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Criminalisation and the Road to the Hunger Strike
The Blanketmen
Prior to 1976 political detainees in Northern Irish prisons,both Republican and Loyalist,had enjoyed what amounted to POW status setting them apart from "common criminals".
*1. The right to wear their own clothes.
*2. The right to abstain from prison work.
*3. The right to associate freely within their own prison confine.
*4. The right to use educational and recreational areas.
*5. The right to full remission on their sentences for good behavior.
These conditions had existed for the preceeding three and one half years before 1976 and had been gained largely due to the efforts of an earlier hunger striker, Billy McKee.
In 1976 however the "Special Category Status" was rescinded and replaced with the implementation of "Criminalisation" and those five priviledges were revoked.
Republican prisoners in reaction to these changes refused to wear prison clothes opting instead for a towel and blanket.They would rather go naked than wear the uniform of a criminal. They came to be known as the Blanketmen.
Gradually sinse they refused prison clothing...they were not allowed to wash, shave, exercise or leave their cells unless and until they conformed and put on the convicts uniforms.They would not!
Visits and mail became affected...and the amount of each the blanketmen were allowed to receive was reduced as well. The conditions became so that the prisoners,not having toilets in their cells,were forced to relieve themselvesin pots. And this was very seldom emptied. Attempts by the prisoners to discard their waste through the windows was thwarted by the gaurds blocking the windows. As a final resort the blanketmen were forced to smear their own body waste upon the floors and walls of their cells. And these atrocious and disgusting conditions lasted well into the hunger strike of 1981.
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