Uncovering Prison Stories Through Archives

Home , 1974 in Northern Ireland, Blanket protest, Dirty protest, HM Prison Maze, Prison ship, Special Category Status

Date July ofcuration: 2018 Stories through Archives Uncovering Prison Through the Keyhole: PRONI EXHIBITION

Through the Keyhole: Uncovering Prison Stories through Archives

THROUGH THE KEYHOLE: UNCOVERING PRISON STORIES THROUGH ARCHIVES

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Prisons have been a part of our local landscape the focus of imprisonment has shifted from for centuries, from the early gaols and severe punishment (everything from hard bridewells, to prison ships and the more recent labour to execution) to a desire not only to ‘H Blocks’ of the twentieth century. Whilst these incarcerate, but to rehabilitate, reform and physical spaces have a story to tell, the history educate. The records and images included of prisons is moreover about people and in this exhibition form part of our wider communities, reflecting wider society over time. community memory and reflect how prison life resonated far beyond the prison walls to This exhibition aims to tell the stories of impact families and communities, political prisoners and prison staff, using the archives and legal representatives, the security that survive in the Public Record Office of forces, human rights organisations, visiting Northern Ireland (PRONI) and the prison committees, staff associations, and pastoral, buildings which remain. It illustrates how medical and educational professionals.

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1. Plan of Crumlin Road Gaol, 1842 (ANT/4/11/19) 2. Crumlin Road Gaol, Belfast, c.1960s (T2125/20/30) 3. Details of prisoner Samuel Brown, 1913 (HMP/2/6/3/1) 4. Document relating to the escape of internees, Ministry of Home Affairs, 1941–1942 (HA/32/1/769) 5. HM Prison Maze: artist’s impression of ‘H’ block building, 1981 (INF/7/A/8/8) 5

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TIMELINE

1719 1877 Parliament orders County Grand Juries Prison Act – introduced to alter the way in to raise £10 a year for jailors and £5 for which prisons were operated. the Keeper of the House of Correction. 1898 1763 The Prison Act – introduced to deal with Parliament enacted that jailors were to changes in the nature of prison labour. submit a table of fees to their Grand Juries. 1921 1764 Following the Government of Ireland Act Publication of Cesare di Beccaria’s An Essay 1920, prisons in the newly established on Crimes and Punishments. He criticised the Northern Ireland became the responsibility death penalty and argued that prevention of of the Ministry of Home Affairs. crime was more important than punishment. 1921–24 1775 Internment – prisoners confined for political Prison Reformer, John Howard visits Ireland. or military reasons. Howard declared that he never saw prisons or abuses worse than those in Ireland. 1923 Standing Orders established a framework for 1784 the administration of prisons in Northern Ireland. Gaol Act – this legislation abolished gaolers’ fees and suggested ways for improving the 1925 sanitary state of prisons and the better A new Statutory Rule, overseen by the Board preservation of the health of the prisoners. of Visitors, codified 300 separate rules relating to prisons in Northern Ireland. 1786 An Act was passed that included a code of 1938–45 prison regulations and a system of inspectors Internment – prisoners confined for political chosen by the local Grand Jury. Inspectors would or military reasons. visit prisons once a week and an Inspector General would visit once every two years. 1953 The Prison Act (Northern Ireland). This was the 1788 main legislation under which prisons in Northern Courthouses and Gaols Act (Ireland). Ireland now function, consolidated approximately 150 years of penal-related legislation. 1791 Prisoners (Rescue) Act – introduced to 1951–56 prevent the horrid Crime of Murder. Internment – prisoners confined for political or military reasons. 1810 Prisons (Ireland) Act – provision for the 1971–75 payment of prison chaplains. Internment – prisoners confined for political or military reasons. 1822 A rigorous system of prison inspection 1972 implemented, following which the Inspector Stormont was suspended in March and Direct General of Prisons reported there were Rule was imposed, at which point the Northern 178 prisons in Ireland. Ireland Office assumed responsibility for prisons. 1826 ‘Special Category Status’ was granted to all Irish Prisons Act – Prisons come under state prisoners convicted of scheduled offences control with setting up of the Prisons Board. in July. 1831 1995 Tumultuous Risings (Ireland) Act – introduced Northern Ireland Prison Service created as an to prevent and punish unrestrained uprisings. Executive Agency of the Northern Ireland Office. 1845–53 1998 Famine period, when the prison population Good Friday Agreement – included a mechanism was particularly high in Ireland. for the accelerated release of prisoners.

