Jackie McMullan

Last updated

Jackie "Teapot" McMullan (born 1956) is a former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.

Contents

Background and IRA activity

McMullan was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1956, the third eldest of a family of seven children. [1] [2] He studied at a boarding school in Athlone in the Republic of Ireland before returning to Belfast in 1971. [2] Following the introduction of internment in August 1971, McMullan's home was raided several times and, in September 1971, his older brother Michael was interned. [2] [3] Later that year McMullan joined the IRA's youth wing Fianna Éireann: [2]

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. [4]

In 1973, aged 17, McMullan joined the IRA's Belfast Brigade. [2] In 1975 he acquired the nickname "Teapot" after the top of his ear was shot off during an attack on a British Army patrol. [5] He was arrested in 1976 in possession of a revolver following a gun attack on a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) base, and remanded to Crumlin Road Jail charged with attempting to murder RUC officers. [2] [3] At his trial in September 1976 he was convicted after forty minutes having refused to recognise the Diplock court; he received a life sentence and was sent to HM Prison Maze. [2] [4]

Imprisonment

McMullan was the second person convicted after the withdrawal of Special Category Status for paramilitary prisoners, and he joined the blanket protest started by Kieran Nugent and refused to wear prison uniform. [2] [3] [5] In 1978, after a number of attacks on prisoners leaving their cells to "slop out" (i.e., empty their chamber pots), the blanket protest escalated into the dirty protest, during which prisoners refused to wash and smeared the walls of their cells with excrement. [4] [6] As McMullan refused to wear a prison uniform he was not entitled to a monthly visit, and did not see his family until December 1979. [2] [4] McMullan described the visit 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. [4]

At his next visit, in March 1980, McMullan was expecting to see his mother Bernadette, but was instead visited by a priest who informed him of her death. [4] During McMullan's imprisonment Bernadette had supported the protests and was involved in the Relatives' Action Committee, the predecessor to the National H-Block/Armagh Committee. [2] [7] In support of the protesting prisoners Bernadette took part in demonstrations across the country and abroad, and was part of a group of women who chained themselves to railings outside 10 Downing Street in London. [3]

McMullan became the longest-serving protesting prisoner when Nugent was released in 1980, [5] [8] and later in the year the protest in the Maze escalated further and seven prisoners took part in a fifty-three-day hunger strike. The strike was aimed at restoring political prisoner status by securing what were known as the "Five Demands":

  1. The right not to wear a prison uniform;
  2. The right not to do prison work;
  3. The right of free association with other prisoners, and to organise educational and recreational pursuits;
  4. The right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week;
  5. Full restoration of remission lost through the protest. [9]

The strike ended before any prisoners had died and without political status being secured, and a second hunger strike began on 1 March 1981 led by Bobby Sands, the IRA's Officer Commanding (OC) in the prison. [10] McMullan joined the strike on 17 August, after Sands and eight other prisoners had starved themselves to death. [11] Following the death of Michael Devine and the intervention of the families of several prisoners the hunger strike was called off on 3 October, the 48th day of McMullan's hunger strike. [11] He later described his feelings about the end of the protest:

On the one hand I hadn't died but 10 of my friends had. It seemed at the time that we hadn't achieved our demands and that the protest was broke. But then we started to win the conditions outlined in the 5 Demands. A major escape [Maze Prison escape] was pulled off within two years. [2]

During his time in prison he studied with the Open University. [12]

Life after prison

McMullan was released in 1992, and initially struggled to re-adjust to life outside prison. [4] Since that time he has worked for Sinn Féin and helped set up groups for former prisoners. [2] [4] In 2000, he helped organise the transfer of the IRA prisoners' library of books from the former HM Prison Maze to Belfast's Linen Hall Library, with a view to setting up a lending library for former prisoners. [13] [14] McMullan has since worked as a political education officer for Coiste na n-Iarchimí, an umbrella organisation for Republican ex-prisoners groups, and, as of March 2007, he was working as a special advisor to Sinn Féin's Minister for Education Caitríona Ruane. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HM Prison Maze</span> 1971–2000 prison in Northern Ireland

