FOR the visitor to Belfast, it quickly becomes clear that the the There is no getting away from it: the physical psychological impact on both the prisoners and relatives has been too great.
We stayed in the Short Strand, an isolated nationalist enclave of some two thousand people on the bank of the Lagan. This small community has 18 men on tne blanket women in Armagh.
The relatives live under enormous stress. woman we met. McVeigh, had collapsed a few days previously on the tourth anniversav of her son's arrest. ner, ner nusband burst into tears. Mrs McVeigh explained that he had had a stroke some years back. seen Sean since he walked out that door.' and their LWO Mrs When we visited 'He hasn't and he has 15 ImprisonMrs McVEIGH She has British jails, . H Block change of February. his their visits. nails were dirty, awful lot of weight.' Her carried so much that way.' her the women can wear their own clothes. But since going on the no-wash protest, they haven't had underwear SILe Mrs Callaghan explains that the women used to get dressed up for But now, 'her hair and and she's lost an The cells are stinking. "They used to empty their chambers out of the window, but now it's all boarded up, so they have to use the cell. They say the smell is really awful. The urine is the worst: they just plaster the other on the walls because you can't smell it Callaghan; like the relatives we spoke to, is 100 per cent daughter's protest. *Britain should not be in Ireland, and no peace till Britain says 'The people Britain should go on the streets to get Then the British government would have to sit whose husband has been three years on the blanket, talks about the effect on her two sons, who are seven and five. She doesn't take them on every monthly visit, because she doesn't like them to NATIONAL The youngest, Seamus, refuse to go on the visits. 'It's chang u now. our uncre uscu to be a zice was afraid, because they used to lock the door and turn the key. It was the sensation of knowing you couldn't get out.' Seamus is also very about his father's hair. 'His hair is black now, but really it's yellow. It's black because it hasn't been washed Where is his own hairski Seamus keeps asking doesn't like the beards, because they NEI SUSAN MacART used to She says: 'When the blanket protest started first, understood what it entailed, what it really meant. Britain can't go any further, the H Blocks can't get any worse - and still it's not deterring them.
don't believe confused people in the street in Britain really know what is going on. now will inevitably get involved, she me, considers.
And he you really see it? In the summer, they which I don't think we crowd.
ordinary The children who are growing up 'You know when I think all come out at night and play football and handball. Every summer there's less of them, and there's a different You'll look and you'll say, "Oh, there's so-and-so — his chum's away. " This year you can see the ones who have been in jail and you say to yourself, "Oh, there's so-and-so, and he's only out of jail".
Tears fill her eyes as she says: 'Everything is related round jail. It's either he's in jail, he's going to jail he's out of jail. Everything has jail connected with it.'
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issue of overriding concern to nationalist community is
the struggle for political status in the H Blocks and Armagh.