Banged Up: Locked in a cell
Belfast Ten: Persons tried for March 1973 IRA attacks in London. Supported by the Belfast Ten Defence Committee, a legal and non-violent group with links to the Republican Movement
Birmingham Six: Persons wrongly convicted of November 1974 IRA attacks in Birmingham
Blanked: A prisoner ostracized by others
Blanket Protest: Wearing blankets or towels instead of prison uniform
Block: Section of a prison
Board of Visitors (BV): Prison committee dealing with disciplinary and general matters (aka Visiting Committee)
Bomb Squad: Police section dealing with subversive offences
Cabhair: Republican prisoners charity
Category A: Prisoners bearing the highest level of security rating in England and Wales.
CCDC: Central Citizens Defence Committee
Chief of Staff: Head of the IRA
Chiv: Improvised bladed or pointed weapon
Circle: Part of prison offering access between wings
Circuit: Frequent prison moves
Citizen Defence Committee: Unaligned civilian grouping in Belfast
and Derry which organized local defence of nationalist communities from 1969
Clann na hÉireann: Legal political organization representing the official republican movement in Britain
Clan na Gael: North American pro-republican organization
Closed Visit: A prison meeting in which family and friends are denied physical contact with the prisoner
Colour Party: Organized flag-carrying element of a republican march
Comm/ Communication: Slang for smuggled written information passed between republicans
Con/ Convict: Sentenced prisoner
Control Unit: Experimental segregation wings in Wakefield and Wormwood Scrubs
Connolly Association: Legal, non-violent, left wing, political organization of the Irish in Britain and their local allies
Cooler: Twenty-eight day period in segregation, generally involving prison shift
Coventry Six: Persons charged in connection with IRA activities in the British Midlands
CPGB: Communist Party of Great Britain
CPI: Communist Party of Ireland
Cumann/ Cumainn: Organized unit/s of Sinn Féin
Cumann na mBan: Illegal female IRA auxiliary organization
Dáil Éireann: Irish parliament in Dublin; the Dáil/Seanad (Leinster House)
Democratic Unionist Party: A unionist political party in the Six Counties from 1971
Department of Foreign Affairs: Irish civil service department dealing with Anglo-Irish relations et al
Diplock Court: Jury-less court in Belfast used to try political offences
Director of Engineering: IRA GHQ position responsible for explosives and heavy weaponry
Director of Intelligence: IRA GHQ position regarding intelligence and counter-intelligence
‘Dirty Protest’: Pejorative British term for an IRA/ INLA prisoner’s non-cooperation with maintenance of cell sanitation, termed ‘no wash protest’ by republicans
Dispersal System: Network of maximum-security prisons in England where Category A inmates were accommodated under the Mountbatten Report recommendations
DPP: Director of Public Prosecutions
ECHR: European Convention on Human Rights (Strasbourg)
E(scape) List: Term for prisoners subjected to additional security practices owing to their perceived potential for success
Fenian: Member of Irish Republican Brotherhood (Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Australasia) or Fenian Brotherhood (aka Clan na Gael: United States of America/ Canada); illegal, republican, revolutionary organization superseded by the IRA
Fianna Fáil: Political party in the Republic of Ireland
Fitted up: Framed
FCA: Forsa Cosanta Áitiúil, part time and reserve element of Irish Defence Forces (Army); later ‘Reserves’
FCO: Foreign and Commonwealth Office (United Kingdom)
Fine Gael: Political party in the Republic of Ireland
Free State: Pejorative term for post-partition Republic of Ireland
F Wing: Former Control Unit of Wakefield prison
Gardaí: An Garda Síochana; Irish police
GHQ: IRA term for General Headquarters (Dublin) comprising various specialised Departments of the Republican Movement
Ghosting: Unexpected prison move; also ‘ghosted’, ‘Shanghaied’
Going behind the door: Voluntary segregation under Rule 43
Good Order and Discipline: Rationale for a governor imposing Rule 43
Governor: Chief administrator of a prison
Grass: Informer
Green Cross: Republican prisoners charity
Guildford Four: Persons wrongly convicted of IRA attacks in England
H-Blocks: Modular prison complex built at Long Kesh, County Antrim (aka Maze prison)
HMP: Her Majesty’s Prison
Hooch: Homemade alcohol
Home Office: Administrative body comprising the Prison Department and other state agencies in England and Wales
International Marxist Group: Trotskyite political grouping in Britain
International Socialists: Left wing political grouping in Britain linked
Irish National Caucus: Washington DC-based Irish lobbying group
Irish National Liberation Army: Illegal, republican, socialist, paramilitary organization linked to the IRSP
IPHC: Irish Political Hostages Campaign
Irish Republican Army: Illegal, republican, paramilitary organization (proscribed in Britain in November 1974); armed element of the Republican Movement (aka Óglaigh na hÉireann)
Irish Republican Socialist Party: Legal, left wing, socialist, republican party linked to the INLA
ITGWU: Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union
Joint Action Committee: Coalition of prisoners rights’ groupings
Lie-down: See ‘Cooler’
Lifer: Prisoner serving a life sentence
Liquid Cosh: Dosing of prisoners with tranquilizing pharmaceuticals
Long Kesh: County Antrim site of internment and prison camp
Long War: Conflict in Ireland, c. 1968-98
Loyalist: Term for pro-British paramilitaries, specifically members of the generally illegal Ulster Volunteer Force, Ulster Defence Association and Red Hand Commandoes; may denote persons who support maintaining legislative union with Great Britain by non-violent methods
Maguire Seven: Persons wrongly convicted of assisting the IRA in England
MO: Medical Officer
MOD: Ministry of Defence
MP: Member of Parliament (Westminster)
MI5: British intelligence organization
MI6: