Sean McVeigh was the first from the district to go on the blanket. That was three years ago, years to serve. He's 22 now. Like all the protesters, his sentence would be halved if he would accept criminalisation: as he is on the blanket, he will serve his full term.
Like many of the prisoners from the Short Strand, Sean comes from a Republican background. ment for political reasons is nothing new to his family. His father was active in the Republican Movement from the age of 11, and was interned from 1940 to 1944.
Mrs McVeigh, too, was an active Republican for many years. suffered greatly since Sean's arrest.
relative of prisoner tells us later that Sean was 'an awful good wee boy very good in the house for mother.' Mrs McVeigh says several times that of all the decades of struggle she remembers, ine last len years nave been the worst.
Rosemary Callaghan, too, comes Republican family. mother is the chairperson of the local Sinn Fein branch. When male screws attacked the women in Armagh on 7 February, Rosemary Was down the wing with her breasts exposed. These assaults led to the women going on a no-wash, no-slop out protest.