Jackie McMullan
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.
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
Imprisonment
McMullan was the second person convicted after the withdrawal of
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":
- The right not to wear a prison uniform;
- The right not to do prison work;
- The right of free association with other prisoners, and to organise educational and recreational pursuits;
- The right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week;
- 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
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.
References
- ISBN 978-0415396110.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Remembering 1981 – Jackie McMullan's Hunger Strike experience". An Phoblacht. 17 August 2006. Retrieved 15 October 2007.
- ^ a b c d 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.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Melanie McFadyean (4 March 2006). "The legacy of the hunger strikes". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 October 2007.
- ^ ISBN 0-87113-702-X.
- ISBN 0-7475-3818-2.
- ISBN 978-1-84392-162-2.
- ^ "Scars of the Blanket Protest remain". An Phoblacht. 9 February 2006. Retrieved 17 October 2007.
- ^ Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin, pp. 229–234.
- CAIN. Retrieved 15 October 2007.
- ^ a b "List of Dead and Other Hunger Strikers". CAIN. Retrieved 15 October 2007.
- ^ "Insider knowledge". openDemocracy.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Kirsty Scott (2 December 2000). "Men of letters, men of arms". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 October 2007.
- ^ 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.
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