The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1966–1995 and the Search for Peace

by Tim Pat Coogan

on 14 September 1976, four days after Mason arrived in the province, Kieran Nugent, a young IRA volunteer who had been sentenced for hijacking a van, proceeded to make history. He informed the prison authorities that if they wanted him to wear the prison uniform, ‘they would have to nail the clothes to my back’. This defiance caused Nugent to become the first of the ‘blanket men’. As a punishment, all furniture was removed from his cell and he remained from 7.30 a.m. until 8.30 p.m. each day on a concrete floor with no mattress, bed or reading material. His diet was also adversely affected, and, as he would not wear the uniform, his only clothing became a blanket. As other prisoners began to follow Nugent’s example, a general ‘no-wash’ protest spread amongst the prisoners. They wore their prison clothes to accept visits only, but at other times had only a towel to cover themselves. When they went to the showers they had to use this towel, so they asked for a second. When this was refused they also refused to wash, on the grounds that they should not be forced into nakedness. The sole item of furniture in their cells was a chamber pot. It was shortly to assume a degree of significance in the situation. The prison routine was ‘food in – slops out’. A trolley would come around with food for the prisoners, followed by another trolley for their slops. The prisoners claimed that the warders only half-emptied the pots and sometimes up-ended them on the floors. From this ‘the Dirt...