Loyalism in Development

Victims of the conflict Between 1966 and 1999, 3,636 people died in the Northern Irish ‘Troubles’ (McKittrick et al., 1999). Irish republican paramilitary groups (including the PIRA) were responsible for 2,139 deaths (59%). Ulster loyalist paramilitary groups (including the UVF/RHC and UDA) were responsible for 1,050 (29%). The security forces were responsible for 367 deaths (10%). 80 individuals were killed by ‘Others’ (see McKittrick et al., 1999., p.1476). 2,037 of those who died in the conflict were civilians (56%). 509 were members of the RUC/UDR/RIR (14%). 503 were members of the British Army (14%). 392 republicans and 144 loyalists were also killed (11% and 4% respectively). More specifically, of these 144 loyalists, 50 were members of the UVF and 4 were members of the RHC. The UVF/RHC were responsible for 547 deaths (15% of all deaths) (534 attributed to the UVF and 13 deaths to the RHC). Origins of Long Kesh Detention Centre and the Maze Prison At the outbreak of the ‘Troubles’ in the 1960s, (male) political prisoners tended to be housed in Crumlin Road jail (including Gusty Spence and eight other loyalists in the aftermath of the murder of Peter Ward in Malvern Street in 1966). However, the levels of violence in Northern Ireland were such in the early 1970s that prisons such as Crumlin Road (A-wing) were becoming overcrowded (McAtackney, 2008), particularly after the introduction of internment without trial (codenamed Operation Demetrius by the British Army) on 9th/10th August 1971. The first cohort of internees were taken to an overcrowded Crumlin Road jail, but in September 1971 they were moved to the newly built Long Kesh Detention Centre – which was a 26 acre site LK was on a 360 acre site on a former RAF base outside the small village of Maze, near Lisburn (approximately 10 miles outside of Belfast, see Dwiggins, 2016). At the time Long Kesh had the look (and feel) of a ‘Prisoner of War’ camp from the Second World War – this was related to the use of guard towers with searchlights, the corrugated iron perimeter fence with barbed wire, and most particularly, the use of Nissen huts as accommodation for prisoners (see Green, 1998). These Nissen huts were prefabricated steel structures designed in a half cylinder shape to act as a bomb shelter – they were first used as housing for British troops during the First World War and derived their name from their designer, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Norman Nissen. Each compound at Long Kesh consisted of four huts; up to two and a half were sleeping quarters, the rest housed cooking facilities, gym and a snooker table or some other recreational facility. There was also a separate study hut used for education purposes.

16