Joe talks about being arrested the day after his 17th birthday and being interned on the Maidstone Prison ship and then Long Kesh internment camp.
Having been imprisoned for over twenty years he talks about the psychological differences in being an internee and that of being a sentenced prisoner with a release date.
Audio transcript
00:00:00.000 00:03:07.144 Arrested day after his 17th birthday. Interrogated in Girdwood Barracks for a number of days. Others were being tortured.
00:05:11.724 00:07:28.744 Served with internment order and transferred to Long Kesh by helicopter. Long Kesh at that stage still a relatively small camp.
00:07:28.744 00:09:10.058 Uncertainty of internment. Drip feed of releases. How the camp was run day to day by the internees.
00:09:10.058 00:11:16.316 Conditions on the Maidstone. The heat below deck was almost unbearable and exercise was restricted. Everything was cramped.
00:11:16.316 00:12:39.902 Internment was first time away from his family. The difference in serving a sentence and being interned. Internment was difficult to cope with and had a bad effect on many people.
00:12:39.902 00:15:36.746 00:02:56.843 Family history, grandfathers involved in First World War and trade unionism. The anxiety of being interned. five months felt like five years. Releases were used to increase the uncertainty and play with people’s heads.
00:15:36 Spent different periods in prison including nine years in the in the USA fighting extradition but feels that overall internment was psychologically the worst.
