Available onlineOU study 1972-1982
(page 2 of 4)Online exhibition theme created by Jenny Meegan, a member of the OU Time to Think Project Team
| Noel Quigley clip: | I was on the very first course |
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| Duration: | 00:02:13 |
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| Diana Purcell clip: | Why are you doing this? |
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| Duration: | 00:01:50 |
| Date: |
In 1974 six students from the Loyalist and Official IRA Compounds studied the Level One Social Sciences course 'Understanding Society' (D100). They sat their exams despite the burning of twenty of the twenty-two compounds of Long Kesh as a result of conflict between the Provisional IRA and the Prison authorities. OU students from the Provisional IRA Compound had also studied D100 but were unable to complete their studies because of the fire. The Provisional IRA did not formally engage with Open University study from 1975 until 1984. Listen to the first audio clip on this page by Noel Quigley, Education Officer for the Provisional IRA prisoners, to hear his account of this time.
Over thirty students studied with the OU in 1975, but problems with delivery of course material, study conditions after the fire and the demands of the courses led to a high drop out. Consequently there was a reduction of funding by the Northern Ireland Prison Service which lasted until 1978.
In 1976 the withdrawal of Special Category Status (effectively political status) and the building of the H Blocks (officially named by the Prison Service as Maze Cellular) sparked five years of protests in the prisons culminating in the Republican Hunger strikes of 1981/2. OU study was only available for students in the H Blocks not participating in the protests.
Students from the UVF/RHC and Official IRA Compounds continued studying the OU together until the Compounds closed in 1988. Significantly, in 1977 Diana Purcell, an OU tutor for the Humanities in the Compounds since 1975, was appointed Senior Counsellor for The Open University. For the next twenty years Diana oversaw and developed The Open University's work in prisons in Ireland. Diana talks about OU teaching at this time in the prison in the second clip on this page.
In 1979 the Prison Education Service was reorganised and the numbers of OU students increased to eighteen, up from six in 1977. Two women studied in Armagh Gaol, and seventeen studied in the Maze Long Kesh Prison - ten in the Compounds and seven in the H Blocks.
