IRA's youth wing]:
the no jury court. He got 14 years.
one 30-minute visit each month.
I HAD received a pass to see Joe on 23 December; that was a Saturday, the day before Christmas Eve. I hadn't seen him _ nearly three months. My friend had seen her son about three days before wouldn't hardly talk about it. She just kept saying: "Thank God it's over.' When my daughter Sarah, my friend Kevin, and I went down on the Saturday morning we didn't know that Joe had already been force. washed. It was very, very cold. It was freezing. And we tried to make ourselves as looking as we could because it was Christmas. We had Sarah's baby with us and we had her dressed in her good clothes.
We didn't recognise Joe. We didn't even know who he was. I says to Sarah: first.' She walked past him and he called her. She looked at him and 1 looked and I didn't know who hie was — and I didn't want to know that that was my son sitting there. I says: 'Oh, Jesus Christ, what have they done?' He was blue, blue with cold. I had never seen before with the dirt and all the hair that was on him just how thin he was. He was like Belsen, like what you see on Holocaust on television.
And he was all bruised, and his hair was shaved right into his head, with big shaved right into the skin and other sticking out. His skin was scrubbed off his neck and you could see all the raw skin. And his ears - had big blackheads them. cheekbones were like two razor blades sticking o" The screws laughed at us.
You see, Cocause it as such a deaden shock. You because it was such a dreadful shock. couldn't éven try, it was such a shock. couldn't disguise the horror. I just said: Jesus Christ. Oh, Jesus Christ.' That's all I could say. Well, when the screws saw our faces they just stood and they laughed.
And the baby had a wee blue suit on her, blue with red-and white check, and one of the screws said: 'Lovely colours for a blanket man.
With the massive screws behind me I couldn't speak to him, and Sarah couldn't speak very much. She only says to him: 'What happened, Joe?' And he says: done', and then he started telling happened.
I couldn't listen. I kept just sitting looking at him. And Sarah just sat and looked at him. She just kept looking over at me and shaking her head, So Kevin just kept on talking to him to make it not so bad He wouldn't talk above a whisper. He just kept on saying: 'It's brutal, it's brutal. Now, our Joe always used to "Magic, no problem, Magic, no problem.' Kicking He couldn't move his back, there was something wrong with it. him what was wrong with his back and he says: 'Weil, we got a bit of kicking in the middle of the night last night.' And he says: 'Ma, don't be looking round, it was him behind you done it.' I says: T've got a stiletto-heeled shoe on me I'll put it in his eye and he'll never see again.' He says: "Ma, please don't, for I couldn't take no more of a kicking.' So I says to him: Look, son, let me tell you ei enough's enough. There's no man should even try to suffer this."..
Sarah says: *Joe, this is awful. How dare they do that." JOE is a blanket prisoner. He is 19 years old, and by this Christmas he will have spent two years and two months in H Block, Long Kesh. He is serving 19 years altogether. As a member of a staunchly Republican family, Joe was singled out by the 'security forces' for arrest. He was first charged when he was just 16 with a hoax bombing and membership of Na Fianna Eireann (the Joe refused to sign a statement and refused to recognise the no-Jury court. He got five years. On bail prior to his first court appearance, he was taken to Castlereagh and badly beaten for three days. He signed a statement admitting burning a bus depot. Once again he refused to recognise In September 1978, Socialist Challenge published an article by Joe's mother describing what had happened to him and how it telt to visit a son in H Block: She said that when Joe was charged a Special Branch officer told her: 'He'll see no more Christmas trees.' Blanket men are allowed Here Joe's mother describes a visit to her son in H Block last Christmas.
He says: "Let them do whatever they Like.
They can do this and worse. And if I have to go then for on hunger-strike I'll do it. For they're not going to beat me.' and she Well, I thought I was going to break down in front of him then. I but Kevin asked him what happened.
Joe said: "They came in and said, "Come on", 'and we said, 'No" us by the hair in the nude and they trailed us up the wing.' Joe told us that the screw shouted: bright- 'Hey, you', at Joe's friend, round and the screw just smashed his boot right into his face and smashed his nose in.
*You go couldn't ask him, So they just grabbed • and he turned Well, I came out of it and I didn't know what day it was. I never was as angry in my life, Eve.
Everybody was waiting to hear what the visit was like when we came back in the district, because everybody was hearing the stories of it. When I got off the bus I was so stunned with what I had seen 1 couldn't speak. So Sarah had to go round and tell the different people what it Nothing, was like. That night I cried from 11 o'clock to 5 The next day was Christmas Eve and every time anybody said, 'Christmas', I thought my I really thought he was going to die, and so did Sarah. I thought that either he would have would have come off the one of the two. I was worried sick peace. about his physical condition, and still I knew that they were right to do what they do.
Now January was an awful month for cold. I got one wee note from him and it said: 'Ma, I are praying for me, because we thought we were going to freeze to death without any clothes, especially on New Year's When I next went down to see him I says 'Did you get any Christmas cards, my son? You got over 50 sent to you.' He said: 'They let me see three.' You can't give them anything at Christmas.
absolutely nothing.
I said to him: 'How long do you think this is going to last?' He said: "I don't care how long it's going to last, but I'm not going to put on any prison gear for nobody.' I've always felt the same about the British being in this country. They have no right to be here, and while they're here there will never be They destroyed this country and destroyed half of the people in it. No matter how many Irish people die for it, no matter how many mothers sit with broken hearts, it will make no odds, because the Irish will still fight against the British.