indignant protests. Irish Americans rallied outside British Consulates, inside Congress and funded a case before the European Court of Human Rights. Normally unsympathetic newspapers like the SUNDAY TIMES published special reports.

COVER-UP BY COMMISSION

The British reacted with an old colonial trick of cover-up by Commission of Enquiry. It was a scenario that would be seen often. A commission or enquiry would be announced. British officials would feign “grave concern” over “serious allegations” then stonewall every legitimate question with the mantra that the matter was now under investigation and anything said might prejudice the outcome. The commission, or enquiry or investigation could then devise terms of remit and rules which predetermined a favorable verdict. The British could solemnly exonerate themselves and then congratulate themselves for their impartiality.

Edmund Compton was picked to head the commission on torture of internees. His guidelines were carefully drawn. The commission would sit in private. There would be no public scrutiny. There would be no cross-examination or difficult questions by victims’ solicitors to trouble any British troopers or RUC witnesses who appeared. Torture techniques were lauded as safety measures benefiting the prisoners, or life-saving measures, or even health measures devised to counteract the cold.

Compton promulgated a twisted definition which held it was not torture unless the person inflicting pain took pleasure in doing so. How joy or indifference in the mind of the torturer relieves the pain of the torture victim remains a mystery.

Compton’s report was not merely dismissed but ridiculed. His name would for a time enter the Irish vernacular as a term meaning a whitewash or blatantly unbelievable excuse. Someone telling an unlikely story would be told that “Compton would not believe that” or “Compton would not whitewash that” Nevertheless his twisted definition requiring enjoyment as an element of torture was adopted by the crown, who argued the point in the dock of the European Court at Strasbourg.

When years later the European Court of Human Rights modified the torture findings of the European Commission, British newspapers proclaimed in bold headlines, “BRITAIN FOUND NOT GUILTY!”, although the British were convicted of inhuman treatment, under the European Convention.

BLOODY SUNDAY

As the numbers interned and stories of brutality continued to grow, it became clear that, Internment had backfired. Beyond the numbers joining the IRA, there were large protest rallies across the six counties, thousands joined a rent and rates strike, the SDLP withdrew from Stormont, an Anti-Interment League rallied in Britain and mass demonstrations were held in America. Faulkner had banned all protest marches in the north for a year. The British decided in January 1972, to use that ban as a pretext to silence those protesting internment once and for all.

The Paratroop Regiment had apparently won pride of place by its conduct in the Ballymurphy Massacre and was deployed to Derry. There was the expected ritualistic stand-off with barricades erected, the protesters blocked from the city centre, and tear gas fired.

Suddenly, needlessly, and without warning the British opened fire killing 13, and wounding 29, one of whom would die weeks later. It was in the words of the Derry Coroner “sheer unadulterated murder.” It was public and witnessed by thousands. It was filmed and reported by journalists. It was undeniable. Still the crown trotted out once more the strategy of claims and cover-up. Still the British issued denials and cover stories about invisible IRA snipers and bombers. Widgery would be appointed to head an enquiry which would erase Compton’s as a historic whitewash .Unarmed murder victims would become posthumous nail bombers or assistant nail bombers. The commander of the regiment would be knighted. (Today one hopes for the sake of the families and friends of the victims that the much delayed Saville will end in something more than a watered-down Widgery.)

Clearly the crown was merely reiterating its earlier messages about its willingness to dispense injustice in order to impose British rule. Nor would it be the last time. For example in 1984 at an Internment Rally in Belfast, a supposedly reformed RUC would open fire with plastic bullets murdering one man, wounding scores more and then and exonerating itself even as the television images belied each new cover story. Recently the crown heard an emotional appeal from the “Ballymurphy Massacre” families for an independent inquiry that might include Britain’s role in committing and covering-up these murders. The British spurned their simple plea, and attempted to placate the families with a transparent cover-up in the guise of the PSNI-RUC Historical Enquiries Team.

NEW DISPENSATION

Internment would be defeated after years of suffering. A hunger strike led by IRA leader Billy McKee would demand prisoner-of-war status. The British conceded the principle, if not the words, establishing special category status for political prisoners. It soon became incredible for crown ministers and diplomats to claim that the British held- six counties was a normal political entity, while caging thousands of special category political prisoners behind the wire of Long Kesh. It became untenable to brand those imprisoned as criminals, while acknowledging that these were special category political prisoners, many interned without charge or trial. The deployment of thousands of troops recruited from outside the north, precluded any Ulsterization of British crown forces. International opposition to British rule fueled by Internment, derailed political and diplomatic efforts at Ulsterization or confining the issue of Irish national self-determination within the six counties and the safety of a unionist veto.

