(Suzanne Breen, Sunday World)

An ex-IRA prisoner who lay in the H-Block cell next to dying hunger-strikers Francis Hughes and Raymond McCreesh says he has been snubbed by Sinn Féin.

Paul McGlinchey, who endured years of inhuman conditions in jail, wasn't invited to the first ever re-union of former blanketmen last weekend.

Around 1,200 other ex-prisoners from across the North attended the ground-breaking gathering in Belfast. McGlinchey, from the staunchly republican village of Bellaghy in south Derry, is devastated by the snub.

"I was the longest-serving blanketman in the H-Blocks. For five years, I lay naked in my cell with only a blanket to cover me. There wasn't even a mattress to sleep on, only a three-inch bit of sponge on the ground," he said.

"There was no glass in the cell window. When the rain and the snow came in, I'd cover the window with my blanket which meant I was completely naked. At times, I thought I'd freeze to death."

McGlinchey alleged he was "beaten black and blue" by prison officers: "I don't regret the sacrifice I made but I've been treated like dirt by certain Sinn Féin leaders and supporters."

A group of ex-prisoners spent over a year organising the blanketmen's reunion which they pledged was non-party political. But McGlinchey accused South Derry Sinn Féin figures of intervening behind the scenes to ensure he wasn't invited.

"They asked over 1,000 people. How they could accidentally forget me? The first I knew of the re-union was when I read a newspaper article about it by Sinn Féin official Jim Gibney five days after the event."

McGlinchey admitted he was "angry and emotional" about the snub: "Who the hell are these people to have me excluded? I earned the right to be at that re-union."

At the gathering, 400 medals were awarded to ex-blanketmen. Laurence O'Neill, a founding Provisional IRA member, said: "If anyone deserved a medal for their sacrifice in the H-Blocks, it's Paul McGlinchey. He's been treated disgracefully."

The ex-prisoner is a brother of murdered INLA leader, Dominic McGlinchey. Paul McGlinchey was the second republican to join the world-famous blanket protest in 1976. He was sentenced to 14 years in Long Kesh for IRA membership and arms' possession.

"I was ordered to wear a prison uniform. I said, 'I'm no criminal, I'll die rather than do that'. So they threw me naked into a cell," he recalled. "Many other republican prisoners complied and wore the uniform. Only one prisoner, Kieran Nugent, was on the blanket before me."

The ex-IRA man claimed he was brutally beaten because of his family: "The prison officers were vicious because I was a McGlinchey. They'd demand I call them sir. When I refused, I was punched and kicked. Once, they beat me non-stop for an hour. Then, they took an iron bar and shoved it repeatedly up my back passage until I passed out."

IRA prisoner, Tom McElwee who later died on hunger-strike, heard McGlinchey's screams of agony: "Tom shouted, 'Hang on in there, comrade!'" McGlinchey joined the dirty protest in 1978 when prisoners started smearing their cells with excrement in the campaign for political status.

"For three years, we lived in appalling conditions. The dirt and stench was over-powering. I'd wake up in the morning with maggots crawling over me," he said.

"Francis Hughes and Raymond McCreesh lay dying in the next cell until they went to the prison hospital."

McGlinchey (52) admitted: "I've never really left the H-blocks. I carry its horrors with me every day." He became a senior Sinn Féin activist after his release but left the party in 2007 when it supported policing. "Since then, I've been excluded from every ex-prisoner event in South Derry.

"When I lay wreaths on Francis Hughes' and Tom McElwee's graves, the cards with my name on the wreaths are removed. When I apply to ex-prisoners' groups for a bursary for my children, they don't even reply whereas other former IRA men secure funds easily."

McGlinchey stressed he wasn't a dissident: "I'm completely against a return to armed struggle. I've no animosity to ordinary Sinn Féin members. My brother Sean is the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Limavady. But in South Derry if you disagree with party policy, you're ostracised."

October 19, 2011
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This article appeared in the October 16, 2011 edition of the Sunday World