[Prisoners of War, Sinn Féin] The Captive Voice / An Glór Gafa [10 issues]

Belfast / Dublin: Sinn Féin POW Department, 1989-1997. Offset. Saddle-stapled in pictorial wraps. Vol. 1 No. 1; Vol. 3 No. 2; Vol. 4 No. 1-2; Vol. 5 No. 1-3; Vol. 7 No. 2; Vol. 8 No. 1. Written primarily in English, some text in Irish. Item-level inventory available upon request

Ten issues - including the rare first issue - of this quarterly written and produced by members of the Irish Republican Army in prison around the world. Published between 1989 and 1999, the magazine features powerful illustrations, essays, poetry, comics, fiction, and even a crossword puzzle, all about life in prison or the struggle for Irish self-determination. 

Writers in prison muse about Bobby Sands, the environmental exploitation of Ireland and the state of agriculture in the country, and argue against strip searches. Elsewhere, IRA members lay out philosophies of armed militancy and base building, and women in prison reflect on the specific issues they face. 

Articles are attributed to their individual authors, with the site of their incarceration noted; contributors include Eamon McDermott, Robert Russell, Nicky Kehoe, Laurence McKeown, Matt Lundy, Raymond McCartney, Sean Hick, and many more, as well as a number of pseudonymous authors. 

Reflecting the international nature of the Irish diasporic struggle, prisons include Metropolitan Detention Center in New York, along with Long Kesh and Portlaoise in Ireland. Long Kesh, known colloquially as H-Block, and since renamed “Her Majesty’s Prison Maze,” was a prison specifically for Irish militants.

A large collection of this important and underexamined anti-imperialist prison periodical. All issues are very good to near fine; some minor shelf wear but overall a clean set. OCLC locates 8 holdings of this publication as of March 2021, all incomplete and none with Vol. 1 No. 1.