The Troubles | The Maze Prison | H Blocks | Provisional IRA | Prisoners | TV Eye | 1978

*This is a shortened version of the original report
'TV Eye' reporter Peter Taylor reveals the conditions inside the notorious H blocks at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland where 351 Provisional prisoners are living naked in their cells except for a blanket each. Cell walls are covered with their own excretia. Interviews with anonymous prison offiers show just how bad they believe the conditions have become.
First shown: 07/12/1978
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Quote: VT20447

[@f.b508]

Peter Taylor made a lot of good documentaries on the situation in the north of Ireland. He spent a lot of years in Ireland. Doing his job. Well done to him. For highlighting the political situation in the north of Ireland. 💚🇮🇪✊

[@davisoneill]

He was still an arrogant Brit.

[@jimcazador6057]

Northern Ireland? Republicans accepted that title when they signed the GFA and accepted the British terms of surrender on them

[@jackietreehorn5561]

@@jimcazador6057 could have been sorted out much earlier without needless lives lost

[@CK-dd7eq]

@@jackietreehorn5561 your talking like it's sorted. Not yet.. #32

[@jackietreehorn5561]

@@CK-dd7eq the agreement I was referring to...of course it's not sorted...I worded that wrong

[@sooner6288]

As an American with a very rudimentary understanding of this situation, I find the spectacle of it absolutely surreal. Quiet neighborhoods full of people who look no different than I, patrolled with soldiers in berets and armored vehicles. Makes visualizing a dystopian world so much more vivid and real to me

[@jackietreehorn5561]

Typical recruiting propaganda tho of the government that seen fit to send young men indoctrinated into the regions.... always the troops thought they were going to make a difference and quickly discovered they were not wanted and became targets

[@curtisault2508]

Vote Democrat then in the mid-term election. Get rid of your fascists. It wasn't surreal, it was real.

[@watermarginramsgate180]

People like you?

[@patricktate4782]

@@watermarginramsgate180 white

[@watermarginramsgate180]

@@patricktate4782 hahahaha exactly this proves that bigotry is for idiot's America is not just white.

[@exempligratia101]

Very intense times, the Troubles. With such extreme actions were met with extreme measures, tragically.

[@jackietreehorn5561]

As David ervine once described it as...a hamster wheel to hell... summed it up perfectly

[@stephensmith4480]

@@jackietreehorn5561 I`ve just been reading that in the book Voices from The Grave.

[@79devo]

I remember this as a teenager. Even got discussed at school … terrible times.

[@civlyzed]

I was fascinated by The Troubles as a kid and read everything related I could find to try and understand the situation. As an American kid in the 70s, it was difficult to find information, but now, as an old dude I appreciate how easy it is. Terrible times indeed. Cheers!

[@f.b508]

@@civlyzed it was a mad situation we were brought up living in. But as kids it was fascinating too. As we always were out throwing stones at the British army. My best friend got shot by a rubber bullet and lost his eye. Most of us went on to join the IRA. After Bloody Sunday in Derry. And after the Bally Murphy massacre. 💚🇮🇪✊

[@TeddyBear-ii4yc]

​@@civlyzedIt was similar to how black were treated in the States, y'see when black GIs came here in the war our girls would dance with them which caused issues bcos of the white GI onlookers. The British didn't kick off. You accept the beliefs & customs of the society you are raised in. 👍

[@georgebrowne5935]

I don't care what side anyone is from, but for Men and Women to feel the need to put themselves through this daily torture and mental torment, must know they are Right and Honourable. It just wouldn't be possible for a Human being otherwise. No Loyalists ever done anything like this, according to themselves. The Truth is fairly clear to those of us willing to admit it.

[@edwardodonnell6857]

I bet there wasn’t many rich wealthy landowners in the H blocks always the same regardless of the country the working class get the hardship conflict from rich man’s policies.

[@b2bbogey735]

Still think that this peace is very fragile.

[@jaywalkercrew4446]

No one’s going back to that, in this day I’m of surveillance technology, the old guys giving interviews from the IRA recently said that they wouldn’t have bothered becoming involved if they knew how they was going to be used. The good Friday agreement to them is a sell out.

[@DJ-db1gr]

Sometimes the pen can be mightier than the sword.......

[@MargaretPinard]

The guy at 6:51 saying they need to 'back the police' for 'exceptional situations' sounds eerily familiar. :/

[@f.b508]

The army couldn’t do a normal police job. That’s why lots of soldiers were shot and killed by helping the RUC do their jobs. Up the PROVOS. 💚🇮🇪✊

[@jaredbarhorst248]

Used to be those people were jsit kind of sprinkled in among the govt and media - nowadays you must have such views to be any part of the establishment.

[@OlafProt]

The diplock courts were an abuse of power like so much of what went on. Yer man at 6:55 has an accent like no other 🤣

[@roscodabosco81]

BBC wannabe Brit 😂😂

[@thomasweir2834]

The British government made so many tragic mistakes when it came to Ulster. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but at the same time you have look back and think about just how could they have made such a mess of things?

