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Identity, Authority and Myth-Making: Politically-Motivated Prisoners and the Use of Music During the Northern Irish Conflict, 1962 - 2000

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Identity, Authority and Myth-Making: Politically-Motivated Prisoners and the Use of Music During the Northern Irish Conflict, 1962 - 2000 Identity, authority and myth-making: Politically-motivated prisoners and the use of music during the Northern Irish conflict, 1962 - 2000 Claire Alexandra Green Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1 I, Claire Alexandra Green, confirm that the research included within this thesis is my own work or that where it has been carried out in collaboration with, or supported by others, that this is duly acknowledged below and my contribution indicated. Previously published material is also acknowledged below. I attest that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge break any UK law, infringe any third party’s copyright or other Intellectual Property Right, or contain any confidential material. I accept that the College has the right to use plagiarism detection software to check the electronic version of the thesis. I confirm that this thesis has not been previously submitted for the award of a degree by this or any other university. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author. Signature: Date: 29/04/19 Details of collaboration and publications: ‘It’s All Over: Romantic Relationships, Endurance and Loyalty in the Songs of Northern Irish Politically-Motivated Prisoners’, Estudios Irlandeses, 14, 70-82. 2 Abstract. In this study I examine the use of music by and in relation to politically-motivated prisoners in Northern Ireland, from the mid-1960s until 2000. For both republican and loyalist prisoners music was a key component in identity-construction, bonding and coping with the pains of imprisonment and demands of paramilitary life. The prison reflected the wider conflict, and the cultural struggle outside was affected by the prison context. Music boosted morale and facilitated emotional release. It provided an ideological connection between prisoners and the outside world, and had a practical function through fundraising and the gathering of other resources. Music was a means of contesting the authority of prison staff and rejecting the claims of the wider state. It played symbolic and functional roles in prisoners’ campaigns for legitimacy, power and control within the prison. Music also projected a carefully constructed image of the prisoners beyond the prison, seeking to generate communal support, which reinforced prisoners’ own self-image and narrative. Fundamental themes such as bonding, defiance, self-expression and passing the time are traced and examined throughout three decades of paramilitary imprisonment. However, prisoners’ musical production was not static. Shaped by paramilitary affiliation, it also responded to the different penal phases of the conflict. These included internment, Special Category Status, prison protests and their aftermath, which affected the form and content of prisoners’ musical production. Prisoner-related groups on the outside were similarly affected in their use of music. The genres used by prisoners were dynamic and evolving, fusing the mainstream and the political to create a fluid, hybrid musical context which intertwined paramilitary culture with entertainment and social life. Music linked, maintained and bolstered varied and overlapping communities and identities: within the prison-based paramilitary world and in the communities outside, which the prisoners claimed to represent and upon whose support they depended. 3 Table of Contents. Acronyms. 10 Introduction. 11 Literature Review. 14 Methodology. 31 Structure. 34 Acknowledgements. 35 Chapter One: The background to political music and the conflict. 37 Emotional communities and imagined nations: The musical heritage of republicanism and loyalism. 38 Irish nationalism and republicanism. 40 Rebel songs and street ballads. 40 Musical constructions of nationalism. 43 Inevitability and repetition: Building on the narrative in the 20th Century. 45 Ulster unionism and loyalism. 49 Cultural purity and the ownership of history. 50 The Orange tradition. 53 Parades and communal disorder. 53 “Loyal and true:” Reinforcing symbols and values through song. 55 Parallel narratives. 57 Victimhood, authority and 1916. 57 “Horizontal comradeship:” Streamlining canon and community. 59 Cold house, contested streets: Music under Stormont. 60 4 Parading, authority and legitimacy: The Stormont years. 60 Public order and Special Powers. 62 Commemoration, Cultural Confidence and Civil Rights, 1966 - 1969. 64 1966: Looking forward, looking back. 64 Music and paramilitary imprisonment before the introduction of internment. 71 The Civil Rights Movement. 