23 September 1999 Edition
Ex-internees demand truth and justice
By Ned Kelly
Representatives from the newly formed justice group, `Ex-Internees for Truth and Justice', met with Billy Stevens, a representative of the British government's Victims Liaison Unit, at Stormont last Wednesday morning, 15 September.
The group, which included Mary Kennedy, Tommy Gorman, Liam Shannon and Martin Meehan, asked for the meeting in order to discuss the failure of successive British governments to recognise the suffering of ex-internees and their families and to acknowledge that the ex-internee population of the North - at over 10,000 - have suffered as much as anybody from the 30-year conflict.
Their aim is to create a forum for the hundreds and thousands of people who were interned without charge and to force the British to apologise. Speaking after the meeting, Martin Meehan, the last internee to be released from Long Kesh in 1975, said that it was vital that the group was not excluded from the NIO initiative to recognise the victims of the war.
``We believe we should be treated the same as any other victims in this conflict. There should be no hierarchy of victims,'' he said, adding that the group was also organising ``a reunion of ex-internees'' in time for the millennium and that all ex-internees are welcome.
The group is also trying for a meeting with John Wilson, head of the Victims Commission in the 26 Counties.
Sixty-year-old Mary Kennedy, chairperson of the new group, told her story to An Phoblacht.
Burnt out of her Beverly Street home in 1969 by loyalists, Mary moved into the Divis flats, where she became passionately involved in the fight for better housing conditions. From 1972 onwards, Mary's home was constantly raided by the crown forces. In 1973, her husband was arrested and detained without trial for the second time. Mary was left with her four children and three foster children.
In 1974, as the North stood at the mercy of the loyalist Ulster Workers Council and its bid to bring down the Sunningdale power-sharing executive, Mary was arrested and detained without trial in Armagh Jail after being held for three and a half days in the Town Hall Street interrogation centre. Her detention papers were signed by the then Secretary of State, Merlyn Rees.
The seven children were left at home, effectively orphaned.
When Mary asked what would happen to her children, she was told ``it is none of your business anymore''.
``I was just told,'' says Mary, ``that I was going to Armagh. I had no rights to see my family. No change of clothes. No rights to a solicitor. I didn't see anyone except the Special Branch during those first days in Town Hall Street.''
Despite repeated requests for parole, it was never granted. Social Services brought in a ``house mother' to care for Mary's seven children. Mary says this ``was a bit of a disaster''. The children were verbally abused and beaten and the home was ``left to go to ruin''.
During this period, Mary's sister Evelyn was also interned. At the time, her children were three and eighteen months, respectively. Evelyn's youngest daughter was placed in a home in Lisburn. Despite repeated promises from the Social Services for access, Evelyn never saw her child while interned.
Four of their brothers were also interned during the same period - six children from the same family all detained without trial. For Mary's mother, this meant looking after various grandchildren on top of running around organising parcels and visits to the jails. When all her children were finally released, Mary's mother took a massive stroke and died.
Since being interned, Mary has developed symptoms of severe anxiety and psychological disturbance. She became clinically depressed and was diagnosed as suffering from anorexia. She has needed continual treatment over the past 25 years.
Following her release, Mary remained under the crown force microscope: ``I was released without being charged with any offence but I was not free. I remember going into town and being held for over four hours one time by the British army, based solely on the fact that I'd been interned and was in the town centre.
``It made you afraid to go into town. You were always wondering if you'd be a target. You'd be constantly targeted by the RUC and verbally abused. There were the usual insults but they'd also shout after me, `there's the wobbly corpse'.
``The home I came out to wasn't the home I'd left. It was a ruin. The kids would be out playing but they'd be forever checking back into the flat to see if you'd been taken away again. The kids were full of hatred and fear for uniforms. There was no such thing as the rights of the child back in those days. Those left behind were left to their own devices. Sixteen-year-old children were being interned.
``But the implications are much wider for the hundreds who passed through the internment camps. No one has ever apologised to any person, man or woman. They were lifting people for nothing. This has to brought forward and the victims of state terrorism must be accorded equal recognition.
``No internee has ever had any redress. Except for some partial victory for the hooded men, like Liam Shannon, who took their case to the European Court of Human Rights, but again this has never led to any real recognition of any wrongdoing by the British government.
``It is important for the people who were imprisoned without charge or those who were never told about what their crime was supposed to have been to come forward.
``If you put what happened to me and other internees in a different context the lack of recognition by the British is even more insulting. The British soldiers who were imprisoned in Japanese POW camps during the Second World War have continued to campaign for an official apology and compensation from both the Japanese and British governments.
``Here, however, there has been a complete lack of action over the hooded men and the men and women who were tortured without ever being charged or convicted of any crime. This is on a par with the Japanese situation.
``Those guilty of carrying out indiscriminate wholescale attacks on the nationalist community need to be brought to book. If you look at what the British did in countries like Aden the world knows about those atrocities but not so here. The Bloomfield report into victims of the war made no mention of the abuse of rights suffered by the internees.
``But I would say to anyone who has suffered internment without trial - come out, get involved and let the world know.''
The Ex-Internees for Justice and Truth can be contacted at 537 Falls Road, Belfast BT11 9AD.
