The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
FRIDAY, September 16, will see the Clare launch of former IRA prisoner Jim (Jaz) McCann’s memoir 6,000 Days at the Oakwood Hotel. On the night the author will be in conversation with Donna McGettigan.
Arrested at the age of 20 after attempting to kill a police officer, McCann was sentenced to life imprisonment and he remained in custody from 1976 until 1994.
He was one of hundreds of Republican prisoners who refused to wear a prison uniform, claiming they were political prionsers, which led to them being locked in their cells, wearing only a blanket, for more than four years, in grim conditions.
The death of the hunger strikers in 1981 was a huge historical moment, and he knew several of them. In the book he also recalls life in the IRA, the deprivation of the years spent in prison, the relationships with friends and comrades including the hunger strikers, his role in the prison breakout of 1983 which saw 38 Republican prisoners escape from custody.
While in prison he received a degree through the Open University, after his release he went to Galway to study education, and eventually became vice principal of a school in west Belfast.
Councillor McGettigan said she had become aware of McCann in recent years and she would discuss his early life and the impact of imprisonment with the former IRA man.
“Myself and Jim will be having a discussion and then we’ll open it up to the floor. The discussion will be about research I’ve done on Jim and his background, how he ended up in the situation he did, how he managed to come through it, how it affected him, how it affected his life and his family, it doesn’t just affect those inside, it affects the whole family structure outside.”
Sinn Féin have had a couple of similiar events in Clare in recent times.
“We had Laurence McKeown who was on hunger strike himself. We had Danny Morrisson about his book , the Old IRA and the later IRA and what’s the difference between them. That was a very interesting book launch, for those who hadn’t thought about it, they’re eyes were opened.
“Laurence McKewon was also very interesting, it was a very heart wrenching story, he was in a coma before his mother intervened, and he thought he had closed his eyes for the last time.”
Owen Ryan
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.
