Available online
Description
Jim McVeigh is from Belfast. He left school at fifteen with no qualifications and was imprisoned in the Republican Wings of the H Blocks (the Maze and Long Kesh Prison) in 1984 aged nineteen. He gained O Levels and then studied Social Science and History courses with The Open University from 1987 until his release in 1991. He was imprisoned again in the H Blocks in 1992 where he continued his Open University studies gaining a Diploma in European Humanities in 1997 graduating with an honours degree in 1998 and a Postgraduate Certificate in Humanities in 1999. As part of the Postgraduate Foundation Module in History he wrote a dissertation o...n Tom Williams which was published as Executed: Tom Williams and the IRA by Beyond the Pale Press in 1999. Jim was in charge of Republican prisoners in the H Blocks at the time of its closure in 2000. After his release Jim attended Queen’s University Belfast and gained an MA in Human Rights and Criminal Justice. At the time of interview in 2011 he was a community worker with Coiste Na nIarchimí and a Sinn Féin elected representative for the Court Ward in West Belfast on Belfast City Council.
Jim McVeigh is from Belfast. He left school at fifteen with no qualifications and was imprisoned in the Republican Wings of the H Blocks (the Maze and Long Kesh Prison) in 1984 aged nineteen. He gained O Levels and then studied Social Science and History courses with The Open University from 1987 until his release in 1991. He was imprisoned again in the H Blocks in 1992 where he continued his Open University studies gaining a Diploma in European Humanities in 1997 graduating with an honours degree in 1998 and a Postgraduate Certificate in Humanities in 1999. As part of the Postgraduate Foundation Module in History he wrote a dissertation o...n Tom Williams which was published as Executed: Tom Williams and the IRA by Beyond the Pale Press in 1999. Jim was in charge of Republican prisoners in the H Blocks at the time of its closure in 2000. After his release Jim attended Queen’s University Belfast and gained an MA in Human Rights and Criminal Justice. At the time of interview in 2011 he was a community worker with Coiste Na nIarchimí and a Sinn Féin elected representative for the Court Ward in West Belfast on Belfast City Council.
| Title: | It may as well have been written in hieroglyphics |
|---|---|
| Description: | Jim McVeigh recounts how he went into the Republican Wings of the H Blocks (the Maze and Long Kesh Prison) with a negative experience of education having left school at 15 with no qualifications. After encouragement from one of the leaders of republican prisoners he did O levels before starting The Open University in the 1980s. Then the Introductory Social sciences (D102) course book which the republican leader had previously given him to read and which had seemed far too difficult then gradually became less intimidating and more manageable. | Rights statement: | Rights owned or controlled by The Open University |
| Restrictions on use: | Contact the OU Archive prior to any re-use. Contact university-archive@open.ac.uk |
| Contributor: | Jim McVeigh |
| Duration: | 00:02:04 |
| Master programe code and title: | Jim McVeigh Interview |
| Master programme start time: | 00:02:15 |
| Master programme end time: | 00:04:47 |
| Master programme production number: | 016_S_01 |
| Available to public: | yes |