Representatives from the newly formed justice group, `Ex-Internees for Truth and Justice', met with Billy Stevens, a representative of the British government's Victims Liaison Unit, at Stormont last Wednesday morning, 15 September.
The group, which included Mary Kennedy, Tommy Gorman, Liam Shannon and Martin Meehan, asked for the meeting in order to discuss the failure of successive British governments to recognise the suffering of ex-internees and their families and to acknowledge that the ex-internee population of the North - at over 10,000 - have suffered as much as anybody from the 30-year conflict.
Their aim is to create a forum for the hundreds and thousands of people who were interned without charge and to force the British to apologise. Speaking after the meeting, Martin Meehan, the last internee to be released from Long Kesh in 1975, said that it was vital that the group was not excluded from the NIO initiative to recognise the victims of the war.
``We believe we should be treated the same as any other victims in this conflict. There should be no hierarchy of victims,'' he said, adding that the group was also organising ``a reunion of ex-internees'' in time for the millennium and that all ex-internees are welcome.
The group is also trying for a meeting with John Wilson, head of the Victims Commission in the 26 Counties.
Sixty-year-old Mary Kennedy, chairperson of the new group, told her story to An Phoblacht.
Burnt out of her Beverly Street home in 1969 by loyalists, Mary moved into the Divis flats, where she became passionately involved in the fight for better housing conditions. From 1972 onwards, Mary's home was constantly raided by the crown forces. In 1973, her husband was arrested and detained without trial for the second time. Mary was left with her four children and three foster children.
In 1974, as the North stood at the mercy of the loyalist Ulster Workers Council and its bid to bring down the Sunningdale power-sharing executive, Mary was arrested and detained without trial in Armagh Jail after being held for three and a half days in the Town Hall Street interrogation centre. Her detention papers were signed by the then Secretary of State, Merlyn Rees.
The seven children were left at home, effectively orphaned.
When Mary asked what would happen to her children, she was told ``it is none of your business anymore''.
``I was just told,'' says Mary, ``that I was going to Armagh. I had no rights to see my family. No change of clothes. No rights to a solicitor. I didn't see anyone except the Special Branch during those first days in Town Hall Street.''
Despite repeated requests for parole, it was never granted. Social Services brought in a ``house mother' to care for Mary's seven children. Mary says this ``was a bit of a disaster''. The children were verbally abused and beaten and the home was ``left to go to ruin''.
During this period, Mary's sister Evelyn was also interned. At the time, her children were three and eighteen months, respectively. Evelyn's youngest daughter was placed in a home in Lisburn. Despite repeated promises from the Social Services for access, Evelyn never saw her child while interned.
Four of their brothers were also interned during the same period - six children from the same family all detained without trial. For Mary's mother, this meant looking after various grandchildren on top of running around organising parcels and visits to the jails. When all her children were finally released, Mary's mother took a massive stroke and died.
Since being interned, Mary has developed symptoms of severe anxiety and psychological disturbance. She became clinically depressed and was diagnosed as suffering from anorexia. She has needed continual treatment over the past 25 years.
Following her release, Mary remained under the crown force microscope: ``I was released without being charged with any offence but I was not free. I remember going into town and being held for over four hours one time by the British army, based solely on the fact that I'd been interned and was in the town centre.
``It made you afraid to go into town. You were always wondering if you'd be a target. You'd be constantly targeted by the RUC and verbally abused. There were the usual insults but they'd also shout after me, `there's the wobbly corpse'.
``The home I came out to wasn't the home I'd left. It was a ruin. The kids would be out playing but they'd be forever checking back into the flat to see if you'd been taken away again. The kids were full of hatred and fear for uniforms. There was no such thing as the rights of the child back in those days. Those left behind were left to their own devices. Sixteen-year-old children were being interned.
``But the implications are much wider for the hundreds who passed through the internment camps. No one has ever apologised to any person, man or woman. They were lifting people for nothing. This has to brought forward and the victims of state terrorism must be accorded equal recognition.
``No internee has ever had any redress. Except for some partial victory for the hooded men, like Liam Shannon, who took their case to the European Court of Human Rights, but again this has never led to any real recognition of any wrongdoing by the British government.
``It is important for the people who were imprisoned without charge or those who were never told about what their crime was supposed to have been to come forward.
``If you put what happened to me and other internees in a different context the lack of recognition by the British is even more insulting. The British soldiers who were imprisoned in Japanese POW camps during the Second World War have continued to campaign for an official apology and compensation from both the Japanese and British governments.
``Here, however, there has been a complete lack of action over the hooded men and the men and women who were tortured without ever being charged or convicted of any crime. This is on a par with the Japanese situation.
``Those guilty of carrying out indiscriminate wholescale attacks on the nationalist community need to be brought to book. If you look at what the British did in countries like Aden the world knows about those atrocities but not so here. The Bloomfield report into victims of the war made no mention of the abuse of rights suffered by the internees.
``But I would say to anyone who has suffered internment without trial - come out, get involved and let the world know.''
The Ex-Internees for Justice and Truth can be contacted at 537 Falls Road, Belfast BT11 9AD.