Long Kesh Is Demolished

By Brendan Anderson

LONG Kesh, one of the world’s most notorious prison camps, is being demolished to make way for a multi-sports arena and conflict transformation centre.

Wrecking crews moved in Monday and began to dismantle the complex of old Nissen huts hastily erected in 1971 near Lisburn to house internees being held without trial.

The barbed-wire compounds, officially and appropriately known as cages, were occupied mainly by Republicans initially, although numbers of Loyalists were also interned as the Irish Troubles worsened.

The round-topped huts of Cage 20, an IRA compound, were first to fall when the bulldozers began work. Demolition is expected to take up to a year with the second phase of clearing the main 360-acre site beginning next year.

A vigorous international anti-internment campaign in the 1970s severely embarrassed the British government, which attempted to alter the prison camp’s notorious image by changing the name to the Maze after the area where it was sited.

Internees in Long Kesh retained their own command structure and ran their compounds on military lines, with officers being elected by fellow prisoners.

A complex of cells was later built alongside the cages to hold the hundreds of men imprisoned by the “conveyor belt” no-jury Diplock courts system. These buildings, because of their shape, became known as the H-Blocks.

The H-Blocks achieved notoriety when Republicans seeking political prisoner status embarked on a no-wash, no prison uniform protest. The protest escalated into a hunger strike which resulted in the deaths of ten Republicans in 1981.

The prison hospital where the men died, as well as one of the H-Blocks will be preserved. British government plans for the site include a 42,000-seat sports area.

Northern Prisons Minister David Hanson said, “Clearing the site will be part of the mission to transform it into a symbol of economic and social regeneration, renewal and growth. The demolition of the Maze/Long Kesh, leaving only those former prison buildings which have been given statutory protection, marks a further step towards achieving the goal of a new future for the site, a future that can be shared by the whole community.”

A cross-party Maze/Long Kesh committee has been set up to monitor the transformation of the prison. Chairman Edwin Poots, a DUP Assembly Member, welcomed assurances by Sinn Fein that the jail “would not be turned into a shrine to Republicanism.” He said the beginning of demolition work “signified a clear demonstration of gathering momentum” and represented a “major step forward to reshape this site.”

Vice chairman Paul Butler of Sinn Fein spent several years imprisoned in Long Kesh. He said his party’s primary concern had been the preservation of the site because of “its historical importance, not just to Republicans but to the wider community as well.”

“The start of demolition work at the cages of Long Kesh is a day of mixed emotions for Republicans. Many thousands of Republican prisoners spent a big part of their lives in these cages and today part of their past is being taken away,” Butler said.

“However, Republicans I believe will look positively to the future and will see that today marks the beginning of a new shared vision for the former prison where the preserved listed prison buildings will play an important role.”