Kieran Nugent

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Kieran "Header" Nugent ( Irish Ciarán Núinseann , * 1958 ; † May 4, 2000 in Belfast , Northern Ireland ) was a volunteer with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). When he was sentenced to three years in prison, he was a volunteer . September 1976 should be forced to wear a prison uniform. The then 19-year-old refused the order of the prison guards as the first IRA member and replied: “They'll have to nail it to my back” (“You have to nail them to my back”). When this initially spontaneous refusal was followed by numerous other imprisoned Republicans, it led to the political blanket protest .

Background of the refusal

Since he was denied his civilian clothes, Kieran Nugent wrapped himself naked in the blankets available in the prison. This made him known in prison and beyond as the "First Blanketman".

The regulation that IRA prisoners were allowed to wear civilian clothing was won in 1972 by 40 IRA internees on a hunger strike led by IRA veteran Billy McKee . In 1976, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Merlyn Rees announced the gradual reduction of the special category status of political prisoners. This reduction in privileges stipulated, among other things, that inmates who had been convicted of terrorist activities would have to wear prison uniforms like ordinary criminals and would also have to take part in labor services within the prison. Another reason for the British government's action was that in 1976 the prisons and especially the so-called H-Blocks were overcrowded. In response to the threat of losing these privileges, many inmates responded by refusing to wear the mandatory prison uniforms and instead wrapping themselves in the blankets of their beds or lying naked on the floor of their cells. By Christmas 1976 the number of protesters had risen to over 40 prisoners.

The strike, known as the Blanket Protest , was part of five years of protests during the Northern Ireland conflict carried out by prisoners of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) detained in Long Kesh Prison and Armagh Women's Prison were. This protest, initiated by Nugent, was the dispute over the special status of the IRA prisoners. Later five demands were made, the so-called "Five Demands". These goods:

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

The Blanket Protest, after unsuccessful, turned into the Dirty Protest , in which 30 women participated in Armagh Women's Prison and more than 300 men in Long Kesh Prison . When this was unsuccessful, a hunger strike took place in 1980, followed by another hunger strike in 1981 , in which ten prisoners were killed. Only after this strike was the demand for personal clothing met.

Political life

On March 20, 1973, Kieran Nugent, aged 15, was standing with a friend on the corner of Merrion Street and Grosvenor Road in Dublin when a vehicle pulled up next to them. One of the inmates asked for a direction of travel, the other opened fire on them with a machine gun. Nugent was badly wounded by eight shots in the chest, back and arms by loyalists. His 15-year-old friend, Bernard McErlean, who was standing next to him, was killed.

In one of the following years, Nugent joined the IRA. He was arrested by the British Army at the age of 16 and imprisoned in Crumlin Road Prison for five months . In this prison, where he remained until February 9, 1975, he developed into an active volunteer for the IRA. He was then transferred to Maze Prison for nine months until November 12, 1975. He was arrested again on May 12, 1976, sentenced to three years in prison for hijacking a vehicle, and taken to Maze Prison in the H Blocks, where he refused to wear the prison uniform.

The blanket strike was ultimately unsuccessful, and the prisoners intensified their protest in the Dirty Protest and in the two hunger strikes in 1980/1981 , which resulted in the deaths of ten hunger strikers in 1981. It was not until the hunger strike of 1981 that the special status was reinstated and an assurance was given that the wearing of civilian clothes was irrevocably permitted.

Kieran Nugent died on May 4, 2000 after a heart attack. He left two children.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Laura Friel: The First H-Block Blanketman on An Phoblacht 1998 on irelandsown.net . Retrieved December 18, 2010
  2. ↑ Kieran Nugent dies: The first H block is blanked. Phoblacht. Republican News at republikcan.news.org . Retrieved December 18, 2010
  3. ↑ The legacy of the hunger strikes on Irish National Causus on www.irishnationalcausus ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved December 18, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.irishnationalcaucus.org
  4. ↑ Melanie McFadyean: The legacy of the hunger strikes on The Guardian, March 4, 2006 . Retrieved December 18, 2010
  5. ↑ Information on irishhungerstrike.com . Retrieved December 18, 2010
  6. ↑ Information on CAIN . Retrieved December 18, 2010
  7. ↑ Tom Hartley. May 5, 2000. Funeral Oration for Kierán Nugent on irelandsown.net . Retrieved December 18, 2010
personal data
SURNAME Nugent, Kieran
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Núinseann, Ciarán
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Northern Irish IRA member
DATE OF BIRTH 1958
DATE OF DEATH May 4, 2000
Place of death Belfast , Northern Ireland