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EARLY PRISONS

Prisons have existed for centuries, however there was no specific system or legislation in Ireland prior to the seventeenth century. By the eighteenth century, the law required that every county had a jail for convicted criminals. Drunkards, rioters, vagrants and petty thieves awaiting trial – including children – were detained in houses of correction (known as bridewells), as where those afflicted by mental illness. Debtors’ prisons, or marshelseas, held persons unable to pay their debts, and the debtors’ families (and sometimes their livestock) could reside 1 with them in these institutions.

As building and running prison facilities was a costly affair, it was not uncommon to find a mix of county jail, bridewell and debtors’ prison all housed within the same building. Most jails suffered from severe overcrowding and squalid conditions. Institutions were violent and administrations often corrupt. 2 Starvation was a serious threat for those

unable to afford food as there were often 1. Downpatrick Gaol, Co. Down, c.1900 (T3140/2) little or no rations provided. The misery was 2. Quarterly Return of Prisoners for the Antrim bridewell, 1862 (ANT/4/12/3/1) exacerbated by the custom of paying officials before release, largely to supplement their The majority of prisoners in Ireland were meagre wages, leaving many trapped in the incarcerated for minor crimes such as theft, prison system if they couldn’t afford to pay for vagrancy, drunkenness and prostitution – the their exit. Alcoholism was rife as alcohol was latter two being particularly common offences inexpensive and easy to obtain, and often amongst women inmates, who comprised up another means of income for the jailors. to half the prison population by the 1800s.

Serious crimes – including murder, In the later part of the eighteenth century, penal manslaughter, treason, stealing livestock, reformers such as Cesare di Beccaria and highway robbery, fraud, forgery, embezzlement, John Howard began to influence government, rape and arson – generally resulted in a death documenting appalling prison conditions. sentence, although most were commuted Howard cited those in Ireland as amongst to a sentence served abroad as indentured the worst. There were various Parliamentary servants. In the seventeenth and eighteenth attempts at penal reform, culminating in a centuries, thousands of convicts from Ireland regulation of prisons Act in 1786, however and Britain were transported, initially to these had limited impact. Prisons finally came North America and occasionally the British under state control in the Irish Prisons Act of Caribbean, and later to Australia. 1826 with the setting up of the Prisons Board.

3. Minutes of commissioners for building additions to Belfast prison, 1848–1850 (ANT/4/11/13) 4. Articles of Agreement to build the Antrim bridewell, 1853 (ANT/4/12/2/2)

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EARLY PRISONS

DOWN Downpatrick Gaol was built in 1796. It comprised 18 individual cells housed in a block to the rear of the building, a central Governor’s residence and two gatehouses, all set within a high perimeter wall. Famous prisoners included Thomas Russell, a founding member of the 1 United Irishmen, who was executed at the front of the gaol on 21 October 1803 for his part in Emmet’s rebellion. In 1831, a new Prison building opened on nearby Windmill Hill. It comprised four wings, with the two rear wings housing male prisoners and the front two wings housing women and debtors. There

were 150 cells and 67 other rooms with 2 beds. It closed at the end of the 1800s.

