'It was the greatest human sweep in recent Ulster history. The nets were of fine mesh and, figuratively, took in both salmon and sprat.'

— Cahir Healy, ‘My First Prison Cell’, Sunday Independent, 27th May 1956.

Cahir Healy’s (1877-1970) account of his imprisonment aboard the Argenta prison ship from 1922 provides an unprecedented insight into the intense political repression that followed the 1921 Partition of Ireland. On 23rd May 1922, Healy, a dedicated Sinn Féin member and advocate for Irish nationalism, was unlawfully arrested in County Fermanagh and interned as part of the Northern Irish government’s campaign to silence opposition to the new border. His two-year detention on the Argenta, from 1922 to 1924, is an important record of the extreme measures that were sometimes employed to enforce the new political order. For the first time, Healy’s memoir—Two Years on an Ulster Prison Ship—is being published in its entirety, thanks to the support of Healy’s grandson—Cahir Healy. This unique collection of writings is preserved in the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). They include Healy’s shorthand notes alongside typed pages that he wrote and compiled after his release while serving as an MP in Westminster for the constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone from 1950-65. Ironically, for a nationalist, much of the work is penned on the back of the Westminster-branded stationery he used while in Parliament. The memoir is historically significant; not only does it provide a unique first-hand account of life on board the Argenta, it also affords a unique insight into the immediate impact of Partition on people living near the new border. Healy’s writings are an important record of the inhumane conditions suffered by the hundreds of men from all corners of Northern Ireland who were denied proper judicial process and who were detained in prison cages for up to two years. Despite their bleak circumstances, the text reveals the warm camaraderie and friendships that developed among those who suffered together. One hundred years after his detention, Healy’s writings are essential for understanding the experiences of those who opposed Partition and the enforcement of the border by the Northern Irish government.

Aisling Reid is a cultural historian and translator who teaches medieval literature in HAPP and AEL at QUB. She is an editor of the international Logoi.ph philosophy journal. She has just completed a one-year HEA North-South Research Programme, ‘Ireland’s Border Culture: Literature, Arts, and Policy’, that runs in conjunction with Trinity College Dublin. Recent publications include Just in Time: Theorising the Contemporary (Mimesis 2023) and Pained Screams from the Camps (De Gruyter 2024).

This seminar is available in-person and online via MS Teams