State Violence by Raymond Murray

two occasions. They did the palms of my hands. They did my hands with my fingers pressed together and my hand open. Having completed that, I was given a spirit substance to clear the ink off my hands. I was then brought to wash them. I was then brought back to the cell, G8. I was photographed in my cell by two men in plain clothes.

First interrogation
    I wasn’t very long back in my cell when it was opened again and I was brought again by a uniformed RUC man to be introduced to a plain clothed detective. He was a very tall man ... He had a beige folder under his arm. Behind him was another fairly tall man, very well-built detective wearing a brown suit. He was older than the ‘taller’ man. At no time did this man assault or ill-treat me but he was present while the ‘taller man’ did assault me.
    They led me to a block of interview rooms. I was led into room one. In that room there was a table and three chairs. I was told by the taller of the two detectives to stand in front of the table. He looked at me and he said, ‘So you are Bernard O’Connor. Man but you are an insignificant bastard’. He then put me standing on my toes, made me bend my knees and hold my two arms out in front of me. I was told to stay in that position. When my heels touched the ground, I was hit a slap on the face. At a later stage when I had to wipe the sweat from my forehead with my hand, I was also hit a slap on the face for not keeping my hands in the position I was told. Several times I wobbled to my heels and each time I was struck on the face. The ‘tall man’ generally used his right hand to slap the left side of my face. This man proceeded to confront me with various accusations about my life in the past. He was aware of my involvement in the Civil Rights and the People’s Democracy, and in fact aware of many other events that took place in my own environment in Enniskillen which had nothing illegal about them. They both referred to my involvement in the Boy Scouts and to many other activities. The other man in the brown suit also wanted me to admit to taking part in several bombings and shootings in Enniskillen, and also to admit that I was involved in bringing injured people in Enniskillen to hospital in the south. Each time I denied these involvements I was again struck in the face by the ‘tall man’. I went through this type of interrogation for approximately three and a half to four hours. My legs were trembling with the strain. The sweat was running freely down my face onto the ground. The ‘tall man’ said he was leaving the room for a drink of water. The older man in the brown suit told him to bring one for me. He came back with three white beakers full of water. The man in the brown suit handed one to me and told me there was no truth drug in it. I drank half of the beaker of water. The man in the brown suit put my beaker back on the window ledge and marked the letter ‘B’ on the side of it.
    At the end of the interrogation I was taken back and put back into my cell. A few minutes later a uniformed policeman came along and gave me lunch which consisted of meat pie, beans and potatoes. I was not in much form of eating. I tried to eat some of the potatoes and things. I took two of the Penbritin tablets and a drink of water and lay down on the bed awaiting the next interview.

Second interrogation
    About an hour later, I was taken from my cell and brought to interview room five. There I was confronted by two detectives who later classed themselves as CID (Criminal Investigation Department) men. All three told me their names. Two of them I remember as being a Mr ... and a Mr ... The third one I can’t recollect but he had ... They approached the subject in completely different vein to the previous two. They were there, they told me, to help me to make sure that I was treated properly and that I could admit to anything that I had done wrong. They encouraged me to