ANTRIM Construction began on a county gaol at Carrickfergus in 1778. Enlarged on a

number of occasions, by 1815 it consisted 3 of 150 cells, each of which provided two

beds, expected to accommodate up to four 1. Façade of Downpatrick prison prisoners. Executions took place at Gallow’s 2. Remains of the hanging gate at Carrickfergus prison Green and later the ‘hanging gate’ until 3. Stocks outside Carrickfergus prison 4. List of prisoners on the Prison Ship Postlethwaite, 1799 (D272/11) 1844. Crumlin Road Gaol became the 5. Correspondence relating to building a bridewell and house of correction at new county prison after opening in 1846. Belfast, 1841 (ANT/4/11/4)

TYRONE Omagh Gaol was open from 1804 to 1902. Prisoners of notoriety included Sub-Inspector Thomas Hardy Montgomery of the Royal Irish Constabulary who was hanged in 1873. Montgomery had robbed the bank in Newtownstewart, and murdered cashier William Henry Glass. Originally tasked with investigating his own crimes, Montgomery was subsequently identified as the perpetrator and sentenced to death for the killing of Glass.

FERMANAGH In Enniskillen, Captain William Cole obtained a grant of lands on 28 May 1613 which empowered him to build a gaol. A later gaol was built in Gaol Square in 1815 which was three stories high and had 36 cells, four of 5 which were reserved for women.

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DERRY∼LONDONDERRY

Gaols have existed in Derry~Londonderry since 1620. The fourth ‘modern’ incarnation was completed in 1824, standing at three stories high and constructed of Dungiven stone. It boasted an imposing front façade, reminiscent of medieval-era castles, with two large round towers positioned at either end, two smaller turreted towers near the middle and a turreted arch entrance at the centre. There were no separate wings, and the entire design resembled a radiating ‘horseshoe’. The gaol consisted of 179 cells and 26 workshops and day rooms. The front building housed female prisoners until 1921. The prison closed on 31 March 1953.

POLITICAL PRISONERS

During the 1920s and the Second World War, 1 the gaol was used for holding internees –

prisoners confined for political or military 1. Memorandum on hunger strike internees, Ministry of Home Affairs, 1923 reasons. Whilst the term is most commonly (HA/32/1/76) 2. Memorandum on prison staff, Londonderry Prison, Ministry of Finance, associated with Republican detainees, it also 1920 (FIN/18/1/66) included foreign nationals during wartime. 3. General Prisoner Admission Register, Derry Gaol, 1908–1922 (HMP/3/1/1/1) 4/5. Memorandum on hunger strike internees, Ministry of Home Affairs, 1923 (HA/32/1/76)

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DERRY∼LONDONDERRY

ESCAPE The gaol witnessed a number of escape attempts, including an ultimately failed plot by Republican internees which resulted in the deaths of Constable Michael Gorman and Special Constable William Little on 2 December 1921. Three of the escapees (Patrick Leonard, Thomas McShea and Patrick Johnston) were found guilty of the murders and received the death sentence, later commuted to penal servitude. One of the biggest breakouts in Northern Ireland’s penal history occurred on 20 March 1943, when 21 IRA prisoners tunnelled underneath the prison walls and escaped in a stolen van. The escapees were re-captured and returned to various prisons, mainly in Éire.

1. Memorandum relating to allegations that internees in Londonderry Prison 1 were searched and ordered to strip to their skin, Ministry of Home Affairs, 1943 (HA/23/1/168) 2. Memorandum relating to escape of 21 internees from Londonderry Prison, Ministry of Home Affairs, 1943 (HA/32/1/860)

SENTENCED TO DEATH The gaol was notable for a number of executions as referenced in a local variant of the folk song ‘The Maid Freed from the Gallows’. Three highwaymen convicted of murder – John Rainey, John McQuade and Robert Acheson – were hanged outside the walls in 1820. The final man executed at the prison was William Rooney, hanged after being found guilty of murder in 1923.

3. Correspondence relating to the case of Patrick McNicholl, whose sentence of execution (for the murder of his wife) was commuted to penal servitude for life, 1917 (D3663/3)

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ARMAGH

Armagh gaol was opened in 1780. Two wings extended out from the rear of the main administrative building, containing 18 cells. A number of dungeon-type cells also existed under the building. By 1823, the institution held 40 prisoners, including one cell which accommodated four people. Later expanded in the 1840–50s, the prison closed its doors on 17 March 1986.

