Voices from Inside By Paddy McMenamin

While much has been written on the experiences of republican prisoners during the conflict from 1969 onwards there has been comparatively less attention paid to writing produced by prisoners themselves. There was a vibrant culture of education and debate inside the Cages of Long Kesh, but while we have many second-hand accounts of this, relatively few copies of journals produced by the prisoners have survived.

Luckily, Paddy McMenamin not only edited one of these journals for a period, but managed, with the help of his family, to smuggle several issues out. Reproduced here, they provide a fascinating snapshot of the debates taking place among just one group of Provisional IRA prisoners in Cages 10/18 between 1974 and 1976.