friendly toward us, on the other hand, he could not really be called unfriendly either. Consequently I thanked him politely for his offer but refused to take the stimulant. Resigned to immediate deportation, I was utterly amazed to find myself lifted instead into an ambulance and being taken to the Military Hospital in Cork Barracks, with Maurice Crowe and John Joe Crawford occupying adjoining beds! Throughout the following day we underwent several examinations by various doctors; One of them was particularly friendly and understanding but since we were on hunger strike he too could not help us. Then, around 10 p.m. one of the doctors came up and told me, "You are all being deported tonight"! Only too true because somewhat later still, we found ourselves back on stretchers and inside an ambulance again on our way to the boat. Guarded by soldiers with rifles, the officer in charge came over, and said loudly, "If there is any attempt to escape, ...shoot”! Immediately, I asked one of the soldiers to call the Officer back which he promptly did. When the officer arrived I only said to him, "Listen, you must have an extraordinary sense of humour to expect a man on a stretcher to make a run for it!!” For a minute there, he looked quite startled [21] but then he suddenly saw the joke, and he walked away from me laughing. Placed on the deck of a sloop, the stretchers were all taken away, so we were taken below. About an hour later, we suddenly heard a lot of noise and voices, and soon we were joined by 26 other prisoners. They all seemed in good form and I said to Maurice Crowe, "Listen, something seems very wrong here; these fellows must have taken food." My suspicion was quite correct; the British had given the men food in Cork Jail prior to their departure. Somewhat later the British brought bully beef and hard biscuits, both of which a type of food which was, quite obviously, totally unfit for men who had been on hunger strike but that, of course, did not disturb the British in the least. The Doctor, whose duty it would have been to see to it that some lighter food was offered, kept away from us completely. But, maybe, it was just as well that the men were offered this unsuitable food; of course, they all got seasick, and some of them most severely so, but, still the food intake prevented the torturous empty retching. When the seasickness struck, and as our lads lay stretched out on the barren planks of the lower deck - without mattresses or covers - some of them got so frightfully ill that, at times, I was convinced some of them were actually dying or had already passed away. I urgently sent for the Doctor and, after a very long time, he finally appeared and he was anything but sober! When I pointed out the worst cases, and asked for his help, he very gruffly snapped back at me: "Well, if they had not gone on hunger strike, all this would not have happened." Which was the sum total of compassion a man of the medical profession was willing to extend. One day later we arrived in Milford Haven, England, where we were put aboard a train. Then, fourteen hours later, without having been given food or aid of any kind, we finally arrived in Winchester. On leaving the train we were ordered "to march" to the prison! A most ludicrous order since there was NO marching but just a stumbling along the road. All I remember is my feeling of total, utter exhaustion, my struggling along blindly, my trying to follow the others, and then, on approaching the Prison gates, the cruelly mocking voice of the Doctor, "Well now, that was a pretty good journey"!" [22] Weak and exhausted as I was but I fairly exploded and, turning on the doctor, I snarled at him, “If I ever get out of here alive, I promise you I will kill you. Surely, I never thought it possible that a Doctor could be so callous and totally inhuman in the face of sickness and misery". Later, I heard that an order to deal justice on this doctor was given, once the facts about that journey and his conduct became known. However, Terry McSwiney, still on hunger strike in his prison cell, overruled the order by stating "You cannot ever shoot a doctor." In Winchester Prison, another hunger strike was suggested which I and a number of my comrades opposed vigorously. Somehow, word leaked out and soon we got orders that the British authorities would force-feed any prisoner attempting to go on hunger strike. Maurice Crowe, who had a lot of experience in hunger strikes, warned all NOT to invite the terrible torture of force feeding. Almost simultaneously Mr. McDonnell, a solicitor, arrived from London. He informed Maurice Crowe that he represented GHQ and that he had instructions from Michael Collins that there were to be NO MORE hunger strikes, and that he fully agreed
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