A History of Force Feeding. Hunger Strikes, Prisons and Medical Ethics, 1909–1974

265 Pages·2016·2.099 MB·English

by  Ian Miller

A History of Force Feeding

Ian   M iller
A History of Force
Feeding
Hunger Strikes, Prisons and Medical Ethics,
1909–1974
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Ian   Miller
Ulster University
Coleraine, United Kingdom
ISBN 978-3-319-31112-8 ISBN 978-3-319-31113-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31113-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016941754
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2 016
Open Access This book is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
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use, duplication, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the
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The images or other third party material in this book are included in the work’s Creative
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A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study began life in Manchester during 2009 where I fi rst began
to write about suffragette hunger strikes and the complexities of prison
medicine. I developed further aspects of the research while employed
at University College Dublin between 2009 and 2013 where I became
intrigued by Irish republican force-feedings. The remainder of this study
was kindly supported by a Wellcome Trust Research Fellowship in Medical
Humanities undertaken at Ulster University in Northern Ireland, a natu-
ral home for a book on hunger strikes to be written.
Due to the long gestation of the project, I have accumulated numer-
ous debts. I am particularly grateful to Leanne McCormick for her sup-
port of this project and my other ideas during my time as a researcher at
the Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland at Ulster University.
She provided a warm, supportive working environment alongside Andrew
Sneddon, Greta Jones, and Donald MacRaild. Further afi eld, I am grate-
ful to David Nicholl for his enthusiasm for my project. The project has
resulted in a number of conferences and public engagement initiatives. I
am particularly grateful to Ciara Breathnach and Laura McAtackney for
their help in encouraging me to fi nd ways to engage with public audi-
ences. In particular, I would like to thank Dr Berry Beaumont whose
campaigns against force-feeding in the 1970s form part of the book.
I am also grateful for the various comments and suggestions from audi-
ence members at conferences and events at Birkbeck College, Maynooth
University, Ulster University, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Queen’s
University Belfast, Glasnevin Cemetary (Dublin), University of Liverpool,
Trinity College Dublin, Boston College (Dublin), Uppsala Universitet,
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
King’s College London, and Universität Zürich. I also wish to acknowl-
edge the helpfulness of the staff at the various archives in which this
research was conducted: John Rylands Library (University of Manchester);
National Archives, Kew; National Library of Ireland; National Archives
of Ireland; Public Record Offi ce of Northern Ireland; the Quaker Peace
Library; and Linen Hall Library, Belfast. I wish to acknowledge the BBC
archives (based at Ulster Folk Museum) for allowing me to access and
use audio-visual material. I am also grateful to Greta Jones who allowed
me to access oral history material relating to the Troubles held at Ulster
University. My research also benefi tted from a period as a visiting research
fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Emotions.
Finally, I am indebted, as always to my family members: Kevin Miller,
Pauline Miller, Sarah Miller, Katie Miller, and Miriam Trevor.
C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction 1
2 ‘A Prostitution of the Profession’?: The Ethical
Dilemma of Suffragette Force-F eeding, 1909–14 3 5
3 ‘The Instrument of Death’: Prison Doctors and Medical
Ethics in Revolutionary-Period Ireland, c.1917 67
4 ‘A Few Deaths from Hunger Is Nothing’:
Experiencing Starvation in Irish Prisons, 1917–23 91
5 ‘I’ve Heard o’ Food Queues, but This Is the First
Time I’ve Ever Heard of a Feeding Queue!’:
Hunger Strikers, War, and the State, 1914–61 1 25
6 ‘I Would Have Gone on with the Hunger Strike,
but Force-Feeding I Could Not Take’: The Coercion
of Hunger Striking Convict Prisoners, 1913–72 153
vii
viii CONTENTS
7 ‘An Experience Much Worse Than Rape’:
The End of Force-Feeding? 1 91
8 Conclusion 2 37
Bibliography 2 43
Index 2 61
L F
IST OF IGURES
Fig. 2.1 Torturing women in prison: vote against the government 57
Fig. 2.2 A suffragette is force-fed in Holloway Prison 58
Fig. 6.1 Number of recorded hunger strike incidences responded to,
and not responded to, with force-feeding in English Prisons,
1913–40 157
Fig. 6.2 Number of times prisoners were force-fed on individual hunger
strikes in English prisons, 1913–40 162
Fig. 6.3 Instruments used for force-feeding in English prisons, 1913–40 163
Fig. 6.4 English prisons in which incidences of force-feeding occurred,
1913–40 165
Fig. 6.5 Recorded motivations for hunger striking in English prisons,
1913–40 167
ix
OPEN
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
In March 2013, a group of detainees at Guantánamo Bay Detention
Camp, Cuba, went on hunger strike. At the height of their protest,
106 individuals were refusing to eat. For detainees incarcerated for over
a decade without charge or trial, food refusal offered a potent way to
rebel. Having been stripped of their capacity for political communication
and placed in an institution that severely restricted personal freedom, the
simple act of not eating allowed detainees to reassert control over their
bodies. It granted autonomy and self-determination, posing a challenge
to Guantánamo’s disciplinary ethos. These hunger strikes were also highly
political. By rejecting food, detainees openly defi ed the authority of the
American government which had incarcerated them. They used their bod-
ies as weapons, the last remaining resource available for remonstrating
against adverse institutional conditions. 1 In turn, the newsworthy nature
of these protests drew international attention to allegations of institutional
torture and violence seemingly supported by the Obama administration.
The protestors knew that hunger strikes attract worldwide interest from
journalists, human rights activists, politicians, ethicists, and doctors. They
had posed a formidable moral question: Is it acceptable to allow a prisoner
to starve to death?
Corpses present problems. A dead hunger striker can offer evidence of
deplorable prison conditions. A death also goes some way towards validat-
ing dissident political perspectives. These, after all, had been worth dying for.
Surely they must have some value? In the event of a death, less sympathetic
© The Author(s) 2016 1
I. Miller, A History of Force Feeding,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31113-5_1