A Made in Belfast production by Amanda Dunsmore and prisoners at Long Kesh/H.M.P. Maze, 1999.

Amanda Dunsmore was invited to Long Kesh/HMP Maze as a visiting artist by the Prison Arts Foundation.

Trained as a sculptor, it took a little while to decide the focus for this particular project but Amanda decided to take a risk and attempt to create a work using a creative language she had never used before – animation. Over the period she worked with all but one of the organisations in the gaol and they are represented as individuals or in the case of the UDA, as a group. Prisoners always had the final say as to the content and edit of the work and the completed work is a true collaboration.

“The notion came to me that time for the men and women in gaol is viewed in a completely different way than people on the outside. Time is counted. Time is wasted. I don’t think that lack of freedom is the greatest punishment, the real punishment is the taking of an individual’s life time.”

“Prisons are cold, windy places on the outside, isolated and hot on the inside. An experienced visitor wears many warm easily removable layers, wrapped in a waterproof. Once inside the walls seem overly thick and the cells are very small. The tea, like prison humour, is very strong, verging on black.”