Now most commonly thought of as a women’s prison, Armagh gaol originally accommodated both men and women, with little in the way of obvious segregation. Following the Partition of Ireland, Armagh was reserved for female remand and sentenced prisoners, with some minor exceptions.

1. Visiting Register for Armagh Prison, 1936 (HMP/1/4/2/1) 2. Photograph of south end of Armagh Mall including Armagh Gaol, c.1900 (D2886/A/1/5/24) 1 3. General Prisoner Admission Register for Armagh Gaol, 1922–1926 (HMP/1/1/2/1)

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ARMAGH

PUNISHMENT AND EXECUTION In the 1830s, prisoners could find themselves forced to endure hours of hard labour breaking up lumps of brimstone, or consigned to the ‘treadmill’, where up to 16 prisoners would tread 48 steps per minute. This punishment had ceased by the 1850s. Major Alex Campbell was executed in 1808 for the murder of fellow military officer, Captain Alex Boyd. The double execution of Jane Mulholland and Robert Edgar took place in 1819. The pair, who had been having an affair, were convicted of the murder of Mulholland’s husband.

POLITICAL PRISONERS IN ARMAGH In the early 1970s, the predominantly Republican female internees were organised along military lines, with a strict internal code of conduct. They acted in coordination with their counterparts in male prisons, participating in wider protests to demand special status for political prisoners, including the right to wear plain clothes rather than a prison uniform.

1. Officers’ Conduct Register, Armagh Prison, 1888 (HMP/1/5/1/1) 2. Armagh Security Committee Minutes, 1973 (NIO/10/2/7) 3. HM Prison Armagh, 1979 (INF/7/A/8/3) 4. Prisoners Punishment Book, Armagh Prison, 1892–1936 (HMP/1/6/4/1)

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CRUMLIN ROAD, BELFAST

Replacing the old Carrickfergus Gaol, in 1845 a new prison for County Antrim was built on the Crumlin Road in Belfast. The first 106 prisoners were admitted in 1846, having walked in procession from Carrickfergus (including six prisoners awaiting deportation and six classified as ‘lunatic’).

Sir Charles Lanyon’s plan was influenced by the design for HMP Pentonville, which was considered one of the most advanced of its day. The gaol was divided between four distinct wings (A–D), each three stories high, and each holding different categories of prisoner (remand, sentenced, lifer, long term prisoner). In the early 20th century, women prisoners were housed at the end of D-wing, although suffragettes were housed in A-wing during the 1913–1914 period. Cells measured approximately 12 feet long, 7 feet wide, and 10 feet high. A tunnel underneath the Crumlin Road linked the Courthouse to the 1 prison. The prison closed its doors in 1996.

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EXECUTION Thomas Joseph Williams was convicted for his part in the murder of a Police Constable and died on 2 September 1942 at the hands of the famous executioner Albert Pierrepoint, who would later hang over 200 Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg Trials. The last man to be executed in Northern Ireland was Robert Andrew McGladdery, who went to the gallows on 20

5 December 1961 for the murder of Pearl Gamble.

1. Report on Belfast prison staff, Ministry of Home Affairs, 1927 RECREATION (HA/32/1/523) 2. Memorandum on conditions in Belfast prison, including noise and Prisoners were expected to exercise in discipline, Ministry of Home Affairs, 1922 (HA/23/1/5) silence. Sentences of hard labour, including 3. Correspondence on fees for staff tasked with flogging prisoners, Ministry of Finance, 1922–1924 (FIN/18/1/419) rock breaking or sewing mail bags, continued 4. Confirmation of capital sentence carried out on juvenile prisoner Thomas until the late 1940s. Prison authorities Williams, Ministry of Home Affairs, 1942 (HA/9/2/960) 5. General Prisoner Admission Register, Belfast Gaol, 1890–1891 later introduced a number of initiatives (HMP/2/1/1/3) in an attempt to improve prisoners’ living conditions. This included the ‘evening association’ where prisoners could meet each other and play darts or snooker. Parole, comprising two days home leave, was introduced for first time convicts in 1948.