With its strategic objectives of Normalization, Criminalization and Ulsterization in tatters, the crown pledged that Internment would be ended. A new dispensation of justice was promised. New modern prison facilities would be built. All accused would be granted a trial.

The new dispensation would be Diplock Courts, and non-jury trials that were little more than a conveyor belt to Long Kesh or Armagh. Confessions beaten out of suspects would make up the evidence in four out of five cases. Supergrass evidence would be rubber-stamped. The modern facilities would be the H-blocks of Long Kesh.

Blanketmen would replace the hooded men of Internment. This time the hunger strike for political status would only be won after the deaths of ten patriot martyrs. The new dispensation had been merely a change in British tactics, fashioned to attain the same British objectives.

DEBATE

Is Internment relevant today? Should as some within the wider Republican family suggest, Internment and what it entailed and represented be relegated to the past? Former internees and former Blanketmen are now seated on crown constabulary boards and district partnerships with unionists. Some pose in photo-ops alongside the latest constabulary chief. Should Republicans divorce Internment from British rule, and hollow-out commemorations of such events by ignoring that the same regime which imposed Internment continues to rule. Will today’s new dispensation be different from earlier new British dispensations because Sinn Fein places on constabulary boards somehow mean that the RUC-PSNI can now be housetrained?

Other Republicans, including RNU, contend we are not seeing a new dispensation but merely a new British strategy fashioned to mask the dispensation of injustice behind a pretense of normalization. The jewel in the crown of this new British strategy would be to housetrain former opponents of British rule to perform as visible tokens of assent in boards which provide no partnership nor genuine community input, but are charades set up to give the crown constabulary political cover while its serves British interests. Muted criticisms of the RUC-PSNI may be offered, but not taken seriously. The crown can then tout Sinn Fein’s presence on constabulary boards as a rubber stamp for dispensing more repression and injustice against Republicans.

Republicans long ago learned that the truth about British policy can only be deciphered by looking at the crown’s deeds rather than the crown‘s words. There is clearly no confusion or ambiguity about what the crown intends.

The British have legislated 28 days of detention without charge, a new mini-Internment. Diplock Courts still sit, another of the tools of repression which are always said to be temporary but never end. Confessions under torture leave telltale signs and would not be stomached by the nationalist community. However DNA evidence, which can be collected at house searches, is easily planted and has an aura of scientific validity, is being tested as a substitute for jailing Republicans before Diplock judges. Declan McGlinchey was the latest in a series of high profile Republicans, charged on the basis of DNA evidence whose case collapsed. In the cases of Martin Brogan and Mark Brogan, solicitors unearthed documents confirming evidence tampering and written instructions to frame the accused. Sean Hoey’s case collapsed with the crown court ordering a perjury investigation, and photographic evidence showing that tape from his home had been planted on exhibits to frame him on 58 charges.

No one has been demoted for perverting the course of justice in these failed frame-ups. The crown seems determined to perfect this discredited DNA framework. Colin Duffy and Brian Shivers languish without bail on evidence that would not be entertained in crown courts in England.

A new supergrass wing is being built at Maghaberry. Veteran Republican, Gerry McGeough, who campaigned against the RUC-PSNI, was the victim of a retaliatory arrest, charged with actions that took place a quarter century ago, in a case with legal implications which will be watched by many other veteran Republicans Terry McCafferty ‘s license or parole was arbitrarily revoked without any legal basis.

If the crown succeeds will it use these same measures against other Republicans? Might the books be opened on other unsolved IRA operations to book other veteran Republicans who carried the struggle? Might licenses be revoked to threaten those who are released after two years, or to deny remission to jailed Republicans who will not meekly bow to criminalization?

Section 44, stop and search powers are being used to harass Republicans, and in sinister fashion are being eagerly used to intimidate their children. Plastic bullets are still fired. The crown is seeking to deny segregation and thereby criminalize political prisoners at Maghaberry with the same vindictiveness that it once sought to break the blanket protest. The history of British repressive measures in Ireland is that once such measures are wedged in, their use will be extended and escalated.

Clearly the British are not constructing and testing new mechanisms of repression while planning for their deconstruction after the devolution of justice powers. Clearly the British are determining how far such measures can be pushed, behind the mask of formerly esteemed Republicans on constabulary boards and partnerships. Clearly the inequities of Internment, and the willingness of the same British government to employ the same injustice of trashing Irish rights and legal protections as best serves the ongoing injustice of British rule continue to be relevant today.