Jackie McMullan

Jackie McMullan , nicknamed Teapot , (* 1955 in Belfast , Northern Ireland ) is a former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and took part in the Irish hunger dispute in 1981 .

Early life

Jackie McMullan was the third oldest child in a family of seven. He studied in Athlone in the Republic of Ireland before returning to Belfast in 1971. According to the internment policy , which the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Merlyn Rees wanted to introduce gradually from August 1971, McMullan's house was searched several times and in September 1971 his eldest brother Michael was interned. Later that year, McMullan became a member of the Fianna Éireann , the IRA's youth organization. McMullan commented on this from his adolescent experiences:

“In my teens I was arrested maybe 20 times. Every male aged 13 to 65 would have been arrested, the vast majority for screening. And every single one of my friends joined the Fianna. We'd be scouting; you wouldn't have participated in firing guns or in ambushes. After school there were riots. The Brits, probably bored out of their skulls, used to drive down the Glen Road every day as schools were getting out. "(" In my youth I was arrested maybe twenty times. Many women between the ages of 13 and 65 were imprisoned. Each of mine A friend was in Fianna. We were observers and wanted to take part in the shootings or attacks. After school there were riots. The British, certainly deadly bored, always drove down Glen Road every day after school when school was over. "

In 1973, at the age of 17, McMullan became a member of the Belfast Brigade . In 1975 he was nicknamed "Teapot" after being shot in the head over one of his eyes during an attack by a British Army patrol . Arrested in 1976 in possession of a revolver following an armed attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) base, he was arrested at Crumlin Road Jail on charges of attempted murder of RUC officers. At the trial in September 1976, McMullan denied the court its recognition and contradicted its jurisdiction and was sentenced to life imprisonment after 40 minutes of trial and subsequently imprisoned in Maze Prison .

captivity

McMullan was the second person to refuse to wear the prison uniform and insist on special category status for paramilitary prisoners. He then took part in the Blanket protest that Kieran Nugent started. In 1978, after a series of attacks on prisoners by prison guards as they were leaving their cells, the protest escalated into the Dirty Protest . In this protest, the prisoners refused to wash their bodies and smeared their cell walls with their excrement because they refused to leave their cells. Because McMullan refused to wear the uniform, he was banned from visiting and did not see his family until December 1979. McMullan described the visits in an interview:

“The screws [prison officers] standing beside you, hating you, hating your relatives. Your eyes are bulging because you're locked in a cell 24 hours a day, you have matted hair, you're filthy, you look like a deranged maniac. You go out and try to act normal to your family, putting on a brave face, and so are they. ”(“ The prison guards stood next to you, hated you and your relatives. Our eyes protruded because we were in the cells for 24 hours During the day we looked rigidly, our hair was tangled, we felt dirty, we looked like confused lunatics. You went out and tried to deal with your family normally, made a brave face - that's how we were. ")

On his next visit in March 1980, McMullan wanted to see his mother Bernadette, but a priest came to tell him about her death. During McMullan's imprisonment, his mother had supported the protest and had joined the Relatives Action Committee , a predecessor of the National H-Block / Armagh Committee . In support of the prisoners, Bernadette took part in demonstrations all over the country and abroad; she was involved in a group of women protesting at the fence in front of No. Downing Street. Chained 10 in London .

McMullan became the longest-running prisoner to protest when Nugent was released in 1980 and when protests escalated later in the year and seven prisoners went on 35-day hunger strikes. This strike was intended to restore the paramilitary prisoners' original rights. Towards the end of 1980, the Dirty Protest escalated because their demands were not accepted, and seven prisoners went on a 35-day hunger strike to restore the original status, which included the demands known as the "Five Demands":

• The right not to wear prison uniforms
• The right to refuse prison labor
• The right to freely communicate with other prisoners and to organize educational and recreational events
• The right to one visit, one letter and one package per week
• Complete remission of those involved in the strike.

This strike ended before any of the hunger strikers died, and previous political status was assured. When the prisoners finally realized that their demands had not been fully met, the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike began on March 1, 1981 , led by Bobby Sands , the prison's commanding IRA officer. McGeown went on strike on July 9th after Sands and four other prisoners died.

Following the death of the hunger strike Michael Devine and the interventions of the families of numerous prisoners, the strike ended on October 3, 1981, the 48th day of McMullan's hunger strike.

Life After Captivity

McMullan was released in 1992 and immediately afterwards campaigned for the rights of released Republican prisoners. Since then he has worked for the IRA's political wing, the Sinn Féin , and helped set up groups for former prisoners. In 2000 he helped transfer the Maze Prison prisoner's library to the Linen Hall Library in Belfast, which provides an insight into the former prisoners' lending library. Since his release, McMullan has worked in the training of political training officers at Coiste na n-Iarchimí , an umbrella organization for groups of former Republican prisoners. Since March 2007 he has been working as a special advisor for Sinn Féin's Minister for Education Caitríona Ruane .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Remembering 1981 - Jackie McMullan's Hunger Strike experience . Phoblacht . August 17, 2006. Retrieved October 15, 2007.
2. ^ ^{A b c d} Paul Howard: The Hunger Strikers 25 years later . Sunday Tribune . May 7, 2006. Retrieved October 15, 2007.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Melanie McFadyean: The legacy of the hunger strikes . The Guardian . March 4, 2006. Retrieved October 15, 2007.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} David Beresford: Ten Men Dead . Atlantic Monthly Press, 1987, ISBN 0-87113-702-X , p. 66.
5. ↑ Peter Taylor : Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin . Bloomsbury Publishing , 1997, ISBN 0-7475-3818-2 , p. 220.
6. ^ Mary S. Corcoran: Out Of Order: The Political Imprisonment Of Women In Northern Ireland 1972-98 . Willan Publishing, 2006, ISBN 978-1-84392-162-2 , p. 211.
7. ↑ Feature interview: Mary Nelis . To Phoblacht , September 28, 2006. Retrieved December 18, 2010
8. ^ Scars of the Blanket Protest remain . Phoblacht . February 9, 2006. Retrieved October 17, 2007.
9. ↑ Peter Taylor : Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin . Bloomsbury Publishing , 1997, ISBN 0-7475-3818-2 , pp. 229-234.
10. ^ A Chronology of Main Events . CAIN. Retrieved October 14, 2007.
11. ↑ ^{a b} List of Dead and Other Hunger Strikers . CAIN. Retrieved October 14, 2007.
12. ↑ Mick Beyers: Interview with ... Jackie McMullan . In: coiste.comm . tape 9 , no. 1 . Coiste na n-Iarchimí, January 2007, p. 10–13 ( digitized version ( memento of November 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) [PDF; accessed October 15, 2007]). Interview with… Jackie McMullan ( Memento from November 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive )