The Other View

Survival Techniques of Prison Protest

By Michael White

Being locked up twenty-four hours a day in an H-Block prison cell creates problems for any prisoner but it’s ten times worse if you’ve been on a protest for x number of years. As any experienced prisoner knows, prison is all about doing ‘bird’ in your head and not, contrary to widespread anecdotes, on your head. That may well be okay for those short-time men whose coats are still swinging down in reception by they have done their bit of whack. When it comes to survival on a long-term basis, especially when you are naked in a cell and still can’t come to terms with the smell of your cellmate’s excrement you tend to think that things cannot get worse.

Just when you think that … they do. Isn’t it always the way of it? You haven’t had a smoke for nearly a week, you’ve just acquired some tobac and you think its Christmas. You have enough ‘skins’ and don’t mind at all patiently and tediously eking out a ball of cotton fluff from your white towel ends (protesters were issued with white cotton or linen towels, which they wore around their waists). All you needed was a splanc or spark to ignite that tiny ball of cotton fluff and this was the old saying that necessity is the mother of invention comes into its own. A device known a ‘splunker’ (from the Irish word splanc meaning spark) must be one of the hallmarks or maybe even the epitome of prison survival ingenuity. It consisted of a lighter flint or several, which was embedded into a plastic knife handle. Sometimes longer industrial type flints were smuggled in and because of their longevity these were prized possessions and were easier to operate. A spark was then produced when a piece of glass (some prisoners broke their spectacle glass) or another flint was struck along the embedded flint that ignited the fluff ball. Even more ingenious were the ways of moving stuff from cell to cell despite the fact that everyone was banged up twenty-four hours a day.

‘Shooting the crap’ acquired a whole new meaning on the blanket. Thread was put through the hole in a button, which in turn was strategically placed in the gasp between the floor and the cell door. An implement, usually a spoon or comb was used to strike or shoot the button at an angle across the wing floor. The trajectory was important as the same procedures was repeated by those in the cell opposite and the lines carried by the buttons had to cross and entangle. Once a line was established communiqués and material could be passed across the wing. Prisoners in the cells nearest the grills stood at their door, sometimes for hours, ever vigilant for raids by the screws. After such operations, pots of urine were emptied out onto the wing but not before the all-important task of passing tobac over had been completed. These were important and essential lines of communication. A relay system between cells also existed. This involved passing or swinging a pouch made from pieces of blanket from one cell to another via cell windows. Anything from food to toilet paper (mostly the former) poems is Irish/English, miniaturised copies of Republican News, lectures typed out on fine paper, all this and more, was passed up and down the wings and these operations were carried out both day and night.

Back to Contents