Fifty years ago on 14 September 1976, nineteen-year-old Kieran Nugent from the Falls, Belfast, was the first republican sentenced under the British ‘criminalisation’ programme. Sentenced to three years he was taken to the H-Blocks where he was beaten for refusing to don a criminal uniform, accept a prison number and address the prison officers by ‘Sir’. Kieran Nugent thus started the blanket protest which was to grow in strength over the months and years until over 300 men were on the blanket protest and over 30 women in Armagh Jail were on 23-hour lock up for refusing to carry out penal work.
The protest would reach its zenith with the 1981 hunger strike in which ten republicans laid down their lives, defying and ultimately defeating British attempts to defeat the struggle for freedom led by the Republican Movement.
To commemorate Kieran’s heroic and courageous decision the Falls Commemoration Committee organised a series of events last weekend. On Saturday Kieran Nugent–The First Blanket Man, edited by Danny Morrison, was launched in Ionad Eileen Howell, St Comgall’s, Divis Street. Also on display was an exhibition outlining the history of resistance to criminalisation. Hundreds attended the book launch which included a panel discussion involving Síle Darragh, former OC of the women prisoners at the time of the 1980 and 1981 hunger strike; Gerry McConville, former blanket man and comrade of Kieran; and Danny Morrison, secretary of the Bobby Sands Trust.
Two of Kieran’s daughters, Eileen and Rae, were presented with copies of the book.
LEFT: Kieran’s grandson, Michael John. RIGHT: Michael John (left); his mother, Rae; Chip Fusco (centre); Kieran’s daughter, Eileen; Gerry McConville (right)
Danny Morrison (left), Gerry McConville (middle) and Sile Darragh (right)
On Sunday, friends and comrades of Kieran’s gathered at his grave in the City Cemetery at 1.30pm for an event chaired by Falls Sinn Féin Councillor, Christina Black. Tom Hartley reprised the oration he delivered at the same spot in May 2000. Kieran was just forty two when he died. Later, Alison McCrudden’s play Ar an Pluid – The Story of Kieran Nugent was shown in a local GAA club.
Former comrades gather to pay their respects at Kieran’s graveside
Tom Hartley reprised his 2000 oration to Kieran
On Monday evening, 14 September, the actual date of Kieran’s conviction in 1976, after which he started the blanket protest, republicans gathered at a mural dedicated to his memory in Divis Street, at which his comrade Fra McCann and former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams were interviewed. That picket can be viewed here.
(Photographs courtesy Peadar Whelan)