HM Prison Maze was a prison in Northern Ireland that was used to house paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles from August 1971 to September 2000. On 15 October 1974 Irish Republican internees burned 21 of the compounds used to house the internees thereby destroying much of Long Kesh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1981 Irish hunger strike</span> Protest by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland, in which ten died

The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during the Troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976 when the British government withdrew Special Category Status for convicted paramilitary prisoners. In 1978, the dispute escalated into the dirty protest, where prisoners refused to leave their cells to wash and covered the walls of their cells with excrement. In 1980, seven prisoners participated in the first hunger strike, which ended after 53 days.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danny Morrison (Irish republican)</span> Irish republican activist and militant

Daniel Gerard Morrison is an Irish former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer, author and activist who played a crucial role in public events during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. An Irish republican, Morrison is also a former Sinn Féin publicity director and editor of Republican News and An Phoblacht. He is the secretary of the Bobby Sands Trust and current chairman of Féile an Phobail, the largest community arts festival in Ireland.

The blanket protest was part of a five-year protest during the Troubles by Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) prisoners held in the Maze prison in Northern Ireland. The republican prisoners' status as political prisoners, known as Special Category Status, had begun to be phased out in 1976. Among other things, this meant that they would now be required to wear prison uniforms like ordinary convicts. The prisoners refused to accept the administrative designation of ordinary criminals, and refused to wear the prison uniform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dirty protest</span> Part of a five-year protest during the Troubles

The dirty protest was part of a five-year protest during the Troubles by Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) prisoners held in the Maze Prison and a protest at Armagh Women's Prison in Northern Ireland. In March 1978 some prisoners refused to leave their cells to shower or use the lavatory because of attacks by prison officers, and the inmates would later start smearing excrement on the walls of their cells.

Edward Martin Hurson was an Irish Republican hunger striker and a Volunteer in the East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). He was the sixth to die during the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerry Kelly</span> Irish politician and former IRA volunteer (born 1953)

Gerard Kelly is an Irish republican politician and former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer who played a leading role in the negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement on 10 April 1998. He is currently a member of Sinn Féin's Ard Chomhairle and a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for North Belfast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brendan McFarlane</span> Irish republican activist (born 1951)

Brendan McFarlane is an Irish republican activist. Born into a Roman Catholic family, he was brought up in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast, Northern Ireland. At 16, he left Belfast to train as a priest in a north Wales seminary. He joined the Provisional IRA in 1969.

Denis O'Beirne Faul, was an Irish Roman Catholic priest best known, in the course of the Northern Ireland Troubles, for publicising security-force abuses and, controversially among Irish republicans, for his role, with the families of prisoners, in bringing to an end the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike. In 1995, his church awarded him the honorific title of Monsignor.

Kieran Nugent was an Irish volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and best known for being the first IRA 'blanket man' in the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland. When sentenced to three years for hijacking a bus, Nugent refused to wear a prison uniform and said the prison guards would have to "...nail it to my back".

Matt Devlin was a Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike and was later a leading member of Sinn Féin in County Westmeath, Republic of Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brendan Hughes</span> Irish republican (1948-2008)

Brendan Hughes, also known as "The Dark", and "Darkie" was a leading Irish republican and former Officer Commanding (OC) of the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). He was the leader of the 1980 Irish hunger strike.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond McCartney</span> Northern Irish politician (born 1954)

Raymond McCartney is an Irish former Sinn Féin politician, and a former hunger striker and volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carál Ní Chuilín</span> Principal Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly since 2024

Carál Ní Chuilín, formerly known as Caroline Cullen, is an Irish Sinn Féin politician and former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer serving as the Principal Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly since 2024. She has been a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Belfast North since 2007 and served in the Northern Ireland Executive as Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure until 2016. On 15 June 2020, she was appointed Minister for Communities on a temporary basis, due to the health of the previous minister, Deirdre Hargey.

