Leading to Peace: Prisoner Resistance and Leadership Development in the IRA and Sinn Fein By Claire Delisle Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Ph.D. degree in Criminology Department of Criminology Faculty of Social Sciences University of Ottawa ©Claire Delisle, Ottawa, Canada, 2012 To the women in my family Dorothy, Rollande, Émilie, Phoebe and Avril Abstract The Irish peace process is heralded as a success among insurgencies that attempt transitions toward peaceful resolution of conflict. After thirty years of armed struggle, pitting Irish republicans against their loyalist counterparts and the British State, the North of Ireland has a reconfigured political landscape with a consociational governing body where power is shared among several parties that hold divergent political objectives. The Irish Republican Movement, whose main components are the Provisional Irish Republican Army, a covert guerilla armed organization, and Sinn Fein, the political party of Irish republicans, initiated peace that led to all-inclusive talks in the 1990s and that culminated in the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998, setting out the parameters for a non-violent way forward. Given the traditional intransigence of the IRA to consider any route other than armed conflict, how did the leadership of the Irish Republican Movement secure the support of a majority of republicans for a peace initiative that has held now for more than fifteen years? This dissertation explores the dynamics of leadership in this group, and in particular, focuses on the prisoner resistance waged by its incarcerated activists and volunteers. It is the contention here, that various prisoner resistance tactics enabled a wide-ranging group of captives to develop the skill set necessary to persuade their community to back the peace initiative, engage in electoral politics, mobilize their supporters to invest in attaining a united Ireland by peaceful negotiations, and put down their arms in a permanent and unequivocal manner. In this dissertation, the work of Paulo Freire is explored in order to capture the processes inherent the resistance-leadership continuum. ii Acknowledgements This work is the result of a collective thinking process and I am indebted to a number of people who helped it come to fruition. I reserve heartfelt thanks to the committee: to a stellar advisor, Bob Gaucher, for his perspicacity, the generous sharing of a broad knowledge and understanding of resistance and politics, for his unwavering support for this project and for his friendship; to Christine Bruckert who not only challenged me in all the right places, but who also had my back in terms of negotiating the labyrinth of university protocol and helping to secure financial assistance; to Fran Buntman of George Washington University who has stuck by this project, even at a distance, and who was also very helpful in challenging my thinking and helping to bring the necessary improvements to the writing. I also wish to thank the external reviewers, Denis O’Hearn of SUNY Binghamton and Maritza Felices-Luna of the University of Ottawa for their appreciation of the thesis and their helpful comments. I am most deeply indebted to the participants in this study, without whom this thesis would not have seen the light of day. It was inspiring to work with all of them. They were generous with their time and their thoughts, and set me back on the rails whenever I started to amble down the wrong path. I am honoured to have been given the opportunity to learn from them, and appreciate the trust they put in me with their words and their vision. I wish to thank Sinn Fein and especially Coiste for their willingness to let me probe into the matters herein, and for facilitating contact with a number of participants. As fellow travellers in the academy, I owe a debt of thanks to Deaglán Ó Mocháin and Laurence McKeown for their counsel and friendship. Melissa Munn was the first to graduate with a Ph.D. in the program. I thank her for forging the path for others and for her support and encouragement in the process. Thanks to Peggy Chrisovergis for her singular brand of humour, and her brilliance. She was there at a time when the contours of the project were still blurry, and finding my feet with her helped to make it a less daunting experience. In addition, I’ve been blessed with the camaraderie and insights of colleagues and friends, Justin Piché and Mike Larsen. To the staff and faculty (on the French and English sides) of the Criminology department, thank you for your support, your kindness and your counsel. I appreciated your interest in this project and your wisdom in our discussions. I would also like to express my gratitude to the staff at the