[@arthurgoodness7865]

Westminster allowed the Unionists to rule NI without adequate oversight and this created the division that led to the conflict. Then when the Army was deployed, they picked sides and again those living in nationalist areas were all regarded and treated like the enemy. Innocent people who were killed by British Security Forces were wrongly labelled as terrorists When atrocities such as Ballymurphy, Derry, Springhill, et al, the Government protected soldiers from prosecution and this sent many young people into the ranks of the IRA. But the British Government did not make tragic mistakes in Ulster, they made tragic mistakes in Northern Ireland - Ulster is not Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland is not Ulster.

[@patriciathewisher2315]

This guy’s wife owns the newspaper now that my father worked for for 50 years. My dad was glad to be retired by the time she took over.

[@edmunddonnelly3881]

Which newspaper is that?

[@jacquiewalton1355]

Are you sure that his wife owned a newspaper ? She has been dead for 16 years and although she was a journalist she never owned a newspaper

[@patriciathewisher2315]

@@jacquiewalton1355 I’m sure

[@jacquiewalton1355]

@@patriciathewisher2315 Evidence ?

[@patriciathewisher2315]

@@jacquiewalton1355 I don’t need to prove anything to you Missus or waste time doing your bidding and providing you with evidence. Why don’t y’a do your own research? Google directors of N Irish newspapers over the decades

[@TheIrishKing.]

I hope we never return to these day's 🇮🇪🍀

[@matimus100]

You're hope isn't working

[@bigshoes5228]

And now we know what realy happened [50 dead men walking ]

[@AnthonyMonaghan]

Believe me, as an 8 year old Catholic boy living in Ulster at the time, this stuff was terrifying. I couldn't make any sense of the world I was living in. When Bobby Sands died I thought they were going to drop the H bomb on Northern Ireland, that's how serious I thought this was at the time. Thatcher seemed like the personification of evil compared to the prisoners in the H- Blocks. My uncle Joe could tell you about Castlereagh holding centre.

[@geedee1264]

Yeah that place was notorious for the torture and beatings

[@roscodabosco81]

John Taylor with his concocted BBC accent 😅

[@DJ-db1gr]

Some day.....this war is going to end......

[@peterg957]

So So Very Sad... God Bless The Irish...

[@matimus100]

Is Zeus you're personal God belief?

[@MrSeany05]

If I was British I would be ashamed of what they did.

[@shanetonkin2850]

I would be ashamed if they let people who were jailed for murdering innocent civilians be called ‘political prisoners’ and afforded all sorts of special privileges above other murderers.

[@jackietreehorn5561]

@@shanetonkin2850 sure the maze was better than pat Sharpes fun house in the day... holiday camp

[@darrenmclaughlin3028]

Ur right till this day the uk hates them Jason 42 leopold rd Felixstowe ip11 7 np flat 3 really detests them

[@susanl2762]

hey, they were prisoners of war, they were being treated as criminals., when all else failed, they used their feaces to fight back,

[@QuizmasterLaw]

Happily this history is literally history. Hopefully UK will make N. Eire into a special economic zone to smooth over EU/UK tarriff issues and grow the local economy because when you don't have poverty you also don't have terrs. Really happy both sides have been wiser in recent decades.

[@theeaskey]

Sad to say it's history but not over.it won't be over until the aggressor hand back every inch they stole, and be held accountable for all the atrocious things they done on behalf of the British crown .. we will never forgive or forget...

[@RJH1971]

N. Eire ??? Ye what now? The south hasn't been known as Éire since 1947 (note the fada on the E) there has never been a N E(sic)ire

[@jackietreehorn5561]

@@RJH1971 respect the fada on the e

[@SMSJSC]

N. Eire.... how ignorant can you get?

[@SMSJSC]

@@RJH1971 We'll grant him the benefit of the doubt and assume he's unaware of how to produce the É on his keyboard

[@teamblitz1990]

I don't a human being would put themselves through such hardship to extreme measure if they did not fundamentally believe in what there were fighting for. The blanket protest was a significant event in the period of the troubles one in which the British establishment had to eventually concede due to overwhelming world opinion

[@MsVorpalBlade]

not really. The inmates had to starve themselves and die, and even then the British wouldn't let up

[@dominicseanmccann6300]

Deliberately chose to live like that? That fact that the screws' were kicking granny out of them on way to showers', pissing in the food, forced strip searches etc etc. Bloody awful times.

[@wolfblitzer1981]

Dirty animals 🤮

[@dominicseanmccann6300]

@@wolfblitzer1981 yep .what a way to make a living; locking men up & abusing them. History aint a matter of opinion.

[@09weenic]

Proof ?

[@jaywalkercrew4446]

That’s why they was getting shot.

[@jacquiewalton1355]

@@wolfblitzer1981 Not all the screws were 'dirty animals'

[@anthonyferris8912]

If they wanted to be treated as prisoners of war rather than criminals, it would be reasonable to expect the Provisionals to meet out the same treatment to their captives, but they didn't, theirs ended up in shallow graves or wood-chippers.

