H-BLOCK ALBUM RELAUNCH BY LAURENCE McKEOWN I had the pleasure of being invited to say a few words at the relaunch of the album, H-Block, held on Friday 15 October at the Felons Club, Falls Road, Belfast. It was a very special evening. An intimate gathering. An occasion to meet again with former friends and comrades, male and female ex-prisoners, relatives of some of those who died on hunger strike. And to once again hear Christy Moore play was extra special. As I said to him backstage after the performance, “Your voice is as strong and as powerful as ever, your politics as clear as before, and your music as melodic as ever.” Ireland is known as a land of storytellers and often it has been through poetry, verse, and song that the story has been told; the battles fought, the persecutions endured, and the plight of our people revealed. The fact that many such songs were passed down orally down through the centuries and have endured to this very day is an indication of their worth and how we value them. They are songs that give us hope, move us to tears, validate us, vindicate us. Likewise, the songs, the music, and the spoken word on this album are as powerful today as they were when first recorded in 1979 when word of the protests in the H-Blocks and Armagh Gaol was only just beginning to reach a wider audience. Once again, it was the artists, the singers, the song-writers, the musicians, the actors who were the storytellers. We wrote letters to them from our prison cells, calling upon them for support and, as always down through history, they rallied to our call. That was no mean feat. In the midst of one of the anphoblacht UIMHIR EISIÚNA 4 - 2021 - ISSUE NUMBER 4
• Laurence McKeown at the relaunch of the 'H-Block' album; (left) Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald shares a laugh with singer/ song writer Christy Moore
most aggressive military, political, and media onslaughts against republicans at that time, those artists dared to put their heads above the parapet. When censorship under Section 31 in the South and the media broadcasting ban in the North prevented republicans from speaking out on our behalf, it was the artists who stepped forward. Through their music and verse, they reminded others, some of whom were quick to forget their own recent past or who 23