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CRUMLIN ROAD, BELFAST

ESCAPE From 1921 onwards, a total of 37 prisoners escaped from Belfast Prison, or Crumlin Road Gaol as it is otherwise known. For every successful attempt, many more were foiled by prison officers, including the discovery of a tunnel in 1957.

SEGREGATION Loyalist and Republican prisoners in Belfast prison were held together. As violence between the various political factions in the prison developed, demands for complete segregation increased, particularly from Loyalist political prisoners.

PRISONER REHABILITATION In the 1950s, new ideas of rehabilitation were 1 introduced. These were known as ‘Corrective Training’ and ‘Preventative Detention’ and 1. Poster depicting the 1983 escape from the Maze prison entitled included activities such as painting. By the ‘The Great Escape’, c.1983 (D4629/1/12/7/3) 2. Memorandum relating to the escape of four men from Belfast early 1960s, an education programme was Prison, Ministry of Home Affairs, 1927 (HA/32/1/520) introduced. This allowed prisoners to learn 3. Memorandum on a meeting about the 1981 Loyalist protest in the Belfast Prison, Northern Ireland Office, 1981 (NIO/10/7/8A) basic literacy and numeracy, and ultimately to 4. Document relating to a Parliamentary Question on the ‘alleged progress to degree level studies, largely through deterioration of conditions for internees in Belfast Prison’, Ministry of Home Affairs, 1944 (HA/23/1/175) the Open University. At this time, educational 5. Memorandum relating to items discovered during planned searches and feature films were also being shown in the in Belfast Prison, Northern Ireland Office, 1974 (NIO/10/7/8A) 6. Memorandum relating to the 1981 Loyalist protest, Northern prison cinema. Ireland Office, 1981 (NIO/10/7/10A)

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MAZE / LONG KESH

The former Second World War RAF Airfield Long Kesh, at Maze, County Antrim, was repurposed to detain those suspected of politically motivated criminal activity, becoming ‘Long Kesh Detention Centre’ in 1971. Republicans and Loyalists were held in 22 ‘Compounds’ formed of Nissen huts. Prisoners in each compound organised themselves along military lines, with a designated Commanding Officer (OC) who coordinated daily routines for his men, 1 which included military or political training. Direct contact with Prison authorities was minimal and compounds were only visited by Prison Officers in order to conduct head counts or security search operations.

The outdated compound system in Long Kesh was eventually replaced by the more secure cellular system of HMP Maze, which had been designed in 1976 and was opened 2 in August 1978. The design comprised eight accommodation blocks, each of which was built in an ‘H’ shape. Each accommodation block had four wings of cells and an administration area known as the ‘Circle.’ The compounds and the H Blocks operated simultaneously from 1976 until 1987.

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ESCAPE In 1973, Loyalist prisoners from ‘Compound 16’ were discovered in a tunnel at night. Their presence was betrayed by pinholes of light

5 6 emitting through the earth from the tunnel’s own makeshift lighting (the tunnel had been dug near the surface due to the marshy ground).

In October 1974, Republican prisoners destroyed a large percentage of the compounds to cause a distraction whilst 33 prisoners attempted to escape. One prisoner was shot dead.

On 25 September 1983, in the largest breakout from a British prison, 38 Republican prisoners escaped. Four prison officers were stabbed, including James Ferris, who died of a heart attack as a result. Another officer was shot in the head. 19 prisoners were recaptured within two days.

