Jane Nelson, the first Staff Tutor for the OU in Belfast. Referring to the diary she kept from that time she describes the efforts to get education facilities into the newly opened Long Kesh in 1971.
Audio transcript
00:00:00.0 00:03:55.9 Background with Open University (OU). Hearing about Long Kesh being built. Introduction of internment August 1971.
00:03:55.9 00:07:09.2 Contacted by social worker, Liz Kennedy, asking for OU to be made available to internees. Issue over payment of fees. Cristoir de Baroid, Cork, offered to get fees covered.
00:07:09.2 00:09:19.2 Discovered that under legislation internees had no rights, they were not classed as prisoners so there was no onus to provide education.
00:09:19.2 00:14:49.6 Meeting Stormont ministers and Open University Committee to negotiate OU courses being made available to internees.
00:14:49.6 00:24:14.9 Enrolling internees as students. Tutors begin teaching. Getting a proper study area sorted. Dealing with bureaucracy.
00:24:14.9 00:32:52.1 Issues arising over materials and lack of study space. Tensions rising in the camp overall.
00:32:52.1 00:40:44.1 Administration issues and security clearances. Emotional strain of seeing internees on hunger strike. Students completing their courses.
Acknowledgement
This interview was originally conducted as part of The Open University Project “Time to Think: Open University Journeys in British and Irish prisons during the years of conflict, 1972-2000”
Further information about the project can be found here: https://www.open.ac.uk/library/digital-archive/exhibition/152.
Any enquiries regarding the content, including requests for further use should be sent to university-archive@open.ac.uk