Learning Behind Bars

Dieter Reinisch is a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Political Science and Sociology at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

"Learning behind Bars is an interesting, informative and scholarly work."- Gerry Moriarty (Irish Times) "..with its chronological panorama, and the geographical and organisational range of its interview partners, Reinisch’s book offers a valuable perspective on the experiences of republican prisoners at the periphery of the movement… his book is of undoubted value for scholars of the Northern Ireland conflict and, more broadly, for analysts of incarceration and the internal dynamics of militant social movements."- Jack Hepworth, St Catherine’s College, Oxford (Oral History Journal) "This is an important account of the role of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) prisoners who were imprisoned on both sides of the Irish border who were instrumental in starting the critical debate that ultimately contributed to resolving the Northern Ireland conflict through the 1994 Provisional (IRA) ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998."- Joshua Sinai (Perspectives on Terrorism) "Drawing on the experience of learners and employing a framework which enables generalisations to be made from the particularities of Ireland, Dieter Reinisch makes a powerful case for the value of education in prisons for prisoners, prisons, and the wider society."- Daniel Weinbren, Open University (Journal of Prison Education and Reentry) "An important contribution to the existing historiography of the conflict, Reinisch’s decision to discuss both the similarities and differences of Irish republican prisoners on both sides of the border makes for a compelling narrative." - Robert Collins, University of Limerick (Irish Historical Studies)

• IllustrationsPrefaceAbbreviationsIntroduction1. The Irish Prison Arena: Republican Prisoners and the Northern Ireland Conflict2. "Portlaoise is an example for this": Portlaoise Prison Protests, 1973–73. "No prisoner has the right to advance the education of another": Education in Portlaoise Prison4. The Harvey/McCaughey/Smith Cumann: Sinn Féin in Portlaoise Prison, 1978–865. "He was just rhyming off pages of it": Internment and the Brownie Papers, 1971–76. Marxist Esperanto and Socialism in Cell 26: Reading, Thinking, and Writing in the H-Blocks, 1983–97. "It's only when you look back …": The Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Peace Process in the 1990sConclusion: An Irish Century of CampsInterview PartnersNotesBibliographyIndex