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7 April 2022 Edition

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From H-Block Hell Hole to University of Freedom

James McVeigh’s first novel ‘Stolen Faith’ was published recently and reviewed in An Phoblacht online. We asked James to write for us on the wider story of his journey through the H-Blocks on to being a Sinn Féin councillor, trade union representative, and now novelist.

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Stolen Faith is the title of my debut novel published by the O’Brien Press. It is a tragic love story and thriller dealing with the consequences of Ireland’s brutal system of Mother and Baby Homes. 

Many victims and survivors of these terrible institutions have praised my novel. A fact I am immensely grateful for and genuinely humbled by. It is hard to believe that it is only the second work of fiction that deals with the experience of these women and children and seeks to tell their stories. Their truth cries out to be told and heard. Not just here in Ireland, but throughout the world. 

I hope my novel is read by thousands, millions even. Not just for me, but for them. All writers dream. But if it’s only ten, or one hundred, or one thousand even, so be it. It is a story I am incredibly proud of that needs to be heard. 

I often shake myself as I reflect upon my own personal journey from IRA fighter to writer. I left school at 16 and went on to study to be an engineer. This was 1981, the year of the Hunger Strikes. 

The tragic death of the hunger strikers, the brutal conflict on the streets with the RUC and British Army catapulted me into the IRA. At 17, I believed, and still do, that I was justified in taking up arms to fight a foreign army that patrolled our streets, searched and destroyed our homes, and let our neighbours and friends die on Hunger Strike. 

I left the normal life of work and study behind, committing myself to the life of an urban guerrilla. Not unlike many of those brave young Ukrainians who have taken up arms to defend their country from Russian invasion. 

I see myself and my young friends who joined the IRA in their innocent idealistic faces. It is beyond ironic that many of those who once condemned us are now cheerleaders for the Ukrainian resistance. 

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• March 2014: Poverty conference in Belfast City Hall  – James was Sinn Féin council group leader

Within two years, I was captured by RUC and imprisoned in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh, one of Britain’s notorious gulags in Ireland. Over the previous decade, it had housed thousands of republican prisoners and its fair share of innocent men and boys who had been tortured and sent to prison for decades on the basis of false confessions. 

When I landed in the H-Blocks, the blanket protest was over. Conditions were much better and republican prisoners could associate together and use their time outside of the cells in whatever way they saw fit. Usually sports activities, handicrafts and education, and, of course, planning escapes. 

I was encouraged by older republicans, mostly former blanket men, to read, to participate in the prisoner’s own education program, and to take advantage of the formal education now available within the prison.

I chose education. We devoured every book we could get our hands on. We watched every documentary shown on television. We debated and we argued. We studied our history in minute detail and imagined the future. 

We drew inspiration not just from our own heroes, but from across the world, from across millennia, from Spartacus to Ho Ci Minh. From Mary Ann McCracken to Rosa Parks. 

During those years, a wonderful institution arrived in the H-Blocks. It was the Open University. Within a few years, dozens of Republican prisoners were studying with the OU, myself included. The H-Blocks had now become a University of Freedom. 

I often thought of the hunger strikers and the blanket men as I studied in my cell late into the night. This was their priceless gift to me and I refused to waste it. 

Two prison sentences and 16 years later, I had finished my history degree with the OU, had begun a Masters in Human Rights, and had published my first history book ‘Executed: Tom Williams and the IRA’, focusing on his execution by the British in 1942. Many others had done likewise or had written plays, poetry, short stories, some had even begun the first chapters of their PhDs. What an incredible journey and story! 

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• July 2000 - James McVeigh, speaking to the press on his release from the H-Blocks

From naked men and women scribbling Irish vocabulary and grammar on shit covered walls and shouting lessons through the narrow gaps in the heavy metal doors, to many of those same men and women constructing complex theories and hypotheses within those very same concrete boxes. 

Many of those men and women are now political leaders and activists, many are community activists, some like myself are Trade Union activists, trying to follow in the footsteps of James Connolly and Winifred Carney. 

Others lead quiet contented lives simply dedicated to their families. Others remain scared by the horror of the conflict, by what was done to them and indeed what they did to others. That also is the legacy of our conflict. 

However, it is wonderful to see so many former prisoners write and publish literature. Too many to actually name here. Isn’t that something? 

Poets, historians, journalists, playwrights, film makers, actors, bloggers, seanachaíthe, ‘sleggers’, (a prison term for slagging), some of the world’s best ‘sleggers’ actually. Olympian sleggers! 

I’m still on a journey that began in a quiet H-Block cell. Planning my next novel which will be set in occupied Palestine. 

What an incredible journey. One that began with one young, terrified, but extremely brave prisoner, Kieran Nugent. Followed by years of gruelling protest and ten incredibly courageous hunger strikers. A truly inspiring journey that turned a hell hole into a university of freedom.

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