[@TGouse1]

Shouldn't be there in first place. No different to what Russia is doing to Ukraine. Should the Ukrainians treat them humanly or should the Russians go home?

[@chrisbreen3188]

Well Anthony, it is a pity Britain can’t seem to mind their own business. And they dare to call the Irish terrorists on their own soil.

[@gerardhenry5501]

@@TGouse1 Russia had to go into Ukraine to protect ethnic Russians that Ukraine nazis ( azov) were slaughtering them on the best wishes from nato /america . NATO was going to take over all Ukraine and move on Moscow .

[@66kimrae]

I took a poo in the maze once

[@eoinhogan152]

I still don't understand why the British state used such heavy handed tactics in the mid to late 1960s. The IRA were marginal force in this period. The majority of political opposition in this period came from civil right movement. It was the events on bloody Sunday in Derry and in bally murphy that accelerated the influence of IRA as the leading political opposition.

[@jackietreehorn5561]

The catalyst for 30 years of bloodshed.... terrible time in Irish history

[@gerard1965able]

A game.

[@danielbrown8556]

insecurity as they lost all their other colonies!

[@RobertK1993]

Because the British are worse then the Germans including the Nazis

[@SMSJSC]

@@danielbrown8556 Ironically enough - although it's obviously not a mere 'colony' - I'm sure successive British governments would love to have handed NI back to the Irish Republic, far more than any of their lost colonies. Politically it was impossible to do so.

[@dannykelly7159]

Inla men airbrushed over agian.

[@GarethE94]

It’s almost as if you want terrorism to be glorified

[@jackietreehorn5561]

@@GarethE94 bla bla

[@GarethE94]

@@jackietreehorn5561 terrorist sympathiser. Have a word with yourself.

[@jackietreehorn5561]

@@GarethE94 commenting on history bud

[@GarethE94]

@@jackietreehorn5561 bla bla isn’t valuable commentary

[@patsygibson1557]

Sounds like its holding JESUS against HIS WILL. ...again again again ..

[@addybuck1]

They were political prisoners throughout the struggle. Brits OUT

[@LarryFogarty]

up the provos

[@wolfblitzer1981]

Strange smell of shite about here 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

[@davisoneill]

It's amazing how arrogant the Unionists were then - just like the White South Africans.

[@jimcazador6057]

Unionist were not in charge at the time, it was the British government. Some Unionists marched with the civil rights movement

[@jredmondscaff]

@@jimcazador6057 not enough of them

[@jackietreehorn5561]

@@jimcazador6057 could count them on one hand without the thumb

[@billybrowne2439]

If the reverse of these facts of British History in Ireland happened in London , Birmingham, or Manchester, we would be talking about the ERA. instead of the IRA. This is an Embarrassing History, that most British People would prefer never happened.

[@jackietreehorn5561]

The treaty in 1920 was a tinder box ready to ignite from the word go...it was inevitable like the tide coming in

[@patrickmelaugh9859]

Ireland for the Irish. Póg mo thóin!! 🇮🇪

[@johnphantom]

I like how neither side talks about how Christianity is at the root of this.

[@markgreen2675]

Christianity is at the root of a political struggle?

[@rizzledizzle9801]

Was more about nationality/identity and civil rights rather than religion

[@johnphantom]

@@markgreen2675 Yeah, like it is in America right now. Christianity is evil.

[@johnphantom]

@@rizzledizzle9801 It started over Christianity.

[@rizzledizzle9801]

There wasnt one sole factor to the start of the troubles

[@stephenedwards382]

No war , just terrorists

[@CK-dd7eq]

An army from another country coming in and killing innocent civilians. I agree with you. They should have stayed in England. We won't forget Ireland's bravest men and women 🇮🇪💚

[@stephenedwards382]

@@CK-dd7eq ptetty sure Northern Ireland was and still is part of the UK, a former soldier myself having served in Ireland, seen first hand the carnage these terrorists carried out, they want to sit in shit cells, up to them

[@jaywalkercrew4446]

One man’s terrorist is another persons freedom fighter.

[@mrb3673]

Yes, the British were terrorists.😊

[@ThePSmoke]

You would probably say the same about South Africans struggling against apartheid. Disgusting bigot.

[@wolfblitzer1981]

Dirty animals 🤮

[@davisoneill]

You are.

[@CK-dd7eq]

The sacrifices our republican prisoners made will never make sense to the small minded. 🇮🇪

[@wolfblitzer1981]

@@CK-dd7eq what makes sense to me is they were dirty animals and ten of them died in their own filth for nothing 🇬🇧

[@annaconway313]

@@CK-dd7eq Well said, the IRA were necessary, wonder how the Brits would deal with invasion??

[@TheIrishKing.]

@@CK-dd7eq I agree we wouldn't have the freedom we have now if it weren't for The IRA 🇮🇪🍀