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Searc's Web Guide to 20th Century Ireland -
Joe Collins (circa. 1940)
Joe Collins was born and educated in West Cork. He was active in the IRA's 'S' Campaign in the late 1930's and was arrested in Manchester in 1939 and sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. In 1940 Collins was Officer in Command of the republican prisoners in Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight when he gave the order for the prisoners to go on hunger-strike and refuse prison work in protest at being categorised as criminals. As a result of their protest the republican prisoners were put in solitary confinement and were force-fed before being moved to Dartmoor Prison. Collins was released from prison in 1948. The extract below is from Collins' article 'Republican Prisoners during the Second World War' which was first published in Irish Voices from English Jails (1979) under the pseudonym 'Conor MacNessa'*. © On the fifth day of the strike we were forcibly fed, each man in his cell. The method used was as follows: the victim was made to sit in a heavy chair with his arms firmly held by a number of 'screws' behind the chair. Others held his legs around the legs of the chair while the feeding proceeded. If a powerful man tried to resist, they had strait jackets and beds with clasps to which he could be handcuffed and strapped. One of the men was threatened with this after he had succeeded in disgorging some of the food by putting his finger down his throat. Next they forced the teeth wide open with a flat bone wedge. This was resisted at first but, after a few feedings, the mouth was so raw that the excruciating pain soon over came resistance. A special tool was then inserted. With a bed for the teeth it opened like a scissors by means of a screw, and forced the mouth fully open. The rubber tube then was forced down the throat and a funnel at the end was used to pour liquid food such as eggs, beef-tea and milk into the stomach. The operation was made deliberately more painful by withdrawing the tube several times and then reinserting it, so that it struck the bottom of the stomach forcibly. The back of the tongue was tickled with a long flat bone to induce the motion of swollowing, as this was almost impossible with the tube inserted. The man was thus in convulsions while he was being fed. While the prisoner regarded the horrifying business as torture, it was proving a success from the authorities' point of view. They could keep it up for years, if necessary, unless someone got careless and food went down the windpipe, causing death (which was why a priest was on hand every time we were being fed). I was in the cell next to Joe Malone**. On the second day of feeding there was no sound from his cell for half an hour after the 'screws' leaving. When he spoke from his window he told me he had lost consciousness while being fed. He woke up later, lying on the floor alone with the door locked. He was wretchedly sick and spitting blood. Looking out on the prison wall he remarked: 'It would be a decent thing for them to take us out and put us up against that wall and shoot us.' I ordered him off the hunger strike. This was January 21, 1940. Exactly a year later, on January 21, 1941, after an operation on his stomach, Joe Malone died. During that 12 months he was in constant pain. The coroner's inquest with its unpublicised verdict, white-washed the authorities; but then the jury was composed of ex-warders and ex-policemen, living on the island. His remains were brought home to Belfast where he was given a hero's funeral. Meanwhile, there had been a change of governors and the new man soon made approaches to us. He came to my cell and offered to abolish indoor prison work for Irish Republican prisoners. We were given a disused wing of the prison to ourselves and were allowed to fall in together and march in formation to and from work. To the assembled men he said: 'You men claim to be soldiers. Well, that is alright by me. I am a soldier, too, but a soldier has to obey orders and I am the governor here.' His offer held good until we were removed to Dartmoor Prison, 18 months later. The doctor who conducted the force-feeding was the senior medical officer in Parkhurst, Dr Hickson. Noted for his unfriendliness towards the prisoners, it was interesting to discover that Cork Corporation had once passed a vote of thanks to him on his humanitarianism. That was in 1920, when, as junior medical officer in Brixton Prison, he had attended Terence MacSwiney, and had impressed the latter's relatives by his kindness and consideration during the ordeal. It was difficult to believe that we were dealing with the same man. It may be noted that force-feeding of political prisoners ceased in Ireland and Britain after it caused the death of Thomas Ashe in 1917. After MacSwiney's death and the explosive popular reaction following it, the British authorities reverted to their former methods of breaking hunger strikes. * Conor MacNessa was a mythical King of Ulster. ** See annotations to Brendan Behan's poem The Dead March Past on page. © Searc's Web Guide 1997-2008 |
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