The Irish were very good and all the sensible prison officers got on with them. But some were doing their best to mix it up for them, and the prison authorities didn't want it easy for them.

The ordinary prisoners knew that if the prison officers tried to turn them against the Irish, they must be good people.

We realised they were soldiers fighting for their cause, whether you liked it or not. And a good cause really, they wanted their country to be all Ireland, there's nothing wrong in that.

I remember I just arrived at Bristol prison about November 1974 when the bomb had gone off in Birmingham. A lot of people got killed in a pub there. Years later six men who got convicted of it had their sentences overturned and were released, but by that time they had served sixteen years, that's a long time.

When the prison officers tried to mix it for the Irish there was only a few catagory A prisoners there and I was one of them. I wouldn't have anything to do with it.
Later on in 1975 I assaulted three prison officers in Bristol. 'one today, one a couple of days later and another about a day after that'. That's one up in the prison, the other two down in the punishment cells. When I went in front of the visiting magistrates three IRA prisoners gave evidence on my behalf. When they came in they saluted me. The IRA had made me an honorary member after the Parkhurst riots. They were great.

When I was in Ireland doing some shows, the top IRA man in Cork put me up. He didn't give me any bombs though.

back