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IRA Prison Books Now in Belfast LibraryBelfast’s Linen Hall Library is the new home of the 1,600 books that have for 30 years provided Irish Republican Army inmates in the Maze prison with lessons in Marxism and readings on world revolutionary movements, the London Times reported July 24. “The books provide a fascinating and unique insight into the thinking of the largest terrorist group in Western Europe,” said Yvonne Murphy, chief of the Linen Hall’s political collection. Some of the works “had obviously been used for classes,” she said. Prominent among them are copies of the three volumes of Marxist philosopher Maurice Cornforth’s Dialectical Materialism (1956). Critics referred to the Maze as “the university of terror,” while the IRA leadership called it “the university of freedom.” Robin Halward, director-general of the Northern Ireland Prison Service, defended the controversial educational provisions allowed in the Maze where, for security reasons, all books had to be paperbacks. “I think it is likely that education work done in the Maze made a positive contribution to the peace process,” he said. Posted July 31, 2000. |
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