ABSTRACT
Attacks and other activities in England led to arrests and frequently to heavy sentences. The English prisons had long been underfunded, and in the mid-1960s there had been a series of high-profile security breaches. The resultant dispersal and categorisation system meant that IRA men and women would be subject to the close custody of high-risk Category A. Numbers were proportionately so small that they could easily be absorbed into the high-security system, and organised protests were all but impossible. IRA operations provoked strong public feelings, and the Irish community in Britain came under suspicion and pressure. Distances and short or no-notice moves made family visits difficult and expensive. Police surveillance and anti-terrorism legislation limited supporters’ aid and assistance to prisoners’ families. For the most part, Republican prisoners found ways of coping with custody. Their organisation’s reputation and the impunity conferred by long sentences provided protection from attacks in prison.
