Chris Ryder (1947–2020)

This is another charity shop purchase. For those who don't know, the Maze was a notorious prison in Northern Ireland which was used to hold terrorists during the troubles. This book explores the history of the Maze, the people it held, and the Northern Ireland Prison Service as a whole. The first thing I should say about this book is that it really helps that it is written by someone who is a journalist. Ryder manages to deal with the tricky subject matter in a balanced way and keeps things ticking along without it getting too repetitive. An area of particular interest for me was the chapters dealing with the protests inside the Maze, in particular the period of hunger strikes. Unlike the Steve McQueen movie on the subject, Hunger, Ryder addresses the issues from all sides and also details the reasons why these people were in prison. It makes deservedly harrowing reading and pulls no punches at all. Another good aspect of the book is that Ryder discusses the lives of the prison staff and the immense pressure and danger they were under every day. Officers were killed both inside and outside the prison doing an almost impossible job.… (mer)