ABSTRACT
Both Northern Ireland and the Republic were well provided with powers for internment. The Stormont Cabinet agreed to reintroduce internment, the first arrests taking place on Saturday, 15 December 1956. By the end of the following month, ninety-nine men were held in Belfast Prison under the detention and internment provisions of the Special Powers Act. It was twelve and a half years since the end of the Second World War, and military installations abounded. A number of wartime Army and RAF stations, mothballed or simply disused, were therefore considered as places of detention. Neither having been convicted nor charged, internees could not be subject to the normal prison regime. They were expected to take a hand in the domestic routines of the prison, cleaning their cells and the common areas. Irish-language classes came top of the list for the internees and catered for a range of abilities and attainments.
