Learning Behind Bars
How IRA Prisoners Shaped the Peace Process in Ireland
Published on 27. October 2022
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-1-4875-4582-6 (ISBN)
Description
Learning behind Bars is an oral history of former Irish republican prisoners in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland between 1971, the year internment was introduced, and 2000, when the high-security Long Kesh Detention Centre/HM Prison Maze closed. Dieter Reinisch outlines the role of politically motivated prisoners in ending armed conflicts as well as the personal and political development of these radical activists during their imprisonment.
Based on extensive life-story interviews with Irish Republican Army (IRA) ex-prisoners, the book examines how political prisoners developed their intellectual positions through the interplay of political education and resistance. It sheds light on how prisoners used this experience to initiate the debates that eventually led to acceptance of the peace process in Northern Ireland. Politically relevant and instructive, Learning behind Bars illuminates the value of education, politics, and resistance in the harshest of social environments.
Based on extensive life-story interviews with Irish Republican Army (IRA) ex-prisoners, the book examines how political prisoners developed their intellectual positions through the interplay of political education and resistance. It sheds light on how prisoners used this experience to initiate the debates that eventually led to acceptance of the peace process in Northern Ireland. Politically relevant and instructive, Learning behind Bars illuminates the value of education, politics, and resistance in the harshest of social environments.
Reviews / Votes
"Learning behind Bars is an interesting, informative and scholarly work."- Gerry Moriarty (Irish Times) "..with its chronological panorama, and the geographical and organisational range of its interview partners, Reinisch's book offers a valuable perspective on the experiences of republican prisoners at the periphery of the movement... his book is of undoubted value for scholars of the Northern Ireland conflict and, more broadly, for analysts of incarceration and the internal dynamics of militant social movements."
- Jack Hepworth, St Catherine's College, Oxford (Oral History Journal) "This is an important account of the role of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) prisoners who were imprisoned on both sides of the Irish border who were instrumental in starting the critical debate that ultimately contributed to resolving the Northern Ireland conflict through the 1994 Provisional (IRA) ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998."
- Joshua Sinai (Perspectives on Terrorism) "Drawing on the experience of learners and employing a framework which enables generalisations to be made from the particularities of Ireland, Dieter Reinisch makes a powerful case for the value of education in prisons for prisoners, prisons, and the wider society."
- Daniel Weinbren, Open University (Journal of Prison Education and Reentry) "An important contribution to the existing historiography of the conflict, Reinisch's decision to discuss both the similarities and differences of Irish republican prisoners on both sides of the border makes for a compelling narrative." - Robert Collins, University of Limerick (Irish Historical Studies)
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Toronto
Canada
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
6 b&w illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 159 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
460 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4875-4582-6 (9781487545826)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Dieter Reinisch is a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Political Science and Sociology at the National University of Ireland, Galway.
Content
Illustrations
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The Irish Prison Arena: Republican Prisoners and the Northern Ireland Conflict
2. "Portlaoise is an example for this": Portlaoise Prison Protests, 1973-7
3. "No prisoner has the right to advance the education of another": Education in Portlaoise Prison
4. The Harvey/McCaughey/Smith Cumann: Sinn Fein in Portlaoise Prison, 1978-86
5. "He was just rhyming off pages of it": Internment and the Brownie Papers, 1971-7
6. Marxist Esperanto and Socialism in Cell 26: Reading, Thinking, and Writing in the H-Blocks, 1983-9
7. "It's only when you look back ...": The Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Peace Process in the 1990s
Conclusion: An Irish Century of Camps
Interview Partners
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The Irish Prison Arena: Republican Prisoners and the Northern Ireland Conflict
2. "Portlaoise is an example for this": Portlaoise Prison Protests, 1973-7
3. "No prisoner has the right to advance the education of another": Education in Portlaoise Prison
4. The Harvey/McCaughey/Smith Cumann: Sinn Fein in Portlaoise Prison, 1978-86
5. "He was just rhyming off pages of it": Internment and the Brownie Papers, 1971-7
6. Marxist Esperanto and Socialism in Cell 26: Reading, Thinking, and Writing in the H-Blocks, 1983-9
7. "It's only when you look back ...": The Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Peace Process in the 1990s
Conclusion: An Irish Century of Camps
Interview Partners
Notes
Bibliography
Index