Word: gaelic
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...prisoners. Each time new volunteers are sought, Maze leaders review the awful effects of starvation. They want no false bravado and no dropouts. The prisoners stand silent against the cell-block doors, ears pressed to cracks in the framing, and listen to block commanders speaking in Gaelic to confound the guards, describe the ulcerated throats, the tooth fillings that drop out, the skin that turns so dry that bones break through, the inevitable blindness before death...
...bleak home neighborhoods. Instead, the prisoners have created their own society inside the Maze that enables them to continue the struggle. Each of the four wings in a block has a commander and an adjutant, and each block has an intelligence officer and an education officer. The inmates speak Gaelic; those who do not know the language are taught inside the prison. The entire hierarchy is run by a shrewd, tough commander, Brendan McFarlane, 25, who is serving 25 years for blowing up a pub and killing five civilians...
McFarlane and his staff keep a close eye on the guards, searching for some who have been imported from the south because they understand Gaelic. Prisoners try to trick guards who are suspect, making a shocking remark to them in Gaelic about killing their children. If they see as much as a flicker of response, they know. Ordinarily, prisoners never speak to the guards directly or even look at them. It is part of the endless psychological...
...less in evidence. The perfect evening is when the air is still, without a trace of wind or rain. Prison leaders shout into the quiet darkness and their voices carry easily between the H-blocks separated by about 100 ft. The men are called "scorchers," an anglicization of the Gaelic word scairt, for shout, and they fill the air with orders and questions and plain gossip. Sometimes they conduct quiz shows, asking questions about entertainment figures, geography, history. When someone wins, a cheer rises in the blackness...
Rebel leader Gerry Adams, 34, recently spent an afternoon with the strikers in the Maze. They gathered in the TV room and, speaking only in Gaelic, Adams told them bluntly there was little chance of anything changing. If the strikers wanted to abandon their fast, he went on, they would not be scorned. They had already done more than could be asked...