The h block protest is one of the strangest and most controversial issues in the tragic history of northern ireland republican prisoners convicted of grave crimes through special courts and ruthless interrogation procedures campaigned for political status by refusing to wear prison clothes and daubing their cell with excrementwere they properly convicted criminals or martyrs to political . On the blanket the inside story of the ira prisoners dirty protest by coogan tim pat 1935 publication date 2002 topics irish republican army irish republican army irisch republikanische armee prisons political prisoners political prisoners prisons politischer gefangener hungerstreik geschichte 1981 publisher. The h block protest is one of the strangest and most controversial issues in the tragic history of northern ireland republican prisoners convicted of grave crimes through special courts and ruthless interrogation procedures campaigned for political status by refusing to wear prison clothes and daubing their cell with excrement were they properly convicted criminals or martyrs to political . On the blanket the inside story of the ira prisoners dirty protest the h block protest is one of the strangest and most controversial issues in the tragic history of northern ireland. Published just prior to the hunger strikes of 1981 which claimed the life of ten ira prisoners on the blanket details the so called dirty protest that led up to the horrors of that year with several first hand accounts from prisoners and actors in the struggle coogan presents an unflinching account of the events in long kesh the maze and armagh prisons the descriptions of the