7 1. HM Prison Maze: compound, Royal Ulster Constabulary Photographs, 1974 (RUC/12/39/1) 2. HM Prison Maze: secure fencing, Royal Ulster Constabulary Photographs, 1974 (RUC/12/39/1) 3. HM Prison Maze: sandbags in locker, Royal Ulster Constabulary Photographs, 1974 (RUC/12/39/1) 4. HM Prison Maze: tunnel entrance, Royal Ulster Constabulary Photographs, 1974 (RUC/12/39/1) 5. Instructions written by Republican prisoners to prison staff, to be issued when captured during planned escape, 1983 (CENT/3/33A) 6. Memorandum regarding illegal Loyalist parade, Northern Ireland Office, 1982 (NIO/10/7/9A) 7. Memorandum regarding mass Republican prisoner escape, Northern Ireland Office, 1983 (NIO/25/3/18A) 8 8. Maze Letter/Drawing (NIO/12/514A)

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MAZE / LONG KESH

PROTEST In July 1972, ‘Special Category Status’ was introduced for convicted political prisoners, granting them free association between prisoners, extra visits, food parcels, and the right to wear their own clothes rather than prison uniforms. By 1973, there were over 2,000 Republican and Loyalist inmates categorised as ‘Special Category Status’ 2 3 prisoners. This ended on 1 March 1976, when the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Merlyn Rees, revoked political status as part of a new government policy of ‘criminalisation’.

By 1978, more than 300 Republican prisoners had joined a protest to demand the return of Special Category Status. They refused to wear prison uniform and instead wrapped themselves in blankets. The ‘Blanket’ protest would escalate into a ‘Dirty’ protest, with prisoners smearing 4 5 their own excrement on the walls of their cells. This in turn led to a Hunger Strike, with seven Republican prisoners refusing food, which began on 27 October 1980 and was called off that December. Bobby Sands, the leader of the Provisional IRA prisoners, began a second hunger strike on 1 March 1981. After being elected to Parliament in the Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election on 9 April, Sands died on 5 May, after 66 days on hunger strike. More than 100,000 people attended his funeral in Belfast. In total, ten members of the IRA and the INLA would die before the hunger strikes were called off in October 1981.

Segregation of Loyalist and Republican prisoners was eventually agreed and prisoners were allocated to an H Block wing depending on organisational membership.

1. Northern Ireland Office Press Leaflet relating to Republican ‘Dirty’ protests, 1981 (NIO/12/388A) 2. Note of meeting between politician Peter Robinson and Loyalist 6 prisoner Gusty Spence, Northern Ireland Office, 1983 (NIO/25/3/21A) 3. Memorandum of protest actions by Loyalist prisoners, Northern Ireland Office, 1982 (NIO/10/7/9A) 4. Communication from UDA prison leadership relating to Loyalist hunger strike, Northern Ireland Office, 1980 (NIO/12/191A) 5. Instructions distributed by the UVF to its members, confiscated by prison staff, c.1984 (NIO/25/3/21A) 6. Northern Ireland Office communication confirming the death of prisoner Bobby Sands, 1981 (NIO/12/385A)

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PRISON SHIPS SECRET.

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Between May 1922 and January 1924, the SS Al Rawdah, originally used as a troop Prison Ship SS Argenta was used to detain transport vessel, was repurposed during the internees. SS Argenta was moored on Belfast Second World War to detain foreign nationals Lough. Governor Drysdale, ten Prison Officers and anyone suspected of subversive activities. and 35 Police Constables joined the crew Five troop decks had been converted to and the 273 internees detained under the accommodate no more than 440 prisoners, Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act 1922 and one deck housed a chapel. Exercise yards on the ship. existed on each deck. Prisoners slept in hammocks and their diet included meat, fish, SS Argenta accommodated internees on onion soup, corn flakes. Security was strict, bunk beds below deck, surrounded by mesh with over 40 armed guards and Prison Officers. fence, which would eventually give rise to the Naval patrol vessels ensured no boat moved nickname ‘cages.’ Prisoners were kept in the within an exclusion zone of two hundred yards. cages between the hours of 8pm and 7am, but were free to move to the upper deck for HMS Maidstone was moored in Belfast Lough fresh air, exercise, cigarette breaks, hot baths in 1969 as a floating army barracks. It was or to associate with other prisoners. used to provide emergency accommodation for Loyalist and Republican political prisoners from In October 1923, 130 internees went on August 1971. There was a major breakout hunger strike in protest at conditions on by detainees in January 1972, when seven board. Prisoners would later be relocated escaped through a porthole and swam to shore. to Belfast and other prisons.

