Long Kesh: Exhibition to ‘bust myth’ about loyalist prisoners

A new exhibition aims to “bust the myth” that loyalist prisoners during the Troubles were poorly educated and without political thinking, an ex-prisoner turned community worker and academic has said.

Long Kesh: Inside Out, on Belfast’s Shankill Road, tells the story of loyalist prisoners held in Long Kesh – later the Maze – prison.

William Mitchell said the exhibition does not seek to “condone, excuse or glorify any of their experiences. Quite the opposite. What we’re doing is trying to create a new understanding of them,” he added.

Mitchell said “anybody and everybody” was welcome to come to see the exhibition and that some republican ex-prisoners had already visited.

The exhibition is being run by Action for Community Transformation (ACT) Initiative, which is run by and works with former Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) prisoners.

Mitchell is himself an ex-prisoner who was convicted and sent to Long Kesh in 1975, aged 17.

Following his release in 1987, he became a youth and community worker and achieved a PhD.

The Long Kesh: Inside Out exhibition is based on the experiences and memorabilia of prisoners from the UVF and Red Hand Commando paramilitary groups.

The two organisations murdered more than 500 people during the Troubles.

When the UVF leader Gusty Spence declared a ceasefire in 1994, he offered “true and abject remorse” to the families of all innocent victims of the Troubles.

Spence was a founding member of the modern UVF and its leader in the prison.

The exhibits include a recreation of a prison library and also a 1970s Nissen hut where prisoners were held, complete with sleeping quarters.