An extract from a review of McGuffins book by Eamon McCann.

BRIAN Faulkner made a mistake when he interned John McGuffin in August 1971. McGuffin, a Belfast Protestant who describes himself as an anarchist, was so outraged that since his release he has spent his spare time collecting and publishing the facts about internment His first book, a history of imprisonment without trial since the inception of the Northern Ireland state, was published in 1973. This, his second, is a detailed account of what happened to fourteen of the 342 men arrested in the August '71 swoop. It is hair-raising stuff .

Some of the internees were tortured. No-one denies that any longer and a few of them have been awarded substantial sums in compensation. But it has been widely assumed – and little has been published in Britain to contradict the assumption – that the torture consisted mainly of physical assault: unjustified perhaps, outrageous even, but hardly sinister. And, anyway, it was stopped after a wave of liberal indignation.

The facts themselves are horrific enough. The men were kicked and beaten, thrown into landrovers, lorries and helicopters and tossed out again. Taken to 'interrogation centres', separated from one another, stripped naked, some urinated on. Then black bags were put over their heads and they were made to lean spread-eagled against a wall, all their joints kept rigid and all their weight on flexed fingertips while white noise played into their ears. When they collapsed they were kicked and thrown up against the wall again. The 'wall treatment' lasted up to 43 hours.