1. Photograph of prison ship SS Argenta, 1924 (D2939/1)) 2. Photograph of bunk bedding, on-board the SS Argenta, 1924 (HA/32/6/3) 3. Accounts from Harland & Wolff Ltd for refitting SS Argenta, Ministry of Home Affairs, 1922 (HA/32/1/110) 4. Castlederg IRA internees on the SS Argenta. c.1920s (T2350/1)

4 5. Correspondence on the transfer of prisoners to SS Argenta, Ministry of Home Affairs, 1923 (HA/5/2482)

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GUARDING THE PRISONS

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The complex and unique history of the Prison Service must be set in the context of civil unrest in Northern Ireland since the Partition of Ireland, particularly during the 1960s–90s. Male and female Prison Officers and their families faced the almost constant threat of murder, attack and intimidation.

In 1968, the daily average of the prison population stood at around 600. By 1974, this number had increased to over 2,650,

peaking at approximately 3,000 convicted 3 and remand prisoners in 1979. Mirroring this trend, the number of Prison Officers rose from about 300 in 1968, to approximately 3,200 in 1988. Between 1942 until 1998, 30 prison officers have been murdered in the course of their duties.

Alongside the officers, there was a body of support staff which included educators, and medical, catering and clerical staff.

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1. Male prison officer, Belfast Gaol, c.1930 (HMP/2) 5. Correspondence relating to a prison officer injured by a prisoner, Ministry 2. Female prison officer, Armagh Gaol, c.1900 (HMP/1) of Home Affairs, 1922 (HA/5/718) 3. Group photograph taken outside Londonderry Prison, including Prison 6. Correspondence regarding payment of a bonus to the warders of Belfast Governor, R. Stephenson, and the Chief Warder, T.L. Davison, c.1920– Prison in recognition of their work during Air Raids, Ministry of Finance, 1922 (D3738/1) 1941 (FIN/18/21/161) 4. Oath of Allegiance for prison officer Thomas Walker, Ministry of Home 7. Correspondence relating to the murder of prison officer Thomas Walker, Affairs, 1940 (HA/9/2/274) Ministry of Home Affairs, 1942 (HA/9/2/274)

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PRISONS MEMORY ARCHIVE

IMAGE

The Prisons Memory Archive is a collection of Visual Voices is an ongoing HLF-funded 175 walk-and-talk recordings with those who project between the Prisons Memory Archive had a connection with the prisons at Armagh and PRONI, which will permanently preserve and Maze/Long Kesh during the conflict in and and make this collection available. about Northern Ireland. Participants includes prison staff, prisoners, relatives, teachers, www.prisonsmemoryarchive.com chaplains, lawyers, doctors, probation officers and maintenance workers. The recordings were made between 2006 and 2007 and filmed in and around the now closed prisons. Some of the footage has also been compiled into a number of documentary films.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PRONI would like to thank Graham Jackson, Stephen Scarth, Paul Rea, Marian Gallagher, Janet Hancock, Glynn Kelso, Ian Montgomery, Liam O’Reilly, and the Reprographics and Document Production Teams in PRONI. PRONI would also like to thank the Northern Ireland Prison Service, the Department of Justice, Prof. Cahal McLaughlin, Dr Patrick Fitzgerald, and the Communications and Engagement Unit within the Department for Communities, for their contribution to this exhibition.

All records are reproduced with kind permission of the Deputy Keeper of the Records. PRONI would like to acknowledge the private depositors whose records are displayed, including the family of the late Sam Hanna Bell (D2939).

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