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

by Tim Pat Coogan

It had become common practice to use beatings and threats to extract confessions. Heath’s declaration forswearing the use of the five techniques did not prevent men having their testicles kicked, beaten and squeezed; women being threatened with rape; threats that if a suspect did not talk, his family would be harmed; and, shades of Heatherington and McGrogan, the interrogation of minors without the presence of their guardians or parents. Under the Special Powers Act it was virtually impossible for a suspect to see a solicitor while in police custody, against the wishes of his, or her, interrogators. Naturally the system created a burning sense of injustice in the Nationalist community against whom it was mainly, if not exclusively, directed. The 94 per cent conviction rate obtained by the ‘conveyor belt’ system explains both the high prisoner population, and the sense of outrage amongst the population that led to the outbreak of the hunger strikes.