Circulation department and Interlibrary Loans at the University’s Morrisset Library. You have been professional, courteous, and diligent in obtaining much needed documents. Thanks also to my union CUPE-2626, for its financial assistance. In addition, I acknowledge all the people at my former place of work, the Canadian Criminal Justice Association, for their encouragement, especially to Pierrette L’Écuyer and Irving Kulik. Working with you has facilitated the completion of this project, and I appreciate it tremendously. I thank fellow republican and peace process supporters for sharing their knowledge, and for their camaraderie and interest. In particular, I tip my hat to Alan McConnell of Friends of Sinn Fein iii Canada Inc. who has graciously facilitated contact with some key actors, and who has dispensed sound advice on more than one occasion. I am also indebted to Kate in Belfast. Not only did she provide lodging for me while I was conducting interviews, but her input was invaluable in helping me come to grips with a number of historical and sociological issues pertaining to the conflict. Tremendous support has also come from my entourage. I’d like to express my gratefulness to two wonderful daughters, Émilie and Phoebe, just for being there and also for their patience and their faith in me; to Phil, for helping to keep me focused on the project, and for his listening skills; to my cherished friends Nancy, Janet and Hélène; and to my mother, Dorothy, Uncle Jay and cousin Avril. iv Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Table of Contents v Chapter 1 Introduction - Bringing About Peace 1 Chapter 2 On Some of the Writing Dealing with the Conflict 17 Irish History and Revisionism 19 Works On the Partitioned State 22 Works on British Policy vis-à-vis the Partitioned State 23 Works about the IRA 26 Literature on the Struggle and Imprisonment of Irish Republicans 30 Works by Republican “Insiders” 33 Writings about the Peace Process 39 Sources on Other Conflicts 41 Theoretical Works on Power, Resistance and Leadership 42 Chapter 3 Establishing Theoretical Considerations and a Framework 46 Social Interactionism 47 The Teachings of Paulo Freire 48 On State Security Response to the Conflict 51 On Resistance 52 On Leadership 60 v On the Notion of Power 71 Chapter 4 Approach and Method 73 Qualitative Approaches and Ethnography 75 Critical Research 77 Semi-Insider Research 80 Praxis and Dialogical Interaction 83 Method of Inquiry and Steps 83 Observation 85 Ethical Considerations 87 The Semi-Structured Interview 88 The Interview Guide 88 The Sample 90 The Interview Participants 91 Access 93 Interview Process 95 Coding 97 Analysis 99 Constraints of this Investigation 99 Allowing the Method to Lead to Theoretical Understanding 101 Chapter 5 Context - Legislation in the Partitioned North and its Effects 102 Democracy, the Rule of Law, and Political Crisis 103 “Northern Ireland”: A Special Place 105 Extraordinary Legislation and Extra-Judicial Measures 107 Giorgio Agamben and the ‘State of Exception’ 116 The Resistance of Irish Republicans 120 Analysis 121 Chapter 6 Context - The IRA and Sinn Fein 132 vi Historical Benchmarks 136 The 1798 Rebellion 137 In the 19th Century 139 The Easter Rising of 1916 140 The War of Independence, the Civil War and Partition 142 Prison and Resistance 144 In Frongoch 145 In Other Prisons 146 In Long Kesh 147 The Mindset of a Volunteer 149 Chapter 7 Struggle - The Genesis of Involvement and Taking Resistance Within the Walls 152 Section 1: The Genesis of Involvement 156 Historical Continuity 156 The Impetus to Get Involved 158 “So Then I Joined the IRA” 163 Section 2: Taking Resistance Inside the Walls 165 Incarceration and Prisoner Resistance 167 Organizing IRA Structures In Prison 171 Organizing and Operationalizing Escapes 177 The Campaign for Special Status 183 The Blanket Protest 185 The No-Wash Protest 188 The First Hunger Strike (October - December 1980) 190 The Second Hunger Strike (March - October 1981) 193 The Campaign for Segregation 200 A Republican-Driven Agenda for Education 206 Internment (1971-1975) 208 The Campaign for Special Status (1976-1981) 211 Post-Hunger Strike Period (1982-2000) 213 Summary 220 Chapter 8 Leading and Leadership in the Republican Movement 223 Tipping the Balance from Secret Military Organization to Political Party 226 vii Conceptualizing Leadership 229 On Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness 232 On Collective Leadership 236 On Flexibility or, ‘Bob and Weave’ 237 On Humility or, ‘Check Your Ego at the Door’ 240 On Solidarity 245 On Various Talents Put to Use 247 On Empowerment or, ‘Having Confidence’ 249 Irish Republican Social Identity 252 The Spirit of Community 253 Leadership in Prison 255 Chapter 9 Prisoner