Publisher's Synopsis
Dr Laurence McKeown is a published author, poet, playwright, and filmmaker. He is also a former IRA political prisoner, having spent 16 years in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh: 1976-1992. It was during his incarceration that he became involved with academia and the arts. This memoir is about his first five years in prison when, along with several hundred other comrades, he endured the most extreme conditions during what is now regarded as the longest, collective, prison protest ever by Irish republican prisoners in their fight to be recognised as political prisoners. In this minutely observed account, Laurence unpacks the physical and psychological tactics used against the prisoners, and reveals the many ways in which the prisoners defied the regime.