73 Music and international links. 74 Music and communal violence. 77 Social life: Segregation and amalgamation. 80 Youth culture in the 1960s. 80 The effects of geographical divisions on music and social life. 82 Fusing political and popular music. 84 The development of the paramilitaries’ cultural milieu. 87 Chapter Two: Music in the Prisons 1: Reactive Containment, 1969 - 1976. 89 The pains of imprisonment and modes of adaptation. 91 The Men Behind the Wire: Internment and its communal impact. 93 Blurring the political and the domestic. 95 Raising funds and rousing the community. 98 The “Lazy K:” Life in the Long Kesh compound. 102 Access to music and resources during internment and Special Category Status. 102 The development and assertion of paramilitary prisoner identity in the Long Kesh compound. 105 The green in the globe: Strengthening Irish republicanism through links to global struggle. 107 5 Smash Internment: Live from Long Kesh. 112 Making-do: Handicrafts and the use of musical symbols in identity construction. 115 A Loyalist Prisoner’s Call: Loyalist songs and song books produced in prison. 118 “Singing and marching everyone:” Representations of contemporary events. 118 By loyalists, for loyalists: Local limits. 121 Power struggles and parades. 123 UVF parading: Demonstrating legitimacy and discipline. 123 Drills or debates: Republican culture wars. 125 Cultural amalgamation: Emotional outlets, codes and signalling. 129 Concerts and communal performance. 132 Mainstream music as intramural link. 133 Relatability and radical chic: Musical taste as symbol of character. 135 Music and memoirs. 137 Chapter Three: Music in the Prisons 2: Criminalisation and Protest, 1976 - 1981. 142 Criminalisation: The loss of special category status and the resulting protests. 143 Non-conforming, musical resources and socialising. 144 The dirty protests: Bonding and division. 149 ‘Concerts’ and collective singing during the blanket protest: Consolidating the group and its leaders. 152 Endurance, vulnerability and masculinity. 154 Performance and pressure. 157 Popular music during the protests. 158 Bobby Sands: Music and myth-making I. 162 Consolidation through antagonism. 169 6 The sash my orderly wore. 173 Silence and noise I. 174 Mills and Boon, Davis and Guevara: Cultural practices at Armagh. 179 The women behind the wire: Fusing identities. 183 Music during the hunger strikes. 185 Comfort and emotional release. 189 Staff solidarity and stress. 192 The end of the protests and the beginning of the myth. 194 Chapter Four: Music in the Prisons 3: Normalisation, 1982 – 2000 198 The 1980s: Segregation, spectaculars and symbols in the aftermath of the republican protests. 199 Managing assertions of identity. 201 Maintaining momentum. 203 Music from the Blocks: Reverence and reflection. 205 Re-addressing the role of women. 207 Vicarious comradeship: Bonding and participation by proxy. 209 Musical reflections on the protests in other prison-based cultural events. 212 Walking the wings: Loyalist prisoners and Orange-influenced parades. 217 Long Kesh First Flute: Claiming authority through identity-fusion. 218 Popular music and social life in the H-Blocks of the 1990s. 224 Fixed in space and time: Local and generational influences on musical taste. 228 Political amalgamation and appropriation. 232 The end of the wire: Politically-motivated prisoner culture and releases. 234 Music and the ex-prisoner “badge of honour.” 236 7 Chapter Five: Prisons in the Music: Translation and Legacies. 237 Music in the pre-prison protest 1970s: Emergency responses and communal bonding. 238 Silence and noise II: Community activism and mobilisation. 238 Humour, heroism and humiliation. 241 Raising funds and awareness: Publications, events and recordings. 244 Social spaces: Building (in) the community. 248 H-Block: Communal responses to the republican protests. 252 Flags, pipe bands and football chants: The musical periphery. 256 “And you dare to call me a terrorist:” The hunger strikers and construction of the hero-martyr in song. 262 Bridging the ordinary and extraordinary. 263 Bobby Sands: Music and myth-making II. 265 Fundraising and organisation following the end of the prison protests. 269 Focused mobilisation: The issue of strip-searching. 269 Maintaining the milieu: Socialising and cultural exchange. 271 Popular music and the conflict. 272 This is a rebel song: Early pro-nationalist stances. 273 Neutrality, sympathy and radical chic. 275 Punk, escapism and insecurity. 277 Broadcasting bans and censorship. 281 Innocent until proven Irish: The Birmingham Six and Guildford Four. 283 “Party” songs: Entertainment, emotional release and the domestic sphere. 287 8 Celebrations and communal ties. 288 Imprisonment, romantic relationships and family life. 290 Bringing it all back home: Prisoner releases and
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