Thank you Richard. I understood it as, The internments were initially carried out under Regulations 11 and 12 of 1956 and Regulation 10 of 1957 (the Special Powers Regulations), made under the authority of the Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922 (the Special Powers Act). The Detention of Terrorists (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 (the Detention of Terrorists Order) of 7 November 1972, made under the authority of the Northern Ireland (Temporary Provisions) Act 1972 (the Temporary Provisions Act), was used after direct rule was instituted. Thus illegal, the British Government under Prime Minister Edward Heath had to suspend the Northern Ireland Government and replace it with direct rule from Westminster as Ulster Unionists were more or less out of control against th Nationalist community.

One point to remember is, th British government were found guilty of torturing these innocent men.

The Irish Government, on behalf of the men who had been subject to the five techniques, took a case to the European Commission on Human Rights (Ireland v. United Kingdom, 1976 Y.B. Eur. Conv. on Hum. Rts. 512, 748, 788-94 (Eur. Comm'n of Hum. Rts.)). The Commission stated that it...unanimously considered the combined use of the five methods to amount to torture, on the grounds that (1) the intensity of the stress caused by techniques creating sensory deprivation "directly affects the personality physically and mentally"; and (2) "the systematic application of the techniques for the purpose of inducing a person to give information shows a clear resemblance to those methods of systematic torture which have been known over the ages...a modern system of torture falling into the same category as those systems applied in previous times as a means of obtaining information and confessions.[17][18]


The Commissions findings were appealed. In 1978 in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) trial Ireland v. the United Kingdom (Case No. 5310/71),[19] the facts were not in dispute and the judges court published the following in their judgement:

These methods, sometimes termed "disorientation" or "sensory deprivation" techniques, were not used in any cases other than the fourteen so indicated above. It emerges from the Commission's establishment of the facts that the techniques consisted of:

(a) wall-standing: forcing the detainees to remain for periods of some hours in a "stress position", described by those who underwent it as being "spreadeagled against the wall, with their fingers put high above the head against the wall, the legs spread apart and the feet back, causing them to stand on their toes with the weight of the body mainly on the fingers";
       (b) hooding: putting a black or navy coloured bag over the detainees' heads and, at least initially, keeping it there all the time except during interrogation;
       (c) subjection to noise: pending their interrogations, holding the detainees in a room where there was a continuous loud and hissing noise;
       (d) deprivation of sleep: pending their interrogations, depriving the detainees of sleep;
       (e) deprivation of food and drink: subjecting the detainees to a reduced diet during their stay at the centre and pending interrogations.

These (a to e) were the 'five techniques' referred to above. The court ruled:

    167. ... Although the five techniques, as applied in combination, undoubtedly amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment, although their object was the extraction of confessions, the naming of others and/or information and although they were used systematically, they did not occasion suffering of the particular intensity and cruelty implied by the word torture as so understood. ... 168. The Court concludes that recourse to the five techniques amounted to a practice of inhuman and degrading treatment, which practice was in breach of [the European Convention on Human Rights] Article 3 (art. 3).

On 8 February 1977, in proceedings before the ECHR, and in line with the findings of the Parker Report and UK Government policy, the Attorney-General of the United Kingdom stated:

    The Government of the United Kingdom have considered the question of the use of the 'five techniques' with very great care and with particular regard to Article 3 (art. 3) of the Convention. They now give this unqualified undertaking, that the 'five techniques' will not in any circumstances be reintroduced as an aid to interrogation.

Richard, read a book by John McGuffin called "The Guineapigs" for more information.