Laurence McKeown is an Irish author, playwright, screenwriter, and former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat McGeown</span> Provisional IRA volunteer (1956-1996)

Pat "Beag" McGeown was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Meehan (Irish republican)</span> Irish politician (1945–2007)

Martin Meehan was a Sinn Féin politician and former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Meehan was the first person to be convicted of membership of the Provisional IRA, and he spent eighteen years in prison during the Troubles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Marley</span> Member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army

Laurence Marley was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) member from Ardoyne, Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was one of the masterminds behind the 1983 mass escape of republican prisoners from the Maze Prison, where Marley was imprisoned at the time, although he did not participate in the break-out. Marley was described by British journalist Peter Taylor as having been a close friend of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams. Marley was shot dead by an Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) unit two years after his release from the Maze. His shooting was in retaliation for the killing of leading UVF member John Bingham the previous September by the Ardoyne IRA.

Rosena Brown is an Irish actress of television, cinema, and stage from Belfast, Northern Ireland who also served as an intelligence officer for the Provisional IRA. Dubbed the "IRA Mata Hari", she was named in the murder trial of prison officer John Hanna, who was charged and convicted of helping the IRA kill colleague Brian Armour. She allegedly persuaded Hanna into providing information on Armour which she then passed on to the IRA; however, she was not charged with complicity in Armour's murder. In 1992, she and two men were arrested when a booby-trap bomb was found in their car. In 1993, she was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment, but was released in December 1998 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

Tom McFeely is an Irish property developer and former member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Originally from Dungiven area in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, McFeely was drawn into the violence that signalled the beginning of the Troubles in 1969 and would soon become a member of the Provisional IRA. Following a period of living life on the run, McFeely was captured and imprisoned after he and an accomplice robbed a post office in the mid-1970s. McFeely was sent to HM Prison Maze where he took on a leadership role amongst other imprisoned IRA men. In 1980 McFeely led seven IRA men on a hunger strike in protest against the revoking of special status for political prisoners, ultimately surviving for 53 days without food until the strike was called off by IRA leadership. In 1986 McFeely was amongst a number of Irish republicans who split from the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin over their recognition of the legitimacy of Dáil Éireann. He subsequently founded the League of Communist Republicans alongside fellow inmate Tommy McKearney.

References

  1. ↑ Alonso, Rogerio (2006). The IRA and Armed Struggle. Routledge. p. 16. ISBN   978-0415396110.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Remembering 1981 – Jackie McMullan's Hunger Strike experience". An Phoblacht . 17 August 2006. Retrieved 15 October 2007.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Paul Howard (7 May 2006). "The Hunger Strikers 25 years later". Sunday Tribune . Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 15 October 2007.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Melanie McFadyean (4 March 2006). "The legacy of the hunger strikes". The Guardian . Retrieved 15 October 2007.
  5. 1 2 3 Beresford, David (1987). Ten Men Dead. Atlantic Monthly Press. p. 66. ISBN   0-87113-702-X.
  6. ↑ Taylor, Peter (1997). Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 220. ISBN   0-7475-3818-2.
  7. ↑ Corcoran, Mary S. (2006). Out of Order: The Political Imprisonment Of Women In Northern Ireland 1972–98. Willan Publishing. p. 211. ISBN   978-1-84392-162-2.
  8. ↑ "Scars of the Blanket Protest remain". An Phoblacht. 9 February 2006. Retrieved 17 October 2007.
  9. ↑ Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin, pp. 229–234.
  10. ↑ "A Chronology of Main Events". CAIN. Archived from the original on 31 May 2007. Retrieved 15 October 2007.
  11. 1 2 "List of Dead and Other Hunger Strikers". CAIN. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 15 October 2007.
  12. ↑ "Insider knowledge". openDemocracy.
  13. ↑ Jack Holland (26 July 2000). "Wine, judo, Fidel and Mao: a library is liberated". The Irish Echo . Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2007.
  14. ↑ Kirsty Scott (2 December 2000). "Men of letters, men of arms". The Guardian . Retrieved 15 October 2007.
  15. ↑ Coiste na n-Iarchimí (January–March 2007). "Volume 9 Issue 1" (PDF): 10–13. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 November 2007. Retrieved 15 October 2007.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.