Then the Walls Came Down: A Prison Journal

By Danny Morrison

"Remarkable as a human document... The flashes of humour and compassion bear comparison with those in Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy. A must-read for anyone interested in the North." - Irish Times

Former political prisoner and former national director of publicity for Sinn Fein Danny Morrison's prison diaries of his years in Long Kesh.

Morrison was, in his own words, a 'reluctant' but enthusiastic activist, and had always wanted to be a writer. In 1990 he was arrested and charged with conspiracy to murder, kidnapping and IRA membership.

From prison, in a series of letters, mostly to his partner but also to friends and comrades, Morrison began to reflect on his own life, and the stalemate and impasse in the northern Irish conflict. He also began to develop his own ideas about writing and the creative process. His prison writings have been compared to those of Brendan Behan and his descriptions of the experience of imprisonment on himself, his comrades and their families are candid, sometimes deeply personal, and often very humorous.

Then The Walls Came Down will not only be of interest to students of politics, history, current affairs and media studies, but will also appeal to the general reader in its study of human nature and character.

Danny Morrison came to prominence as an activist in the Republican Movement in the 1970s before he became a recognised writer. He was imprisoned several times and twice charged with IRA membership. In 1981 he acted as spokesperson for the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands and later coined the phrase 'The Armalite and the Ballot Box' to describe the republican strategy of waging armed struggle and engaging in electoral politics. He was Sinn F in's National Director of Publicity for eleven years and edited the party's newspaper, An Phoblacht. He was also elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly. He escaped several attempts on his life by the British Army and loyalist paramilitaries.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1982925264
• ISBN13: 9781982925260
• Release Date: June 2018
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 302 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"