Abstract

Barbara Pryor is a former member of the Belfast H-Block Committee, and helped produce publications advocating for the rights of political prisoners in Northern Ireland in the early 1980s. The Barbara Pryor Collection of Northern Ireland Ephemera and Publications (dated 1922-1999) consists of ephemera and publications collected by Pryor documenting her engagement with social movements and political action in Northern Ireland in the late 20th century. Major topics include Irish republicanism, anti-British imperialism, socialism, feminism, prisoners' rights, and anti-nuclear activism. The majority of the materials in this collection document activities in or near Belfast, but also include materials produced in Ireland and the United States. The 1981 hunger strikes by Irish republican prisoners in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh prison and the Armagh Women's Prison are heavily documented. The collection demonstrates varied viewpoints of republican activism, including physical force republicanism, nonviolent advocacy, and legislative compromise.