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November 1972 provided that the British Secretary of State could appoint commissioners to adjudicate on persons arrested and determine whether they should be detained. A person who was the subject of a Detention Order could also appeal to an Appeal Tribunal. Special tribunals were set up in Long Kesh Prison to enquire into cases of those detained. They soon became known as ‘Whitelaw’s Tribunals’. I attended three, one on behalf of Patrick McNally, the same parishioner who had been tortured in Ballykelly Barracks and who had been brought to Long Kesh Internment Camp from Crumlin Road Prison, and the others on behalf of Éamon Hannaway and Brian J. Rafferty, also parishioners. These appeals were conducted by the doyen Armagh solicitor, Gerry Lennon. The appeals of Patrick McNally and Brian Rafferty failed. Éamon Hannaway’s appeal was successful.

A Description of the Court
    Tuesday, 14 November 1972, at 1.45pm a prison officer arrives at the door of Hut 82, Cage 9, and calls out the names of three internees. He tells them that they are to be taken to the ‘court’. A grey prison van is waiting at the gates of the cage. When the three men and their escort of four prison officers are aboard, it begins its short journey to Cage 14 where the commission to enquire into their cases is being held. On arrival at their destination, the men are taken, one at a time, from the van and are shown into a prefabricated hut where, under the watch of two prison officers, they are asked to wait.
    Cage 14 where the ‘court’ holds session is at first glance indistinguishable from the other cages in Long Kesh Internment Camp, four long Nissen huts with grey brick gable walls, corrugated tin roofs and sides. Directly in front of three of these huts are the tiny prefabricated buildings where the internees will wait, be thoroughly searched, and have all their belongings and the contents of their pockets, with the exception of a handkerchief, placed in a canvas sack. After waiting for perhaps a half-an-hour, the prison officers escort the internees into the main hut where the ‘court’ is sitting. The main Nissen hut is partitioned into three areas, the commissioner’s chamber, the court-room, and a section made up of six small rooms severed by a narrow corridor, three rooms on each side. At the end of this corridor a small door opens up into the court-room.
    The ‘court’ is a well-furnished room, the bare walls covered with sheets of brightly coloured insulating board and hung with scarlet and blue drapes. The floor is covered with a scarlet carpet. The main feature of the room is a large oval-shaped table of polished wood. The commissioner sits on a high-backed well-upholstered chair at the centre and to the right of this table. Above and slightly behind hangs a painting of the British coat of arms, complete with motto, honi soit qui mal y pense. The commissioner’s chair is situated at the centre and to the right of the table. To the right of the commissioner sits a stenographer with a tape recorder and a microphone placed in front of him. Immediately in front of the oval table are a desk and chair at which sits the commissioner’s clerk; on his desk are two microphones, one angled towards the crown prosecutor and the other towards the respondent. A few feet in front of him and facing the commissioner are two chairs, for the respondent and a prison officer. To the right of these two chairs is a desk behind which the crown prosecutor sits. There is a vacant desk and chair to the left and slightly behind the respondent’s chair.
    Three doors open into the court-room. One leads into the corridor already described. One is a few feet from this, but concealed by a screen of red velvet curtains, and through it come the Special Branch to take their seats and give evidence hidden from the ‘court’. The third door in the opposite wall faces this. Through this door is the